HEJ, MY LOVE

WOKE

Tomas and Ming were engaged, but the Swedish admin thought it was a white marriage to extend her visa. Thus the papers authorizing the union were still in the administration maze.

All in all, Sierra understood she wasn't alone. She listened to what everyone had to say. The issues differed, but all experienced some form of prejudice.

"The other day, I saw this Syrian woman asking for money, and I was like stop you're contributing the negative narrative about us. I totally forgot her distress. The fact she begged stressed me."

Sierra's eyes moved to the next person who spoke.

"That's the problem some of us have. We have your place in the sun, and we don't want anyone else to come and spoil what we worked hard to build once we've gained the trust of your neighbors and colleagues at work."

"It's frustrating; my company invited me to work here. Some colleagues won't even talk to me. They just want us to supply our knowledge and shut up," Saanvi's husband said.

The Swedish partners didn't talk much. They listened; for them, it was all about trying to understand what their spouse went through.

Audi was the person who marked Sierra the most, "you think the worst thing is being black. Try being a black gay man from another country."

The man explained how he only wore running sneakers when he arrived in Sweden as an Erasmus student so he could flee.

His parents were wealthy and wanted the best education for him. Europe was the holy grail; also, they thought he would be safer as Europeans were supposedly LGBTQ+ friendly. In early 2000, it wasn't the case. The man got beaten up more times than his mother ever slapped him.

Sierra didn't know whether she would go to the coffee shop again, but she learned something about herself.

In the meantime, Jonas received a visit, "is Sierra here? I wanted to see how she was."

"She went out with the woman she met the other day," Jonas said, letting in his sister.

"I got the videos. Sierra did nothing wrong. Leone was truly in danger. She did whatever a mother would do."

"I know; I never doubted her word."

"Then you know what happened and why they took her in."

Jonas sighed, "it's a nightmare; I'm unable to sleep. I just keep thinking about what she went through. And Iㅡ."

They both took seats in the living room.

"Jonas, no matter how hard you try. You won't grasp a fraction of it. Mom, dad, and all of you always made me comfortable. I can't speak about coming out, but I discovered that discrimination when I joined the police, and you know what I found out. Even though I'm a lesbian, this white skin of mine will always be a passport to the life I wish. You're a wealthy white man, living in a rich man's world voguing from house to house when bord. You benefit from the luxury of this world. You visit developing countries, dig a well, bring water to the village, and return to this lavish lifestyle. The options we have are our privilege, Jonas."

"Elsa, I didn't think something like this could happen."

"You don't like the idea, but it's the reality. Our country is full of frigging racists and xenophobics who have the hypocrisy of pointing fingers at other countries. We're the worst. We make sure it's so hard to get legal stay foreigners have no choice but to leave. We Swedish want to live in our little bubble while pretending the rest of the world doesn't exist."

"I feel responsible."

"Jonas, trust me, you won't be able to change the world, but you can fight the small battles."