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<span style="font-weight: bold">Case of black-on-black racism</span>
The people you are most likely to get into an infuriating argument with (besides your loved ones) are security guards, matatu and bus conductors and low-level Government officials.
These are the people who have something to prove, or they want to shovel off some of the dirt their bosses have sent their way.
If you saw me yelling at the top of my voice outside Times Tower the other day, here’s what happened. I had gone to KRA to pick up my driving licence. Ahead of me a mzungu woman walked right past the security guard without being searched. But the moment I stepped after her, the guard accosted me with a hand-held detector rubbing it against every exposed part of my body and demanding that I open my handbag.
When I inquired why I was being searched while the mzungu was not, the guard snorted that I could report her to any office I wished. I wondered aloud why a visitor in my land should be treated better than myself and called it what it was, racism, only to be abused and shouted at.
Looking for her supervisor did not help (the guards claimed he had stepped out) and calling the company she worked for was fruitless (the phone went unanswered). So I stood there seething with anger and humiliation.
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The people you are most likely to get into an infuriating argument with (besides your loved ones) are security guards, matatu and bus conductors and low-level Government officials.
These are the people who have something to prove, or they want to shovel off some of the dirt their bosses have sent their way.
If you saw me yelling at the top of my voice outside Times Tower the other day, here’s what happened. I had gone to KRA to pick up my driving licence. Ahead of me a mzungu woman walked right past the security guard without being searched. But the moment I stepped after her, the guard accosted me with a hand-held detector rubbing it against every exposed part of my body and demanding that I open my handbag.
When I inquired why I was being searched while the mzungu was not, the guard snorted that I could report her to any office I wished. I wondered aloud why a visitor in my land should be treated better than myself and called it what it was, racism, only to be abused and shouted at.
Looking for her supervisor did not help (the guards claimed he had stepped out) and calling the company she worked for was fruitless (the phone went unanswered). So I stood there seething with anger and humiliation.
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