I'm not Racist but...(2)

Turning heads in Senegal was not something out of the ordinary, Khady would say she was already used to it.

Especially the murmurs that followed immediately after sighting her.

But yet, this was different.

    The moment she poked her head out of the plane and stepped unto the Airstair she knew something was different.

It was the sudden contrast and how she instantly stood out in the midst of white people.

She could swear time had stopped as almost everyone around turned to stare at her.

"I could rob you all and you wouldn't notice because my skin color blinds you." Khady quietly murmured as she continued climbing down.

     It hadn't even been up to five minutes in a new country yet she was already fed up with its citizens; a white woman who looked like she'd be in her sixties had stepped out of her way in what felt like sheer fear to Khady, like she was scared of staining her white crinkly skin just by being around her.

Khady felt a thorn pierce her heart as it dawned on her that no level of preparation could have readied her for that action…

And with one thought in her mind, she raised her head up and adjusted the backpack straps on her shoulder:

"I escaped the colorism room and got trapped in the racism room. Yay, systematic oppression! Yay!"

---

Inside the Airport was worse

The pin drop silence made her heels echo and attracted more eyes to her walking frame as she moved to the Immigration zone. 

Khady met a black man standing behind the counter and it elated her, she was so excited to finally talk to someone who at least looked somehow similar to her.

She was grinning ear to ear, mindlessly while he scanned her documents until she heard his whispered joke, a joke obviously directed at her, a joke only she could've heard, "Dear Jesus, who switched off the light in her?"

'Who switched off the light in her?'

'Who switched off the light in her?'

'Who.Switched.Off.The.Light.In.Her'

Khady couldn't say she was surprised, after all her research had showed black men would treat her worse than anyone else but she definitely didn't expect such words from a professional.

Neither did she expect words like that to hurt her.

Good thing she'd planned ahead and had developed her comeback statements, "Probably the one who forgot to give you a functioning brain."

Her very first words were a comeback to a bully, her accent sounded so thick in her ears. So thick that it turned more heads.

Khady felt embarrassed. She wished she'd just ignored him.

But it was too late for that and now she was hurt and embarrassed at the same time.

---

Her Taxi man was a Nigerian, he was almost as dark as she was and he was quite a talkative.

He'd dropped some insensitive comments in the beginning like, "Ahh, my sister you too dark to be Oyibo person, you na Senegalese person?", which translated to 'My sister, you're too dark to be American, are you from Senegal',

But he genuinely looked happy to see her so she humored him and found out he was really nice, he had a fiance, he was a college drop out and his family had disowned him.

His name was Iheanacho, he could understand and speak English frequently but he mainly spoke Nigerian Pigin, luckily for them Khady could understand Nigerian Pigin, she had a few Nigerian friends.

An hour later and she was alighting from the vehicle, he didn't need to but Iheanacho had helped her move her baggage to the front door of her aunt's house.

She almost didn't want to see him leave, it was like they had both found comfort in each other's presence, the journey had given them an opportunity to talk about mutual experiences because unlike any one she'd ever met, he was almost the same complexion as she was.

She'd found out his university mates in Nigeria had nicknamed him "Oji unyi" meaning Black Charcoal in Igbo and how most white women he'd met always sexualized him by feeding into mainstream stereotype of a tall black man in bed…

But in the end, they both went their seperate ways without exchanging contact information.

Khady strongly believed that if he was meant to be in her life, they'd surely reconnect in the future.

Her aunt, Abibatou Philips was excited to see her

Her husband on the other hand….