A Fox In a Bat City

@Chapter 2

"Then I said, in my humble opinion, I don't think listening eating mac and cheese should be eaten by every race. You get what I mean?"

I pursed my lips together, letting out a raspberry noise from my mouth as I glanced at this woman with a bored expression.

"Mhmm sure do," I muttered sarcastically.

"Thank you! It's really nice getting an opinion from someone like you. N-not to say that in an offensive way, I just don't think, you know, mac and cheese should be appropriated as a culture anymore."

This time, I raised one eyebrow. "Did you just say that mac and cheese shouldn't be appropriated?"

She nodded her head in confidence whilst typing away some notes from the lecture. "It's true. I feel like it's disrespectful to the culture and I need to use my privilege to make a change."

The statement almost made me giggle. "You are aware that the original traits of the dish were from Europe, right? Or are you going to say that pizza shouldn't be appropriated too?" I enquired.

Stacy was alright.

She was a fellow international student, just like me. Coming from the humble land that is known as Great Britain; where the people ate beans on toast for breakfast but loved to be the first one online to say how other cultural food tastes bad. But to be fair, I did find beans on toast quite tasty when I first tried it in an English cafe.

Stacy had a knack for saying the right things at the wrong time. She usually tried to spread a positive message but always made it sound offensive in some way. And no, I was not joking. It was damn near a superpower for her. The best way to describe Stacy was very simple. Think of your average white liberal on social media, now take that person and embody that being in a real life simulation game.

She wasn't a bad person but on the other hand, she did know how to come off as very micro aggressive when certain topics came a float. But alas, she tried. And I could at least commend her on it even though it could be a tad bit hypocritical. Just a tad bit. Upon discovering that I was one of the few black people on the course, Stacy immediately thought it'd be in her best interest to start impressing me in almost every lesson with her vast knowledge on Zimbabwean history and civil rights movements.

As I said, she tries.

"Listen Anaiche, I'm just saying this is going to become a social issue that will cause arguments but I'll be here proving my point."

"It's Anaishe or like I've said a hundred times, you can just call me Ishe. Also, you spend way too much time online."

"I don't think I spend enough time online which is the problem. I keep missing out on the latest news feed like that group that keeps causing controversy."

"Which group?" I questioned.

Stacy paused her typing and let out a small 'hmm'. "I can't remember their name. It was some animal though. Cats? Rats? I can remember it was something 'at' but what...?"

A small frown settled on my face but it was quickly gone as soon as Stacy directed her attention to me.

"Oh yeah! They're called bats."

"Oh."

"Oh? You know them?" she questioned.

I shook my head quickly and turned back to my work. "Never heard of them"

"Oh. Well they're basically this internet group I think? I don't really know what they do but someone's always involved in an argument with them," Stacy explained.