Yesterday I took part in some market research in the promise of £55. I was sat in a room with 10 other white people talking about white and muslim relations. I had gone along thinking that I was going to be answering questions about soft drinks. It turns out there are only so many race relations questions you can answer with ‘Well, I suppose its a lot like Coke vs. Pepsi’
I’ve done market research before, the last time I did it, I was answering questions about deodorants. I wasn’t planning on doing it. I just got dragged in off the street as if the rep looked at me and thought I looked like I stunk and could use the 45 minute hint.
It was weird as it went on I felt like divisions came in the group as the session went on talking about such a controversial topic. There was one girl who claimed to be an expert on muslim relations because she was friends with one (maybe this will be the new ‘I’ve got a Black/gay/whatever friend’ for the millennials). Another person who said that she worked with a muslim lady and would regularly email her at work.
There was one man who claimed to have a great relations with the muslim community as one of his tenants was a muslim and one woman who claimed that she would love to live next door to a muslim as she has always wanted to get a good curry recipe and Eid would mean free food. So I think we can all move forward so long as it makes caucasians fat in some way
There was also a woman who made eloquent points event though she sounded like the broken squeaky penguin from Toy Story 2 which made me nostalgic for the 90s even though back then racial relations were worse back then, which may have defeated the purpose of her intentions.
The phrase ‘they’ was bandied around a lot, as if the muslim community was another entity which is sad to think about. Maybe the propaganda machine truly works. Who knows, all I know is that I should read things a bit closer as my £55 was on a gift card.