Should I Be Worried About This?

A random thought crossed my mind this week.

Okay, maybe not so random. It may have something to do with the fact that we are looking for potential forever home locations to move to in the next few years or something a close friend said to me recently.

As it’s a HUGE life decision, we are taking our time to work out what’s best for us and that’s included some grueling research into what my darling husband and we want for us and our daughter, plus our fur babies.

He wants the city life again, and I want a quiet, country life with some land for Eloise and our fur babies. At the same time, I do see the logic of having a city life. Ease of travel, diversity and a lot of things to do for everyone!

Whilst I never actually thought about this in the past, after speaking to a friend, I have started wondering.

The question that’s now spinning around in my mind is – if we move to the countryside, will I be looked down upon because of my colour?

When I lived in Henlow and volunteered for Brownies, one of the young girls ran up to me and asked me if I was a Muslim terrorist – apparently thats what her mother or grandmother was wondering. At that time, I was frozen in shock. I simply responded with, “No, I am not.”

The current and more mature version of me would have definitely handled the situation differently if that was something that happened to me today.

I’m laughing about the whole situation now and her stupid question, but at the time I felt like the ground had swallowed me up and I wanted to die.

In fact, I was pregnant at the time and miscarried a few days later. Not saying it was related to that incident but it did shake me up.

Of course, I have had my fair share of racial abuse thrown at me over the years but now that I have Eloise, I have to stop and think – Will we be safe? Okay, that sounded a bit too dramatic after I typed it up. Really though, will we be safe in a small village?

I think so! There’s good and bad everywhere. One of the things Eloise will have to learn is that we are a multi-cultural family and it’s okay to be ‘us’. If someone doesn’t like us for who we are, maybe that says a lot about them than it says about us. And most importantly, she will need to learn how to handle racially abusive situations herself, in a polite and smart manner.

I know this will be a tough journey and a learning curve for us all. However, I am not going to give up on our dreams just because of the fear of offending someone else for being alive and of a different race.

Have you been scared of living in a town/village/village because of your ethnic origin? I’d love to hear your stories.

xoxo