Loads. But I will always remember a time when I intervened in a racist assault on my close friend as we went to get lunch and the way he said, ‘just leave it Jess, I’m used to it now’ broke my fucking heart. I’ll never forget the tone of his voice as he said it to me.
https://twitter.com/l_a_bianchi/status/1372490632917319680
As a white person, I will never ever understand that tone of voice. I was 21 years old. I just stared at him. I didn’t know what to say. He was just so ‘used’ to being racially abused in the street. We talked about it for hours. Hundreds of experiences. Fucking appalling.
It still sends shivers up me. The way he just sort of looked fucking exhausted and the way he ended up having to like support me instead of the other way around, and reassure ME that he was ok and was used to it.
Real fucking learning for a younger me.
Real fucking learning for a younger me.
My closest friend these days is Indian and the amount of times people have blatantly treated her differently to me in front of me have disgusted me. We went to a festival and they gave me the tickets and chatted to me and then spoke to her loudly and slowly. I was enraged.
And yet, she reacted the same was as my Jamaican friend. Rolled her eyes and told me to leave it, and that she was used to it. She made a joke to the person who spoke to her like that and told them it was okay.
She always says to me, it’s better not to argue back when Black.
She always says to me, it’s better not to argue back when Black.
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