Corey Mwamba

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two stories

Here are two stories. Both stories are true. They are not stories of great horror, but they don't have to be.

  1. When I was 13 I got my first bike. I was cycling through Sinfin when a car drove by the man inside decided to spit at me. But he missed, and sprayed his car. I laughed, whereupon he got out of his car and started swearing at me and calling me every name he could think of.

  2. Between the ages of 18 and 20, every Guy Fawkes night, someone would shout racial abuse at me and throw a firework or a cracker at me. When I was 21, someone didn't throw a firework at me at all, but shouted "Sieg Heil". All the fireworks missed; but they hit their target.

They are also both recurring situations, even without saliva and fireworks.

Sometimes we meet people that feel angry and aggrieved at us because their spittle didn't soil us. These people [in my opinion] are incapable of seeing their vast sense of self-entitlement; that they are allowed to injure you but you are never allowed to injure them.

Other times, we meet people that just want to cause us harm, but they don't in major ways. It's the cumulation of micro-aggressions that affects us. "Sieg Heil" isn't racist, but for a person to feel that they can say that to someone to offend them [because of historical context] says that the offender understands their entitlement and privileged status much more than they would ever let on.

We all have other stories.

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