Welcome to Broadstairs

Broadstairs. A stunning seaside town with beautiful beaches and medieval sites dating back to the 17th century which contributes to the town's tourism. The town itself imitates the streets that you would normally find in Italy or the South of France along the mediterranean sea with restaurants that offer alfresco dining and little boutique shops selling domestically made, handcrafted products. The air is very clean and the sea is a picturesque blue which is rare to find along the english coastline. No rubbish along the beaches, no loud events that would keep you up at night, and no sought of unusual crime that will have people in fear. More a less, this is the type of town where you would go for a quick getaway to leave all your troubles behind. Haha, that's what I thought until I went there for a day trip.

Just two months ago I felt as if I needed a break from being in London, lockdown restrictions were eased and international travel was allowed on May 17th. But in order to travel abroad you need to fork out on an extra £500 ($690) worth of covid tests alone which for me is the cost of a six-day trip to somewhere in Europe. So for now travelling overseas isn't an option to have a nice break from my hectic life. Instead I considered taking an escapism to sites across the UK as many people only think that London is the only tourist destination that Britain has to offer. After a bit of researching and route planning, my best friend and I decided to take the train up to Broadstairs for the day so we can take time out to enjoy life for a change with no distractions from phones (except taking a few pictures) and to not think about any concerns or troubles we have.

June 9th 2021

On June 9th, the train departed at 6.30 am to Broadstairs and arrived there at 8.35 am. We were beyond excited to spend an entire day by a crystal clear, sandy beach that we haven't seen in along time. As we stepped out of the train and smelt the difference in air quality we knew we picked a good location for a one-day holiday. My friend and I both promised each other that we wouldn't be on our phones for the entire day, but we couldn't resist taking a few Instagram pics as we considered taking photos as second hobby of ours (don't judge).

What could possibly go wrong that day? I was in the perfect setting that I've been craving for, I was with my best friend of 7 years and I was away from the big city. That's all I asked for and I got it. Now that's how I was feeling on the outside and my face definitely showed it, but I felt out of place on the inside. I'm not sure if my friend felt what I was feeling as were both from different ethnic groups and have family that's not from the UK. As you can see in the images I'm black and shes arabic, so going to area that's not in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, you name it, can be quite discouraging to visit. Why? The very straightforward answer is racism.

It was midday and we spent the morning at Botany Bay beach. A very quiet beach with a beautiful scenery with a few dog walkers scattered around that were quite friendly towards us as they said the usual "good morning" and "lovely day" to us. Like I imagined Broadstairs was the perfect place for an escapism and felt as if that morning really summed up my initials thoughts of what it would be like there. The perfect seaside town which makes you forget all your troubles. Until we went into the main town road to grab some lunch.

Walking around and finding a nice restaurant to eat was an experience in Broadstairs that made me question my right to be there. At least several pairs of eyes were directly locked in on us as if these pairs of eyes never seen a human with a skin colour that's darker than theirs. I noticed that these pairs of eyes were mainly white british people in their 50's or 60's so their probably not used to seeing other ethnic groups in the town. But there's a term called "respect" that I didn't think they were quite familiar with as my friend and I both felt uncomfortable and a little anxious by being the only minorities there. It got to the point where we just accepted the fact that this is a place where this type of behaviour is normalised so we weren't going to let these strangers interfere with our day.

We finally decided to go all in on a classic british lunch and went to a fish and chips shop by the corner of street as the staff from the outside seemed very welcoming when they were trying to get customers in. As I thought the "staring" was going to be the worst part of the day, things at the fish and chips shop made me regret going to Broadstairs.

My friend is quite a shy person, so I stepped in the blue door of the shop and pleasantly said a big "hello" to a woman by the counter. She ignored me as if I was invisible so I kindly said "hello, how are you?" in a high pitch, nice, cute voice to grab her attention. She eventually looked at me and didn't say a word. She ran off into the staff only room which had a window behind the counter where I could see her through the window talking to at least two staff members and one chef for roughly thirty seconds. Within that time my friend was trying to persuade me that we should look for somewhere else to eat. But I purposely wanted to stay there so the staff members can know that I'm a paying customer just like any other person that comes through that door. I was getting very impatient as my stomach was rumbling whilst looking at the battered fish that was being prepared in the kitchen. After two minutes a young gentlemen finally came out of the staff only door until he was called back in by the chef in the kitchen. He went back and mumbled to the chef "the black chick is waiting to be served" and came over to me with a grin on his face. He must of thought I didn't hear the comment he made as I was looking outside the window in the opposite direction where the counter was. But I heard exactly what he said and I felt so disheartened on how I was given a title to the staff member that couldn't just see me as a normal person that just wanted some food.

As the gentlemen was taking our order I asked my friend what she wanted, but he still had a grinning smile on his face. It was a smile as if he wanted to burst out in laughter at us for some strange reason. Whether he was laughing at me or my friend we will never know but I couldn't bare to look at him in the eye. Once the order was taken he took our payment and ran off into the staff only room again. He said the wait for the fish and chips would be 7 to 10 minutes so we took a seat outside where there were table and chairs so we can absorb in some more vitamin D from the sunshine.

Two minutes into the wait. The lady from before magically appeared behind us and abruptly exclaimed that we weren't allowed to sit outside whilst we wait as it was apparently only for customers that are dining in. No please, no sorry, just "Your not allowed to sit here, it's only for dine in". First of all the shop was empty so there wasn't anyone waiting to be seated outside, and second of all I've never came across such an ignorant server. My friend and I generally thought it was just her personality and that's maybe the way she was, but a couple of minutes after we saw a white british family of three with an infant came into the shop and ordered take out fish and chips. Whilst they were waiting for their order they went outside and took a seat on the table that we were just on. The infant was dashing the salt and pepper across the table and throwing her colouring pens on the floor, the servers were all in the kitchen laughing their heads off about something (probably us) as if they not working, and worst thing was the rude woman looked a couple of times over at the family of three on the table but didn't say a word to them. We were both annoyed at the situation but I felt I needed to start an argument with one the staff members with how they were treating us. If I was alone on the trip, I probably would of had a go at someone, but my friend being the calm, resilient person that she is told me to never give in to their control as they probably wanted us to be annoyed and feel intimidated by them. Luckily she mentioned that, I was at real breaking point when the family three got their order first with three plastic bags of food and waited roughly six minutes, whilst we were in there for a good 15 to 17 minutes when he only got two portions on fish and chips in one bag.

After the most horrible experience at the fish and chips shop, we decided to visit another beach in Broadstairs and spend the afternoon there. We thought the "staring" situation was over, but instead it was a constant environment that we were surrounded in. Minding our own business, eating our meal and playing songs on Spotify with the speaker on, we were just trying to forget about what just happened and to just focus on each with the perfect scenery. Unfortunately we were constantly being looked at multiple times by the same groups of people as they walked passed us along the beach. Children and young families as well gave us a good hard stare for a couple of seconds and we generally thought it maybe because we were playing music or had bunch of seagulls around us because they were peckish for our fish and chips. So we turned down the music, got rid of our food and thought to ourselves we wouldn't be the centre of attention for embarrassment on the beach. But it wasn't neither of those things, we could tell and we could sense it, the people of Broadstairs we staring at us because we don't look like them. For that reason our day was cut short and my friend couldn't resist this uncomfortable feeling of not being wanted there. I tried so hard to ignore everyone, but her thoughts and emotions came onto me and I couldn't tolerate being in an environment where I don't feel welcomed. So unfortunately we left Broadstairs around two in the afternoon. It was supposed to be a one-day holiday where we can just relax and have fun. To not worry about anything or anyone as we thought it would be hard not to think about any concerns in a stunning beach setting with a historical town that can leave you mesmerized . But I guess we were wrong. Racial tension without being said or spoken directly towards us was a issue of mine that I could of never imagined would of happened on June 9th. But that day won't stop from exploring rural regions and seaside towns across the UK.

The Fear of Racial Tension Happening

The more I think about what happened to my friend and I in Broadstairs, the more I wonder where we overthinking this thought of racial tension. The fish and chip shop situation was definitely a act of staff members discriminating us in a subtle way and felt as if we were emotionally attacked by being unwelcomed from strangers who clearly had something against us. The looking and staring situation may have been us worrying too much on what other people thought two different races being in a predominantly white setting. One thing that I took from that day in Broadstair is to never be afraid of being in a location that has one particular race.

I wish I had the guts to stare people down in the streets of Broadstairs every time someone looked at us, even in the way I walked I wish I could of showed pride and assertiveness to communicate to people through my body language that I have a right to be there. I also wish we started a conversation with the gentlemen that served us to show that were just like everybody else (well a little better) to let him know that he shouldn't be giving titles to every single non-white person he comes across. Why did we turn down the music when we were at the beach? We should of turned it up a little louder and live in the moment. So what if people stared, talked, and judged on what we were doing. We had the option to enjoy a couple more hours on the beach and we missed the opportunity.

You should never be afraid to explore somewhere in an area your not familiar with because your scared of racial tension occuring. Whether its a two hour train ride to the suburbs or on the other side of the world, we need to acknowledge that people are going dislike or discriminate you in a subtle or ignorant manner that sometimes we can't control because that's the sort of behaviour that has been taught when they see another minority there not familiar with. We can encourage, communicate, and stand up against racism which we should never stop doing, but we need understand that we just can't change people and there's always going to be someone that sees a person of a different race in a negative form. So I suggest we stop overthinking of traveling to areas where you think is racist or unwelcoming and start adventuring to places where others fear of going . Unless it's a country or area where your government advises you not to travel due foreign travelers being targeted for racial disparities.

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Hi there!

It's been a while since I've written on Vocal. Thank you so much reading and showing your support. One simple thing that I hope you take away from this story is to never let the fear of what others think of you stop you from doing what you want to do. I was born and raised in London which is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, so I'm always surrounded by people of different ethnicities. Exploring outside the borderline of the british capital into rural and seaside towns is something that I don't often do due to the lack diversity in many countryside regions across the UK. There's always been this fear in my mind that I'm going to be treated differently in those regions due to my skin colour. And that's exactly what happened. As much as it's' hard to admit, I'm glad that I experienced this sort of racial behiour towards me as I would of never have thought to keep on exploring and adventuring to new places, no matter what people see me as.

Be sure to give love heart and tip if you can and I'll see if I can make time to post more stories on this brilliant platform.

Choa, Bethany Gordon xxx