;void(0);)
A predisposition to "us and them" still lingers, and people sometimes draw some very silly conclusions based on appearances and the thinnest of evidence.
He doesn't understand
It is Saturday, and I am in Bristol for another annual 'Loon fest, but taking time out to go Gromit hunting, I encounter a very insidious form of racism (ish, sorta). I'm standing in the middle of Queen Square, phtographing the Gromit entitled "Bark at 'E" (a corruption of the Bristolian phrase "'Ark at 'E" usually meaning, sarcastically, "listen to how posh he is"). One local woman is explaining all the different phrases emblazoned on the figure, to her companion and suddenly turns to look directly at me saying completely audibly "an' look at 'im: 'e durn't un'erstan' a word o' what we sayain'." Needless to say she is somewhat flabbergasted when I respond immediately in as briskly exaggeratedly plummy English as I can manage "don't I?" as I turn on my heel and walk away. I could not see her face but I could hear her splutters and stutters as she completely lost her composure, and starts excusing herself - not to me, mind - by explaining "but I durn't mean nothin' bad by et." Funny, but it also just goes to show how it still bubbles under the surface and how quick some people are to judge on the basis of appearance.
No doubt now the story will have morphed in her mind into how she did absolutely nothing wrong - and she genuinely believes it - and how I was rude to her. Ah well.
