Should MN have a People of Color Section?

Surely the suggestion would be just like the step parenting or lone parenting or SEN or Scotsnet boards. When you want to talk about Bake Off or frocks or Guinea pigs or lemon drizzle cake recipes or the appalling Bridezilla behaviour of your SIL then you post in the normal place as usual. But if you think that the question you want to pose will have a dimension which will be better understood by people who know where you're coming from then you post on a special identity board. I find it hard to believe that people have a problem with this fairly simple concept.

Whether it's actually desirable though I dunno. BME covers such a huge cultural range in the UK that such a board might still struggle to find a quorum of members who understand a particular poster's background - but maybe MNHQ might like to canvass opinion.

How very fucking patronising.

Sorry OP, but that really is a ridiculous idea. I'm mixed race, would you be applying the one drop rule?

ComeJoin - It's sad because mansplaining is a well-known phenomenon and women are very aware as to how it works, yet there seems to be this ignorance with regards to race and you see it on here all the time.

In addition, is the modern attitude that everything must somehow relate to you personally, otherwise it isn't important/you don't have to care about it.

Salem - I was involved in some diversity training for HCPs when a participant spoke quite movingly of growing up as a black male in the 80s in the UK and encountering Police harassment and racism and an absolute arse of a white woman thought it was in some way comparable to her experiences of having ginger hair and actually said 'yes, I know where you're coming from'.

No you don't. You may have known bullying and that's awful but other than that, no you don't know prejudice and the fact you think you do means you have no idea what racism is.

Pretending you are oppressed for being left handed in a jokey way of minimising racism makes someone the worst kind of cunt, IMO.

Remarks on this thread about freckles and being left-handed pretty much prove how clueless some people are about everyday racism

Agreed.

Whitesplaining explained.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=N-p8dOqf3P4

KickAssAngel "Would posters want this, or is MN so 'white' that other forums are being used instead?"

^^ I use another forum. I don't think that's being divisive or segregating, it just enables me to share with other people who understand better from one particular perspective.

Whilst MN offers its own brand of sweary, sarcastic parenting perspective

Saying that I do also enjoy the "non-colour" anonymity that I get using MN.

Virtually any thread on here about race is absolutely filled with people claiming that racism doesn't exist anymore and that the person in question is being "over-sensitive".

Remarks on this thread about freckles and being left-handed pretty much prove how clueless some people are about everyday racism.

We do have an ongoing Muslim Tearoom thread on here abs and I do find it valuable from time to time.

Are we going to start calling mixed people half caste now, too? 🙄 Might as well start living in the mid 90s.

1st tip - if you do not belong to a group; you don't get to say what you think that group may benefit from or need. That is a classic move of any kind of 'privilege'.

And when it comes to race that is particularly important - that's one of the bases of racism - that white people know better about what minority groups are capable of; what they may need and white governments/people giving it is an act of benevolence and also in a way absolves previous violent racism - oh yeah we did some bad shit but now you have advocacy groups and carnivals and black history month and targets for minorities in education, employment etc. So we're okay now?

It is SO offensive. Particularly when you say YOU might benefit from it. That you'd gain knowledge or be educated by the discussions. Like we'd be something to be observed? Seriously?

I'm so relieved that a benevolent white person is ashamed that they haven't requested a space for 'people of color' before where they can also lurk and hear our voices and drown out the. ....I can't even complete that cringey sentence.

How patronising and offensive.

There should definitely be a special snowflake section!

But surely each special snowflake would require their own section to meet their needs?

Scotsnet AFAIK exists as it has different education systems/legal systems/ NHS etc to rUK. Very annoying to have to explain you are in the UK and not a troll because your kids have gone back to school mid august...

A separate section for everyone?

Well there is Scotnet

Perhaps the OP thinks it's a special section for "viewers in Scotland" (that's an in -joke btw) where we all speak in Gaelic about how oppressed we are by British Imperialism.

In reality, we moan about the SNP, the latest nonsense from the Council (usually Edinburgh or Aberdeen) or Holyrood, swap tips about schools, shops and things to do in this part of Northern Britain.

I don't think so. I'm black and it is part of me and my identity but not everything. I'm in a long running thread in another part of MN (NC) and I don't think I have ever even brought it up in the years we have been chatting.

It could be for all of those posters who ask if they ABU, then spend the rest of the thread arguing with the 100% contradictory opinion

There should definitely be a special snowflake section!

Which colour!?

Personally I like purple.
I would like a purple section for other like minded posters with a GSOH and a bag of sparkly shit. Unicorns not essential.

Op you sound like you're new to this thinking and being aware of things malarkey. Take it easy in the first few years, you don't want to wear yourself out.

Also no Welsh section (is there? I know there is a Scottish section)

I don't think the rest of the world will be particularly interested in advice on race relations that comes from the US.

Also, will the area subscribe to the one drop rule? How much "colour" in ones background is permitted to post?

While we're suggesting areas for people who are oppressed, can I suggest that (on a largely MC site), a working class and underclass section would be a fantastic idea...

but then you would be excluding the pale ethnicities such as the Irish Travellers who are also the victims of discrimination and racism.

And many Eastern Europeans too.

I'm not sure where it would end really.

A separate section for everyone?

Tiggy, Spotted has it right. It's like yelling "attention non whites - would you like your own space"? Awful.

The op says "I see nothing that provides people of colour with a space". This website is the space, I've chosen to join it. Colour is not a topic like gardening or television. I also feel the op would probably just assume everyone is white unless they state otherwise.

I do accept that no offence was intended in starting the topic, nor by
Tiggy's suggestion. tbh I think there are some crazy messages around - via media and education etc - that maybe start with the aim of inclusion but actually just move us closer to exclusion - so that's not helping the situation, I'm sure.

OP, despite many posters pointing out to you that many BME people are white you keep contrasting BME people with white people.

Do you just have a massive issue with white people?

Cripes, Tiggy, I didn't know I have to identify my ethnic origin at all times, so that you can do your little survey.

I am 'in the group under discussion' as you put it. And I think it's a really bad idea, that smacks a bit of white saviours come to help us.

I certainly don't like the term "People of Colour" for a section on mumsnet. I think the only thing that the multifarious ethnicities in the Uk would have in common that they do not have in common with the rest of society would be discrimination and racism, but then you would be excluding the pale ethnicities such as the Irish Travellers who are also the victims of discrimination and racism.