La seconda storia che fa parte di questo progetto, ce l’ha inviata una ragazza che vive a New Jersey, negli Stati Uniti. Ci ha chiesto di restare anonima, visto che questa esperienza ancora oggi la turba molto. Come tutte le storie anonime che faranno parte del progetto #tellusyourstory ci è giunta in forma scritta. Abbiamo scelto di lasciare il testo in lingua originale, per adesso e ne faremo una traduzione solamente per la pubblicazione a seguito. La ragione di questa scelta è che crediamo che modificando il testo, (comprese maiuscole e punteggiatura), potrebbe non percepirsi a sufficienza la modalità con cui questo è stato scritto, ovvero di getto: affrontare una discriminazione e scegliere di raccontarla per condividerla con il mondo è un gesto coraggioso! Ringraziamo questa persona di cuore per aver partecipato al nostro progetto e averci permesso di conoscere la sua storia.
“I was invited to share a personal story. Kind of reluctant, but here it goes. About a month ago, around 1:30 in the morning, driving home, I was pulled over by cop. I asked (nicely, and you should know I don’t really do nice) what was going on, he replied that he’ll tell me once I give him all my documents (as in, let me figure out what I can charge you with). Mind you, it was the middle of the night and since I half-way live in my car (aka – it’s a mess since I drive around all day) I took me a minute to get everything together. Meanwhile he asked me if I own the car – YES, I dare own my own car! Luckily for me, I speak English. After seeing everything was in order, he made up some thing and said he’ll “let me go this time”. I guess being a not exactly white woman driving alone in the middle of the night is awfully suspicious. I was 2 minutes away from my house, coming from the train station. I told him that since he asked. I neglected to tell him I was on my way home from the opera, the MET Opera in NY. Why: because I could only get 2 possible reactions: either he would’ve stared at me blankly not knowing what I was talking about or…if he actually knew what I was talking about, would’ve thought I was lying and I would have been forced to show him my ticket, making him look like an idiot. Trust me, you cannot mess with law enforcement in the US, even when they’re complete morons, like that air marshal that thought I was a terrorist for not being white during the summer and getting up to stretch my legs on a 9-hours long flight. Oh yeah, and I was a woman travelling alone. Trains can run at all hours of the day or night, men, children and pets can travel unaccompanied on a plane, but if you’re a woman travelling alone, by “Trump”, there must be smth wrong with you! Long live Switzerland, the only country that didn’t give me the third degree for being a woman travelling alone!
PS: you could argue that the air marshal was just doing his job, but if by the second sentence he uttered (the one after “hi, long flight”) I realized who he was, when they’re supposed to remain inconspicuous, than yeah, he was a moron, with a background story a two-year old wouldn’t believe. Can you imagine how hard it was for ME (ME ME ME) NOT TO ROLL MY EYES and tell him to “go fish”??? I’m sure not all of them are idiots, I just wish they’d weed out the racist, stupid, bigoted ones.”
EMPOWERING STORYTELLING 
Rispondi