Intolerance of Intolerance - Pt. 3

“Oh no, don’t you sit there, girl,” the older lady warns, looking at her sternly. It wasn’t hard to pick up on the nastiness in her voice. Confused and a little surprised, the girl turns around and heads for a seat opposite me, almost falling over on her way as the bus lurched forwards again.

I began to wonder if there was some underlying reason behind her warding off of the girl, when the Fijian woman, who had also been watching the event unfold before her, turns to the older lady and asked, “Lady, why can’t she sit there?”
The older lady looks at her incredulously, as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “Excuse me? Don’t you go talking to me like that!” she snaps, an ugly angry look on her face.
The Fijian lady doesn’t take too kindly to this and repeats her question, except not so politely this time, “All I want to know is why can’t she sit next to you?” she says, whilst pointing in the direction of the Asian girl who was now looking very embarrassed.
The older lady’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head, “What’s it to you?” she spat. “I’m an Australian.”

I couldn’t believe it. With those three words my suspicions were confirmed.

“Because I believe in justice,” the Fijian woman continued, seemingly undeterred by the older lady’s now apparent racism. “She is allowed to sit wherever she wants.”
“Shut up!” the older lady barked, turning away from her, and looking at me. She grins, and I feel sick to my stomach. I could tell she probably thought that because I’m white we share a special bond and that I agree with her.
I shake my head and look away. The lady disgusted me.

The Fijian woman wasn’t finished with her yet, and I was cheering her on in my head. “You should be wise, not nasty,” she proclaimed. A wise statement I thought.
The older lady whipped her head back in her direction, “I said shut up! I’m sick, and there were plenty of other seats, why did she -” she stabbed the air with a crooked finger in the direction of the Asian girl, “- have to sit next to me? I’ve lived in this country all my life!”

The rage was building up inside of me. I couldn’t take it much longer. Never before had I felt such anger towards someone I didn’t know. There were no excuses for what she was saying. I took a breath, looked at the Fijian lady who was still defiantly holding her ground, and then turned to the older lady and opened my mouth...