B came around for the first time in maybe a year. We haven't seen each other pretty much since she started echoing the right wing press about 'all muslim being terrorists' a few months after September 11th. I would shout at her and tell her about blood libels of the past, about scapegoating, histories I know from my Jewish education, warning her not to repeat them with a different minority. In the end we didn't speak because I was too tried to fight.
When she came over she began immediately to tell me about an Australian Sister where she works, the nurse in charge of the ward, who has basically stopped employing all the black 'bank' nurses as well as the staff nurses, B included. As much as she can anyway. She emphasised that the Australian Sister is employing in their place other (white) Australians and New Zealanders. I knew B was trying to tell me something - maybe that I shouldn't get on my high horse when my compatriots are out and out racists. I don't know. I guess she is very angry at me for not speaking to her over 'politics'.