Are people on Mumsnet secretly racist or what?

You can disagree with the riots, yet not agree with mass immigration. Does it make me a racist if I believe that only those escaping war or persecution should be granted asylum? And we an Australian style system on who we are letting in.

Not surprised. I think a lot of people totally underestimate middle class racism.

It manifests in “debate”. And you will never see this if you are not white. That debate is hidden largely in nice lounges, dining rooms, clubs, social events and exclusive places where if your face does not fit you wouldn’t even get in the door, though oddly it started to get more explicit when you had the Conservatives saying things as part of the debate like Braverman. That gave people a lot of implied “cover” imo. That was a mistake.

My husband is Jewish, he’s white and blonde, so racists typically don’t pick up on him being any different to them. He has heard some extreme racism because people have felt to safe to air their racism around him, he ironically had a racist verbally abuse and be racist to him at work for being pro-palestine because Jews have a Jew brain and can’t think non-Jew thoughts…

Yes. Their are a lot also a lot of homophobes and anti trans. Its very distressing

Sometimes i have to step away

There are so so many secret racists in real life. I've had to unfriend 5 different people on Facebook after they posted memes sympathising with the far right protestors. I visit people in their homes as part of my job and after a while they become more comfortable and their true feelings start to come out in little comments. These are not just the low income/intelligence racists seen on the news, these are doctors, Navy Captains, school teachers, etc.

"I voted Remain, but..."

We do call them out, but it's a dispiriting game of whack-a-mole.

Yes I agree, but it appears to be mainstream again, and we should be looking to understand why.

@TygerLyon The thing is, it's not just the UK. It's all over Europe. Racism has been steadily growing in countries like Austria and Germany over the past several years, and many others. This is a widespread problem.

Only about 5% of uk land has houses in it so we aren’t “full”. What we do have is decades of governments not building the homes, Drs surgeries etc which are needed to support the people. In the last two years the Torys gave a million people visas to legally come into the country yet have built very few houses. It’s criminal! People should be focusing on that, not the 50,000 people who came over in boats.

But that’s the thing isn’t it? “It’s not racist to worry about immigration” is employed as a defence all the time, and yet do the people who say this actually look into the numbers, for the uk, for around the world? Do they look at how immigrants are employed? Do they see the immigrants they know? Do they know ANYTHING at all about immigrants?

Yes. I believe a lot of people who have concerns about immigration do know a lot about it. You're missing the point that was made earlier. People genuinely concerned about immigration are concerned about the policies, not the people.

There are names that turn up time and again on threads about the riots who make no secret of how racist they are. I've given up reporting them.

But that’s the thing isn’t it? “It’s not racist to worry about immigration” is employed as a defence all the time, and yet do the people who say this actually look into the numbers, for the uk, for around the world? Do they look at how immigrants are employed? Do they see the immigrants they know? Do they know ANYTHING at all about immigrants?
They just assume immigration is bad and not just a natural part of life around the world.

Don't get me started on “ah but it’s always certain cultures which hate women and are violent” Again, these people clearly don’t look at the numbers. Or even see in front of their own eyes.

Yes I agree, but it appears to be mainstream again, and we should be looking to understand why.

I hope the rioters are all punished for this, but at the same time I hope that someone in charge has a good hard look at how things have been done and what has given opportunists like Farage and Robinson the room to slot into popularity.

Thing is, these people have always been there. They've always had these views, they've just normally covered them up. Farage and Robinson have legitimised them but people have always been racist. Look back to the 50s/60s and the infamous 'No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs' posters.

It's not just Mumsnet, it's absolutely everywhere. Far worse on social media. Think we have to accept the sad reality that millions in Britain are racist.

They're out and proud.

For me it’s got to be a balance though.
Condemning without fixing what has led to this is pointless.
I hope the rioters are all punished for this, but at the same time I hope that someone in charge has a good hard look at how things have been done and what has given opportunists like Farage and Robinson the room to slot into popularity.

I know. These thugs set fire to hotels knowing that there were people in them. There were small children in the one in Rotherham.

And yet people are queuing up on MN to say, "yeah, but they have a point".

It is deeply shocking to see that so many people are willing to align themselves with this kind of racist thuggery.What a terrible stain on our nation, of which they claim to be so proud. It's utterly shameful.

Although apartheid and colonialism are excused on Mumsnet these days.

Are they? I think I must miss some things. I avoid the really aggro threads mostly.

Report to HQ, though. They're usually very good if things are flagged to them.

The rioters are mindless thugs, they truly are racist pigs. They don't care about any of the actual issues, they probably don't even know what they are. These people shouldn't be allowed to breed.

I'm all for letting people peacefully protest which demonstrates that people feel strongly about an issue but looting a Greggs? I'm all for sticking those pillocks on a boat to Rwanda. I'd swap them for hardworking immigrants any day of the week.

Humans are tribal, its just how it is.
Most of the rioters will put their football shirts back on in a few weeks and it’ll all calm down as they’ll be scrapping over whose team is best.

Immigration does worry me, but it’s not about skin colour it’s the sheer number of people on an already overpopulated little island. Round here the quiet roads are now busy, and the busy roads are gridlocked, every field or bare patch of land seems to have a planning application pending, public services are failing, everything from GPs to highways. I would quite like to emigrate somewhere myself!

That type of message pushes people away.
Of course we need to understand our history, but the pushing of our ancestors actions - not our actions.
For some people trying to make current generations feel responsible for past generations pushes them into the arms of people like Farage and Tommy Robinson.

It’s like how feminism is thought to push some young men to Andrew Tate - of course it’s wrong, but we need to recognise this and approach things in a way that doesn’t lose the target audience.

The rioting seems to have emboldened people to condemn it but hastily follow up with 'but it's not far right to think the government has to do something about immigration'.
The fact that people aren't just condemning the rioters in the strongest possible terms is worrying to me.

And how the UK built its wealth on the back of slavery and colonialism. Hello Liverpool, Glasgow, Bristol!

What I see time and time again is that anyone who has an opposing view on immigration gets shouted down as a racist. I don't think that's fair. You can have concerns about immigration, I don't think it automatically makes you a racist.

I'm not one of them, I am the child of an immigrant for the record but I do get a bit fed up when people want to shutdown other people's opinions by labelling them a racist. Racism is being prejudiced against people on the basis of their ethnicity, this isn't always the crux of the immigration issues. (Although, clearly for some it is 😕)

But I absolutely agree with better teaching of history. It is incredibly important that people have a better understanding of the past so that we can learn from it and understand how it affects the present.

Shall we start with a national push to educate people about the rise of fascism and how it was allowed to take hold?