Phobias

So last night I hosted a murder mystery dinner for my friend Harry. Harry is an interesting character... he has a GENUINE fear of Asians. Now despite the fact that its utterly un-PC, and probably because of the fact that I live in a country which is still rather scarred by xenophobia, I find this HYSTERICAL.

Don't judge me.
Think about it.

The Cape (where I live) has very few Asians. There is certainly still plenty of racism around in SA... let's not even START talking about our snaky future president saying English-speaking whites in SA are not real South Africans(!!!!) And there is a lot of fear of other local cultures that still lingers among many South Africans.The scars of Apartheid run deep on both 'sides'. And while I don't think it's right to judge someone on their colour I do understand that if you have been victimised by someone of a certain colour or gender your unconcious response may be a generalised a fear of all people within that race or gender.

But in Harry's case there is no such experience. It's just so bluddy incongruous. All i can think of is that perhaps he watched some terrifying movie featuring an asian villain as a child. Either way the phobia is real. So us, being the supportive, understanding friends that we are, decided on a chinese theme murder mystery dinner. Everyone had to dress their parts and speak with accents. It was GREAT. HILARIOUS. The chinese accents soon started sounding more like rough chain-smoking elderly french women.

Do you have any phobias? I promise to try not to mock them.