My not-aunt and the South Africans.

Let me start by saying that I am so far from ungrateful. I have been staying in the big beautiful house, in Forest Hill, a leafy suburb in South London (where Kate Bush and Spike Milligan once lived!) for weeks now.  My host, who is not my aunt, but a relative who is something close enough to an aunt that I can't be bothered figuring out what her actual title is, has been very hospitable and gracious. She has cooked for me many times and opened up her home to me, giving me a warm bed and a hot shower to stay in, indefinitely, when my only other option has been a dirty and crowded hostel. Her husband and daughter have been kind and helpful, and I really don't have anything to complain about.

Except for the racism.  I have gone beyond being annoyed by it. I don't bother taking offence, trying to argue with it or reason with it. Instead, I look on, incredulous, say nothing, and silently laugh. Sometimes I think that bigotry is so dumb, that it is not even worth my rebuttal. Sometimes I think its best to just leave Tony Abbott lovers alone. 

My favourite comment was last night, when my not-aunt told me that "all South Africans are racist". Apparently the irony of that comment was completely lost on her. I did my best not to laugh and excused myself for a cigarette. 

On Thursday I will be leaving this house, going to stay in a hostel with people of different cultures and backgrounds, sexualities, genders, preferences, political views and social statuses... I feel happy and lucky that I was raised and educated in a way that makes this an exciting venture for me, and not a scary one. I feel grateful that I don't have sweeping assumptions about "all South Africans" or "all coloured people" or "all gays" or whatever else conservative, scared, closed minded people have. A life lived with so much fear and judgement must be such a boring life. You must meet so few interesting and varied people, you must encounter so few lives and experiences that differ from your own. 

So, hooray for difference! Hooray for diversity! Hooray for the South Africans and the blacks and the whites and Asians and the Spanish and the gays and the genderfuckers and for everyone on the planet! Hooray for my not-aunt and her conservative allies, even though their politics are totally different to mine and they probably think I am weird. Hooray for them anyway, because nothing annoys the conservatives more than when the lefties say hooray!!