S, in utter shock and amazement, told us a story that she had told everyone she could already that day.
She said she was walking down Brick Lane in front of a couple of American tourists. They wre talking loudly so she could overhear their entire conversation.
A man who sits outside his shop greeted them with Hi! How are you.
One answered that she was Great! How was he?
When they were a few feet away, the other woman chastised her for being so friendly, for encouraging him.
She said, Don't you know they see is white women as prostitutes?
At this S burst out laughing and turned around to see who could have come out with such a preposterous statement. She immediately got on her mobile to call her sister and relay the absurd story.
The American tourists were silenced.
S added to the story that she couldn't believe that they come for the culture and then they say things like that.
That's tourism though, I could have said, but I didn't. I also could have said that I have been fed those kind of lies about Asian or Muslim men and I have believed them in the past.