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https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-is-it-always-on-public-transport-racist-threats-have-shaped-but-not-defeated-me-227759>
"I am 14. It is 1991. It is a Wednesday. I am in Year 9.
“N—-r! N—-r!”
To get to school in inner-city South Melbourne from Sunbury in the outer
northwest, it takes me an hour and a half. I have to catch two trains, a tram
and then walk. This is the price for a brown immigrant girl of attending a
select-entry girls school.
“N—-r! N—-r!”
I am in my school uniform. I am reading. I glance up and see that everyone is
looking at me. I can’t remember how long it takes me to realise that I am the
n—-r. I am at the end of the carriage, facing the torrent. I can tell by the
hunched backs of the commuters that he is standing behind them. I can see their
terrified faces. I cannot see him.
“Go back to where you came from. We don’t want you here.”
All the clichés are spewing out. Even the most pedestrian words of racism have
a visceral impact. I do not know then how much this one moment, layered over
all the other moments, will shape me. I do not know that it will imbue my cells
with a fear and shame that I know rationally I should not have, but that will
become wholly and silently mine."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
