Racial Prejudice - Not Always A Good Idea
Last year I was living with a trio of ladies, two Scottish, one Dutch. Our flat was across the hallway from a flat full of (I think) Indians of mixed gender in varying states of employment.

In any case, we saw them occasionally coming and going, but a couple of the girls in the flat started to take a dislike to some of their habits e.g. smoking in the hallway a lot and leaving a key to the block above the front door so those of them without a key could get in (as could burglars, we theorised).

In any case, these feelings grew over time...we had no idea how many people were staying in that flat and we were sure something questionable was going on. The girls seemed to take a lot more exception to them than I did, but eventually it was quietly revealed by one or two of my flatmates that they didn't think much of people from that area of the world (the word Paki was used once before I pointed out that we didn't know if they were from Pakistan, and if they were they'd be Pakistani), and that they didn't feel their belongings were completely safe in such a setting.

A picture was slowly built up of a bunch of chain smoking, insular cutthroats living in a crowded, sweaty, unwashed flat illegally, probably making a living off drugs and plotting to burgle and/or rape anyone they caught alone. I didn't subscribe to this so much, as I'd never seen anything to indict them, but I certainly started to get affected by the incessant talk of how probably awful our neighbours were.

One day, the Scots girls and myself were away and the Dutch one locked herself out overnight. She braced herself for a cold night on our doorstep, until one of our wicked and malicious neighbours walked past on his way home from a late shift. He asked her if she was ok and she explained her situation, precipitating an offer to stay in the drug den for a night.

She accepted, so as not to seem rude, and was taken inside to a flat no worse than any other. Taken into the girls' bedroom, she was given one of the two single beds, while the two girls already in there doubled up without complaint upon having the situation explained by the man (my flatmate's offer to sleep on the floor was met with cheerful refusal). She spent the night comfortably, was not touched up or hit on by any of the men, had nothing of hers stolen, and was offered food in the morning. It was an act of pure altruism - one which, I hastened to realise, we would not have extended to them if the roles were reversed.

Turns out we were just being unreasonable, prejudiced, and very obviously the worse people, despite being white. Who would've guessed?

Length? I think she slept six uniterrupted hours that night. Much easier in a bed than on an unheated concrete floor.
(StapMyVitals wouldn't mind a bit of that, Thu 1 Apr 2010, 20:28, 2 replies)

it wasn't enough to ask the QOTW ...
... you had to answer it as well? :P
(zenmeban thinks the weather could be better, Fri 2 Apr 2010, 0:25, closed)

so hang on...
are you saying that these girls told you that Indians or Pakistanis are looked down upon by all of Scotland and maybe Holland?

And you believed them? o_O
(Lannes, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:36, closed)