I have lived a major chunk of my life in Nigeria and racism is something that I never could relate to. We're a largely homogeneous society and the bigotry in the country is drawn along religious and ethnocentric lines.
The UK might be smaller than Nigeria in terms of land mass and population but it does seem to be very diverse. There are so many variants of diversity in the society and with so many people, just like in Nigeria, there's bound to be some sort of bigotry.
It's a bit complicated to decipher whether its racism or just simply people struggling to accept the fact that the UK is evolving into a multicultural society but for the most part, we just chuck it down to racism.
For example, yesterday, my wife got on a bus to get to work and an elderly fellow on the bus tried to get under her skin. He made multiple remarks that I 'd rather not get into and used the phrase "you people" while addressing her.
For what it's worth, it's my wife's story to tell and because it is her experience. However, it's just one of the many situations where you take a take a step back and can only feel like race had something to do with it. I say this because if she was white and spoke with a British accent, I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be a "you people" involved.
On a regular basis, I experience what I can only perceive as passive acts of aggression or apprehension from my appearance. I don't know if it's simply because of my stern and sometimes pensive facial expressions in public or maybe, it's just something else.
I'm not a race baiter and I don't think the majority are racist. However, I do feel like I'm washing on egg shells every single day and it is exhausting. It's not just me either, there's an uneasiness about the atmosphere that's in turn made me just want to stay indoors.
