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Original poster

White people moving to colonized countries is kind of gross

63 replies

ScorpioKent · 14/03/2025 07:46

Following on from a post I just read where I didn't want to change the conversation from one about homesickness I was thinking about if I could move there.

And I felt really uncomfortable about it for the following reasons and I am probably being unreasonable but I can't shake the discomfort of the thought.

I couldn't live in a country being white, knowing that my people enslaved and subjugated and dispossessed the native population. People I know that moved from UK to Australia eventually pick up the...they have so much given to them, why don't they try harder, they are all wasters/ alcoholic/ crims...narrative about aboriginals after a while. Lots of doublethink and denial of history needed to get to that mindset. Of course, America suffering under the psychological guilt of doing similar to their indigenous people. Plus transatlantic slavery.

It's no wonder, psychologically, the country is built on guilt, denial, paranoia, right to arms, and a continued denigration of the indigenous to justify theft of land. If you have committed a crime on a people the national psyche has to be built on lack of empathy and dehumanization in the first place.

And then years pass, subsequent people move there. Are those feelings there at all?

OP posts:
Original poster
ScorpioKent · 14/03/2025 08:21

I am aware history is very complicated in terms of oppression and land, forced migration, occupation. Including currently, all over our world.

I was speaking about a very specific incidences, two popular migration spots for UK residents that still have indigenous suffering. And I was thinking about the psychology of it. Not about making people feel guilty just I couldn't do it, because of reasons mentioned.

And quite rightly a wise person pointed out, it's not about skin colour but a nationality settling on occupied land, skin colour irrelevant. I appreciated that point.

OP posts:
RedToothBrush · 14/03/2025 08:13

Humans should never have left Africa.

The end.

My point being that the whole thing is a stupid argument which is selective about history. Humans are shits, but equally we are where we are. I know my family history and tbh many of my family were persecuted and abused in their 'homeland' for centuries. I have a significant Scottish Highland ancestry - many were cleared off the land and shipped to America and Canada against their will and I have significant Irish ancestry - many left rather than starve to death from the policies set by English land owners which made the potato famine worse. It almost as if there's a hierarchy on colour rather than an awareness of persecution coming in different forms.

History is complicated and the present is also complicated.

Attempts to guilt and shame based on a very narrow and simplistic political beliefs don't help and completely lack any understanding.

mumda · 14/03/2025 08:12

ScorpioKent · 14/03/2025 08:05

It's an interesting debate to have, like all debates on here. Conversation leads to greater understanding, surely.

It is interesting that you feel so much guilt it'd stop you moving to another country.
Have you always felt that way or has something in your life happened to change your mind?

You should read up about how Britain ended their hand in the slave trade and what continued

museumum · 14/03/2025 08:10

The people I know who moved to Australia or NZ in the last ten to twenty years have absolutely not picked up right wing racist views. I work in a sector where social justice is important and my colleagues over there would no more look down on indigenous peoples than my colleagues here would hate immigrants or asylum seekers.

Almostwelsh · 14/03/2025 08:10

I would feel uneasy about moving to somewhere like Australia or New Zealand, although the colour of my skin doesn't really factor. I do think it's stolen land, and although like previous posters have said most land is stolen at one time, in Australia & NZ it's fairly recent and well documented. I could visit as a tourist, but I wouldn't feel I could buy a house there.

I would feel the same about a black non indigenous person doing that as a white one tho.

ThePussy · 14/03/2025 08:10

Africans were slave traders too. Google Efunroye Tinubu.

Original poster
ScorpioKent · 14/03/2025 08:09

Pices · 14/03/2025 08:05

You’re a bit bonkers OP. All land is ‘stolen land’. Should we get an apology from the Danes for all the raping and pillaging? You moving somewhere makes not a jot of difference to anyone really if you’re a decent sort of human.

There is a cognitive dissonance required to settle in a country that still visibly has an impacted indigenous population. I wonder if it is something people consider when choosing to migrate there. I was saying I would find it difficult as I wouldn't want to pick up the negative views of the indigenous people.

OP posts:
Thatladdo · 14/03/2025 08:09

Unwanted demographic replacement, theres a thing....🙄

You couldnt live in a country being white ... then dont, you have the freedom to decide.

romdowa · 14/03/2025 08:07

Best not visit Northern Ireland then!

Papadonut · 14/03/2025 08:07

ScorpioKent · 14/03/2025 08:05

It's an interesting debate to have, like all debates on here. Conversation leads to greater understanding, surely.

It's a different world out there. People from my country are not as obsessed about race, colonise this and that. That's our history. We don't welcome people like you who just stir up shit and hatred.

MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel · 14/03/2025 08:06

floormops · 14/03/2025 08:05

Yes, and the appalling amount of slavery going on in plain sight, in the UK right now. People don't seem to be as vocal about that.

Show quote history

Absolutely! Most modern day slavery in the UK is a consequence of the drug trade. But, you know.......it's just a bit of weed 🙄

Lovelysummerdays · 14/03/2025 08:06

I think as long as people have existed they’ve been enslaving others. I don’t think it’s fair to expect people to be judged on their ancestors behaviour. Im Scottish so I guess the natives would be the Picts and the rest of us invaders of one sort. I think Norse, Roman, Irish, Vikings. Where is it you draw the line?

MulberryPeony · 14/03/2025 08:06

‘My people’ were also instrumental in ending slavery.

Original poster
ScorpioKent · 14/03/2025 08:05

It's an interesting debate to have, like all debates on here. Conversation leads to greater understanding, surely.

OP posts:
ItShouldntHappenToMeYet · 14/03/2025 08:05

ScorpioKent · 14/03/2025 08:00

I'm not talking about historical occurrences, 1000 years ago plus ! Many indigenous people in Australia and America don't feel colonization is a far off history, but a current situation. It's hard to pretend it hasn't impacted and devastated them when they are still very presently experiencing inequalities.
I was saying psychologically I would find it hard to reconcile that and settle on stolen land.

Pretty much all the land in the UK is 'stolen' off someone. Royals gave away countryside for service to King and Country. Developers have acquired land forcing people to sell their houses, as have successive governments (hs2, etc). Russia has annexed crimea, and the rest of the world seems to think he can keep it if it means peace...
Wars have been fought over land. Marriages have been forced over land.
You may need to consider Mars before Musk claims it!

floormops · 14/03/2025 08:05

MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel · 14/03/2025 07:59

I can't feel guilty for something done hundreds of years before I was born.

I worry more about people who think it's okay to hand over money to places like Dubai who CURRENTLY have an appaling human rights record.

Yes, and the appalling amount of slavery going on in plain sight, in the UK right now. People don't seem to be as vocal about that.

Pices · 14/03/2025 08:05

You’re a bit bonkers OP. All land is ‘stolen land’. Should we get an apology from the Danes for all the raping and pillaging? You moving somewhere makes not a jot of difference to anyone really if you’re a decent sort of human.

Bruisername · 14/03/2025 08:05

The world is a very big place and you’ve picked two countries where there is an indigenous population that is still treated differently

how about someone moving to Malawi or Malaysia?

Papadonut · 14/03/2025 08:04

I come from one of those colonised countries and I welcome them as long as they are respectful. But you, please stay away and bugger off.

Original poster
ScorpioKent · 14/03/2025 08:04

I'm also not suggesting people can't live happy lives there and work towards a nation equal to all. I was just wondering how people dealt with it, moving there. Quite a number that I know shocked me by eventually sharing the negative and frankly racist views of the indigenous peoples. I love these people so I tried not to judge them and supposed that being in that country eventually led to that kind of psyche.

OP posts:
SocksShmocks · 14/03/2025 08:03

“ If you have committed a crime on a people”

But I haven’t. I’m English but I don’t feel personally responsible for the Irish famine or the Highland clearances either.

To me the idea that white people are responsible for all bad things white people have done is the other side of the argument that the UK is only for white people. How could we divide up the world on the basis of who was indigenous - even if that was desirable what about people of mixed heritage, which is probably nearly all of us if we go back far enough.

If British people move to Australia and become racist against the aboriginal people (or were before they moved there) that’s a different issue about their actual behaviour.

Original poster
ScorpioKent · 14/03/2025 08:01

Theunamedcat · 14/03/2025 07:57

Are you Maori?

No. I'm white English, hence why I wrote the post.

OP posts:
HappiestSleeping · 14/03/2025 08:00

DustyLee123 · 14/03/2025 07:48

If you want to talk about slavery you need to go back further in history, to the Romans and Egyptians.

Edited

What have the Romans ever done for us?

(Shameless Life of Brian reference)

Original poster
ScorpioKent · 14/03/2025 08:00

I'm not talking about historical occurrences, 1000 years ago plus ! Many indigenous people in Australia and America don't feel colonization is a far off history, but a current situation. It's hard to pretend it hasn't impacted and devastated them when they are still very presently experiencing inequalities.
I was saying psychologically I would find it hard to reconcile that and settle on stolen land.

OP posts:
MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel · 14/03/2025 07:59

I can't feel guilty for something done hundreds of years before I was born.

I worry more about people who think it's okay to hand over money to places like Dubai who CURRENTLY have an appaling human rights record.