Making (false) assumptions
I got talking with the guy that owns the co-working space I use a couple of days a week now.
He's mid 60s and has a surname that begins Van der. I made a quick assumption he probably moved here from South Africa when apartheid was coming to an end.
At some point in the conversation I mentioned I was born and brought up in South London. I then said "When did you come to the UK?".
He said - "I was born here". I said "Oh that explains why you don't have a South African accent". "Why would I?" he asked.
Katy then launches into explaining her assumption about him. He listens smiling then explained his family history.
His Grandparents were Dutch. His Grandmother a secular Jew. His father was born to them in the 1930s. His Grandfather could see bad coming and in early 1939 his Grandmother came to England with the son, his Dad. The family were in the bulb/flower growing business and had contacts in Lincolnshire who gave them a small home on a farm. His Grandfather stayed in Holland and joined the army. He was taken prisoner in the invasion and was in a prisoner of war camp until 1945.
When his Grandfather came to England with the intention of taking his family home he realised how much his son loved it there, had made friends etc. and was essentially now an English schoolboy. So he got a job on the farm and they stayed. The boy went on to go to college, become a teacher and then a headmaster and had two sons.
So not at all what I'd assumed - i.e. white privilege running from the emancipation of the whole of South Africa under Mandela but actually Jewish refugees kindly given refuge and safety from the holocaust.
As my sponsor says "When you assume you make an ass out of u and me".
He's mid 60s and has a surname that begins Van der. I made a quick assumption he probably moved here from South Africa when apartheid was coming to an end.
At some point in the conversation I mentioned I was born and brought up in South London. I then said "When did you come to the UK?".
He said - "I was born here". I said "Oh that explains why you don't have a South African accent". "Why would I?" he asked.
Katy then launches into explaining her assumption about him. He listens smiling then explained his family history.
His Grandparents were Dutch. His Grandmother a secular Jew. His father was born to them in the 1930s. His Grandfather could see bad coming and in early 1939 his Grandmother came to England with the son, his Dad. The family were in the bulb/flower growing business and had contacts in Lincolnshire who gave them a small home on a farm. His Grandfather stayed in Holland and joined the army. He was taken prisoner in the invasion and was in a prisoner of war camp until 1945.
When his Grandfather came to England with the intention of taking his family home he realised how much his son loved it there, had made friends etc. and was essentially now an English schoolboy. So he got a job on the farm and they stayed. The boy went on to go to college, become a teacher and then a headmaster and had two sons.
So not at all what I'd assumed - i.e. white privilege running from the emancipation of the whole of South Africa under Mandela but actually Jewish refugees kindly given refuge and safety from the holocaust.
As my sponsor says "When you assume you make an ass out of u and me".
