them

 

Watched a group of Bengali boys, 9 or 10 years old. They sat in front of me on the bus. Closer to the front of the bus, a Somali girl was sitting and saw and elderly man she knew, so she chatted to him in Somali at top voice across the bus. The boys imitated her and him, saying insh'Allah and making the sounds of Somali to their ears.

It reminded me of the tensions between the 2 communities, but I also know there have always been tensions between the communities here. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there was gang fights between the Irish and Jewish populations. It happens.

I didn't say anything to the boys. I wouldn't have if they'd been white either, but I sat there glaring at them, in that very English way. I'm not sure it does anything though.

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