Go Back to China
31 October 2018, mid-morning
“Go back to China,†some old man yells at some old lady at Lansdowne station. I am walking in to the station, while he is leaving. We come to the same shitty Presto turnstile.
You often wonder what you’ll do or say when you bump up against stuff like this. It’s been so long since I have heard some proper-ass racism in the city. (Has it? I can’t recall, anyway.)
“What the fuck did you say?†So I guess that’s what I am doing.
I stop him from leaving because I want to hear him say something, but he mumbles and pushes past me. The moment is over in seconds. I realize I wasn’t going to get anything worth hearing.
So I turn and yell at the two men working in the operator booth, dealing with the women who was told to go back to China. She’s agitated as well. “What are you even doing when this shit is happening right in front of you?” None of us our white. I bet this old brown dude I am now talking to has seen some shit.
“This happens all the time. Some people are crazy. You just got to ignore them.†Now I am the crazy person he needs to calm down.
I tell him nothing changes if no one says anything as I walk away, but I suspect he is the one that’s right.