Another text

Later on that evening, after we had dinner, I left mummy and daddy to watch TV and I went to my bedroom to reflect on what had been quite a day for me.
I looked at the text again-‘"You are a racist who has failed to go black despite ample opportunity to do so. Your punishment will be **** conversion to white slavery unless you change your ways."

I shuddered. Even though I knew what it said, seeing the text on my phone in front of me still scared me.

I hated confrontations. I wondered why I of all people had been so mean to the black boy who approached me. I never really considered myself as prejudiced or racist-I supposed that I just didn’t want people to think I was like some of the other white girls who had been quickly and easily seduced (and probably bedded) by the Somali and Nigerian boys.

Whatever the reason for my behaviour, I had upset him, or possibly one of his friends; whoever it was they meant to punish me. I began to become very anxious, I paced around my spacious and expensively decorated bedroom- what could I do? The blacks in school seemed to me to be extremely organised and they all seemed to know each other really well. If you made an enemy of one, you made an enemy of them all.

I looked at my suntanned legs and arms and then thought about the dark brown skin of the Africans at school. I thought about how different they were from me.
If they thought I was a racist, who knows what would happen?

I considered telling mummy, but thought against it, she didn’t deal with ‘situations’ very well. So I sat on the bed and panicked alone.

The silence was disturbed by my mobile phone-I had received a text. I quickly read it -"log onto facebook".

Oh my God! Please, please don’t say he’s threatened me on there where all my friends (and some relatives) could see it!

I hurriedly put on my laptop and logged onto facebook. I had a friend request from a boy called Samir from Somalia. At least he hadn’t written something for everyone to see. Trembling, I accepted his invitation to be friends. Within seconds he messaged me.