Can white people ever experience racism?

[LittleRedCourgettes]

Following a discussion on this topic with some students, I was reading this article and am interested to hear your honest thoughts on this question.....

https://www.nas.org/blogs/article/wherediddwegetttheideaathatonlyywhitepeopleecanbeeracist

@truthisalie

No, white people cannot truly experience racism.

But they do experience it!

When. Give examples.... And please don't make the mistake all the other idiots on here do. Being English in Scotland is not racism. Being Polish is not racism. Please do enlighten us....

@Vegeetas

Can we at the very least agree that anyone that experiences bad treatment from people because of the colour of their skin has suffered racism and that we all hate racists equally?

We need to focus on the things that unite us all rather than argue semantics of wording.

This didn't need to turn into a peeing contest did it?

Yes we can.

But people calling it 'racism' because they never managed to gain qualifications in high school, or because they don't know where Google is on the internet or the letters are no their keyboard is just bone idle and ignorant.

@ElliFAntspoo read the Equality Act 2010.
The examples you give are defined as racial discrimination.

Being called a “white bitch” on a bus is racial discrimination.

An Eastern European being told to “fuck off back where you came from” is racial discrimination.

How can you seriously suggest otherwise?

I think having a one off (or rare) experience where people are judged by their skin colour or ethnicity is very different to systemic racism steeped in centuries of inequality and prejudice.

For me One person having a single experience of prejudice on the basis of their ethnicity is very different to another person coming from an ethnicity or culture that has faced years of prejudice and/or persecution including inequalities in health/education outcome etc. I dunno the right way to reflect that in language but those two types of experiences feel very different to me.

One person having a single experience of prejudice on the basis of their ethnicity = racism

another person coming from an ethnicity or culture that has faced years of prejudice and/or persecution including inequalities in health/education outcome etc = systemic/structural racism

@PoplarTrees what I mean is the experience for different Individuals feels very different, rather than the ‘type of racism’.

Oh hark at Socrates.

And that bloody book “Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race”. What an awful, passive-aggressive title which I will NEVER read because I don’t like my opinion invalidated based on the colour of my skin, funnily enough.

AIMD how about racism and systemic racism?

I don't know if there's a term for combined misogyny and racism too but maybe there should be. They seem to be intertwined in a lot of cases- comparing Muslim women to letter boxes, black women not getting the maternity care they need, white women stereotyped as sexually promiscuous

@AIMD but the thread is about those occurrences, it does not ask if white people experience daily systematic racism, nor does it detract from the systematic racism of POC which most pp have stated is different and wrong. But it doesn’t mean the one-off doesn’t happen or that people shouldn’t be allowed to talk about it.

@AIMD

I think having a one off (or rare) experience where people are judged by their skin colour or ethnicity is very different to systemic racism steeped in centuries of inequality and prejudice.

For me One person having a single experience of prejudice on the basis of their ethnicity is very different to another person coming from an ethnicity or culture that has faced years of prejudice and/or persecution including inequalities in health/education outcome etc. I dunno the right way to reflect that in language but those two types of experiences feel very different to me.

I think the two are interlinked though tbh. I've never heard of rare judgement due to ethnicity where racism wasn't engrained in society. Nor one that isn't steeped in centuries of inequality and prejudice, it doesn't have to have anything to do with your skin colour.

Whilst most racism still exists to individuals, some is still acceptable and hardly challenged by the majority of society, and encouraged by politicians.

I think the powers that be call it positive discrimination and it certainly happened to me over a prize at school. It was noted that only one type of child had been picked so the year I was voted winner it was given to someone else because feet were stamped and threats made.

First part cross posted but surely every experience is subjective and it's the action that can be categorised, in doing so that explains why it would impact the subject in the way it does?

Thoroughly agree with you @AIMD.

Taking it down to bare bones though - equality laws have to apply to everyone equally or they are worthless. In an ideal
world the law is blind.

I think most people on here agree that in practice it is a different matter, and entrenched racism is pervasive in our society.

This doesn’t mean that we can or should invalidate other victims of racist incidents or abuse, even if they happen as a “one off”. Some white people on here have experienced racist abuse. Their experience should not be ignored. We all need to be protected from discrimination.

Yes definitely. I live in a multicultural city in the midlands where white people are almost the minority.

I have experienced racism directly from the Indian/Pakistani/black communities on rare occasions.

I have particularly seen racism between the Pakistani and Indian communities, especially when westernised sons and daughters want to marry each other. Same for if they want to date or marry a white person. Some of the community teach their sons that white girls are to sleep around with and use to get experience before marriage.

My friend is a devout Christian and she is married to a Sikh. There was not an issue from either side of the families they just accepted each other and had 2 weddings and celebrate all the festivals etc.

I have Irish heritage, red hair and very pale skin tone, freckles included. Damn right I’ve experienced racism. From being asked and told about the potato famine, to mock leprechaun accents, being teased at school for being ginger, being told I should cover my freckles for aesthetic reasons by fashion media (now they’re trendy apparently - go figure ) and being asked in the summer why I don’t have a tan (BECAUSE THIS IS MY SKIN COLOUR!!!!!!). I’d call that pretty systemic. It’s deep rooted beliefs of what’s “good” and “bad”.

Racism is so complex.

And of course there is no such thing as a racist BAME person. If we are going to talk about it lets do it honestly/

[quote Sittingonabench]@AIMD but the thread is about those occurrences, it does not ask if white people experience daily systematic racism, nor does it detract from the systematic racism of POC which most pp have stated is different and wrong. But it doesn’t mean the one-off doesn’t happen or that people shouldn’t be allowed to talk about it.[/quote]
I thought I was replying to the op, or maybe I missed the point. I was Saying that although two things might be referred to as racism the two experiences feel very different so my personal opinion is a bit in the fence about if “white people can experience racism”.

Yes white people can and do experience racism.

Yes I think they can, but I am white married to a non-white person and it isn’t the same as the shit my husband has put up with.

@AIMD it's the same racism, just different levels of intensity.

I don't know if there's a term for combined misogyny and racism too but maybe there should be.
@Monsteraobliqua Misogynoir.

@ReggieKrait
Thanks for such a thoughtful response. I agree actually.

Hold up....my opinion may have been altered a little by an MN discussion. That never happens to me!

We are soon to lose our way of life, our culture that has steadily been eroded over centuries.
It's a scary time for many with nowhere to go and the threat of losing our homes if we stop anywhere.
Over a thousand of us with nowhere to go.
I'm one of the fortunate ones who married out and have bricks n mortar to fall back on.
Anyone who thinks we haven't experienced the same as other races because we are white, need to open their eyes as to what is happening to other races.
Politicians want us in houses, they always have.
No right to roam anymore, apparentely.

@Sinuhe

Cheers, folks for getting my post deleted... I gess it shows how politically correct MN really is.

I didn’t report your post.

How old are you??

You keep on saying PC. What don’t you understand it’s not about being PC. Your clearly very ignorant to want to continue using the term “coloured”.

Are you in your 70s because if so I can understand why you may say it like my nan. Or maybe your just bloody obtuse and won’t be told!

It must be a class thing. I don't live in one of those areas where people go to the shops in their pyjamas.

I will post this again for anyone interested especially if you can share etc.

www.travellerstimes.org.uk/features/travellers-times-condemns-hostile-new-anti-traveller-laws