I call it Passive resistance

Yes – I know it already exists, but this is just my form of it – which helps me in the following situations.

I realised many moons ago, that there would be times when whatever I did or said would not be good enough for some people from our ethnic populations, and that they would either call me a racist, act aggressively towards me, or behave in a threatening way.

The counter arguement to my theory is that I am a racist – something I have considered, and although some / many people may think – I do not, and many agree with me. Which is part of the problem I think. On a personal note – my conclusion is there is no such thing as racism – but that is another blog.

I remember when I started my passive resistance theory – i was at Tescos. After standing in line, I was next to be served, I did not have a lot of items, and as usual – I just want to get out of there.

A black guy dressed as a rastafarian came upto me – he mumled something which I too k to mean came he get in front of me. I did not want to let him in front – partly because I wanted to get home, partly because he can wait like everyone else, partly because I could not understand him, and partly because his body language was a bit aggressive.

I realised if I said no – I would be risking him sucking through his teeth, or calling me ‘bloodclot’ and all that goes with it, or posibly he would just have a go at me for being a racist.

Ofcourse I would have no comeback on all of this – being white and all that. I have already been condemned as being a racist.

At that time Ghandi came to mind, dont know why, and his passive resistance. So I said nothing. The guy turned and went.

Powerful stuff this passive resistance I thought.

Now it maybe that this is all the guy would have done anyway – fair enough, you may be right, and I agree that this is a possability, however my life experiences tell me that I am far more loikely to get abuse in some form from a person from an ethinc minority when I do something, however ligitimate, that they do not like.

Yesterday I was serving a black lady and her 2 children, I wanted to confirm something very simple, I suspected the answer – it was obvious, but, as normal, I asked just for clarity. You would have thought I had asked her something terrible.

Then an black guy got upset.

It does occur to me that I am not the most friendly of person, and that by expecting aggression I may well be encouraging it, but I also know that how hard I try to be reasonable or polite, at times there is nothing I can to avoid the aggression – so I try to just think of passive resistance and hope for best.

It helps.