Being Kind is not About Race

By now I think most people have seen the video taken on a train in Australia where a young woman came to the defence of a young Mulsim couple being verbally abused by fellow Australian passengers. If you haven't you can watch it here, or spend more time on the Internet, not enjoying this gorgeous weather like me.

Now that you've seen that vile display of xenophobia, let me ask you, would you intervene? The young woman, Stacey Eden is being hailed as a hero for standing up for the young couple, but some think that by rushing in, she took the opportunity away for the couple to defend themselves.

In this interesting, if not ridiculous article, Ashitha Nagesh says that Eden must be suffering from a 'saviour complex' and that her intervention was not an attempt to silence the couple's attackers, but to 'save the day' because she is white.

Call me crazy, but I don't think her race has shit-all to do what she did. I think that she's just the kind of person who springs to action if she sees something inexcusable happening, especially when the idiots doing the lambasting were apparently speaking for Australia and she certainly didn't agree with them.

 If you see something, say something. I'd like to believe that doesn't just apply to left luggage. This society is so hell-bent on being annoyed about shit that this girl's well-intended action has led to this reporter criticising her motives. What a sad fucking take on humanity.

Would it have done the couple any good to stand up for themselves? It may have made things worse, and damn Eden for not letting us find out, right? But as you can see from the video, it wouldn't have made things any better. Those bigots were happy to keep fighting, even after Eden's sweet, but juvenile advice: 'If you can't say something nice, than don't say anything.'

I will always stand up for you and I am white. Whether that makes me an asshole, I don't know, but it certainly is better than the alternative of doing nothing. It's the people who do nothing that perpetuate this kind of shitty behaviour towards one another.  

Whether you are Muslim, black, white, Christian, Jewish, hell, even if you're a Scientologist and I see you getting shit on by someone, I will be on your side because that's the right thing to do, not because I'm white and I think you need me.

Cheer the hell up, Nagesh. I applaud this young woman for standing up to these racist idiots. If someone was on a train in the UK, where you live, telling me that I don't belong here and that I'm surely going to force everyone give up their pork products and shellfish because I'm Jewish, would you not intervene? Would you let those people speak for you? I sure as hell hope not.

I hope you'd tell them where to go, just like Eden did. And I sure as hell wouldn't call you names for daring to get involved. I'd shake the hell out of your hand because that's what people do.