My First Anti-Immigrant Experience

A few weeks ago, Selena blogged about her first experience with anti-American sentiments as an expat in the UK.  She was shocked, and didn't know how to respond.  "Easy," I thought.  "If I had been there, I would have strode up to the band and given them an earful about their dated prejudices and closed-minded stereotypes.  They would have known never to sing that song again, regardless of their audiences.

Well, I can now tell you that I probably would have been just as poleaxed as Selena.  How do I know this?  Because I just experienced my first run-in with anti-immigrant hatred, and I was so shaken by the situation that I simply shrunk into myself and prayed that I would be transported elsewhere.  I'll tell you what happened - with the help of a nifty little diagram to help you understand.

[door]            4

x / x                       x / me

2 / 3             mother / child

I was on the bus, coming home from grocery shopping.  We were in the second half of the bus; the exit door was on my left and woman 4 was facing me on her seat.  Just after the mother and child sitting behind me got on the bus, they started listening to loud music on the mother's cell phone.  I tried to ignore it for a while and kept reading my book, but it was distracting and annoying, so I turned around.  "Excuse me, I said, catching the mother's eye, "could you please put on headphones?"  She pointedly looked away.  Second attempt, still polite: "Excuse me, but would you mind putting on headphones?"  She responded, "Just read your book."  I said, "I'm trying to, but it's difficult with your music playing so loudly."  She said, "I don't want to hear you speaking."  "I'm sorry, but I don't want to hear your music," I  responded, getting irritated, "so could you please put on headphones?"

At this point, woman 4 got involved.  "She's pregnant," woman 4 said to me.  "Why are you bothering a pregnant woman?"  "I'm just asking her to put on headphones out of consideration to the rest of us," I answered.  Women 2 and 3 agreed, quietly, "Yes, it would be great if she could put on headphones."  Woman 4 snapped at them, "This isn't about you.  Stay out of it."  She then said to the mother, "You listen to your music.  Don't listen to them."  Emboldened by her new ally, the mother said to me, "This is my bus.  I live here."  I was totally confused; "I live here, too," I said.  "Yeah, but I pay taxes here," the mother sniped.  "You don't pay taxes."

Taken aback, I answered, "Yes, I do pay taxes."

She looked at me for a second, and then looked back at woman 4.  "These people.  They think they own the world."  She said.  Woman 4 nodded and smirked at me.

I was floored.  Absolutely floored.

I sat in silence for the rest of the journey, only looking up when the mother and child got off the bus.  I had thought I'd be strong in that sort of situation, but I was astonished by this woman's vitriol.  I mean, how do you respond to that kind of blind hatred?

Now, it's possible that this wasn't an example of anti-immigrant bias; it's possible that this was racially motivated.  After all, I am white, as were women 2 and 3, while the mother and woman 4 were black. It's even more possible that the situation was a result of both racial and nationalistic prejudices.  Who knows?  I didn't have to courage to defend myself or to call these women out for their bigotry - I was just shocked.

Have you ever experienced this sort of thing, all you expats out there?  And tell me: what should I have done?