Beatrice Groth overheard German tourists who did not realize she speaks their language.
‘Wo sind wir gelandet? Schwarze Menschen uberall. Wo sind der Englander?’
Flaming June, sunny afternoon. Top deck of the 171 bus from Elephant and Castle to Peckham Rye. I was enjoying the view when the conversation which a couple of German tourists were having, suddenly caught my attention. Tranlsated into English, the line which hit me in the eye, reads as follows:
‘Where have we landed? Black people everywhere. Where are the English people?’
I myself am a lady of West African descent. I have lived in London for little more than a year, but before moving here I lived in Germany for 15 years; and I speak the language like a native. If this couple had known that, I’m sure they would not have gone on in the same vein. But of course they didn’t know, and off they went – their comments becoming continually more distasteful.
‘Wurden Sie nicht zurick zu ihrem Land?’ [Will they not go back to their own countries?], the woman asked. The man didn’t reply directly; instead he said: ‘wir mussen aufpassen unsere Taschen und sehr vorsichtig sein,’ meaning, we must watch over our bags and be very careful.
At this point they must have noticed the frown on my face, because their conversation – voluble and relaxed just moments before – ground to a halt. There was an uneasy silence, broken only when I, now preparing to get off the bus at the next stop, wished them ‘guten Tag’. ‘Tag,’ they duly replied. Then the man tried to excuse himself: they were on holiday, in London for the first time, surprised by the number of foreigners here etc etc. He clearly wanted to mollify me, but I was not terribly impressed.
With just a few seconds to go before my stop, I made sure he knew that ‘bitte sehen Sie alle Menschen als gleich an und die Tatsache akzeptieren, dass die Menschen sind gleichen und die menschliche Migration ist ein weltweites phaenomen,’ meaning, it is better to see all human beings as the same and accept the fact that human migration is a worldwide phenomenon.
Mein Herr, you’d better believe it.