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I had that experience when I was about 14 or so. Headed to London on a school trip from Dublin. We left our hotel in one of the cheaper parts of the city early in the morning, and I discovered my classmates were gaping at the passers by, astonished. I couldn't figure out why.

It was early morning down a side street, so the crowd was mainly non-white immigrants on their way to work. I hadn't noticed anything unusual: I'd moved to Dublin from London five years before. Some of the less travelled others probably hadn't ever seen a black close up: Dublin was very white thirty (Eeek!) years ago.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2015 at 05:19:12 AM EST
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Recently my father recounted a memory from our first and only visit to London when I was 6. We arrived on a day when all shops were closed but we had no food, so the whole family went on a walk looking for something open. We found a building with an open entrance resembling a supermarket's, but it turned out to be a church. Just as we would have left, a hundred people streamed in for mass, all black. They were just as startled to see the bunch of shabby-clothed whites as my father at seeing them.

I have no memory of this, although I remember much more details from London than my father.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Tue Jun 16th, 2015 at 03:42:53 PM EST
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