What’s the worst racist incident you have experienced?

[Hope54321]

I’ve had quite a few:

Students in secondary school have pulled my hijab off.

After the 9/11 a group of boys threw paper balls at me and shouted “Taliban” at me.

The day after a terror attack in London, a man pulled his window down and called me a dumb whore. There was no one else around.

Walking back from school, a man told me, “Go back to your own country”.

On my way to college, I got on the bus and a woman said, “I don’t know why you would want to draw attention to yourself by wearing that”.

Yes quite. I’m all for balance but things like being ginger and suffering abuse from it has nothing to do with racism, respectfully.

I've had lots when I was younger but the one that shocked me the most was when my manager told me I should count myself lucky that I didn't just end up being a taxi drivers wife. For reference nobody in my family is a taxi driver- they're all doctors, directors and financiers.

@Tillsforthrills so all along you agreed with me? I’m perplexed to say the least

Some of these are just awful.. let's hope this person doesn't set an example to children

Yes on a lot of things but there’s a few things I don’t agree with you on.

@Tillsforthrills I’ve said there are posters who are talking about experiences unrelated to racism.
I chose not to clarify who in particular because people are sharing experiences that are painful to them & so to do so would be to diminish. Painful but not racism & some purely wanted to make this about them.
As @pedropony76 said, hugely insulting when racism is really your load to carry.

My ex partner & I were getting on a bus at night going to his place I was pregnant at the time & we got roared at from across a car park,there was the n word,told to get back on his banana boat home,monkey,gorilla. We got the usual looks,stares,under the breath comments but this one really got to me.

That’s horrendous.

A white person poking fun at a white ginger person isn’t racism, I’m not attacking you, just making you aware and I don’t mean that in a condescending way.

Oh I see, I understand. Apologies.

Being told by ds that his friend is no longer his friend as his mum doesn’t want him mixing with gangsters. He asked why she thought that and he replied well your dad is Albanian.

That is one example of many. As h said we can deal with the stuff thrown at us but when it involves the children we are angry. And yes I wholeheartedly believe my children are not involved in parties and play dates because of where their father was born.

As for the police they are just irritating but the trick is to not them rile you. Although when they followed h home and then sat outside for half an hour I really wanted to ask why.

Racism is not just a skin tone issue but it can be based upon national identity and or national origins.

It doesn’t count because, as explained a multitude of times now, racism = prejudice + institutional power.

Your white friends encountered prejudice. White people who live in non white majority countries still enjoy white privilege

I have a white South African colleague who complained bitterly during a water shortage in Cape Town that all the Black people in the townships were receiving water before the white people living in the suburbs. I asked him if he’d like to switch places with the people in the townships since they all had it so good?

There are a people on this thread who need to who understand the following do not fall under racism: being called names because you are ginger, Asian men calling you names in the street, the poster whose friend slept with/was targeted by Pakistani men (sexual assault does not = racism). I could go on but I won’t bother as there will just another onslaught of whataboutery.

@MrsPear the term for this type of prejudice is xenophobia.

My daughter was mugged on a bus by three Asian girls. They stole a ring and bent her fingers back. She was shook up but basically ok.

I asked the copper if he thought this was racially motivated - he said no he didn't think that. I wonder if it was the other way around what he would have said.

Completely agree.

Why not? Doesn't it exist?

@SisterSatan I was an English person growing up in Scotland and I got quite a lot of that too.

Reverse racism? Isn't racism just that?

Being called a ‘jock cunt’ or a ‘scotch bitch’ whilst on holiday in England as a young teen. So white people can experience racism.

@BashfulClam English & Scottish people are of the same race. An ingroup prejudice is Xenophobic not racist.

This thread seems to be divisive based on colour
Some posters are dismissing the experience of others because it does not meet their agenda. But why then post on a forum which is open to everyone? Surely there is wisdom in reflecting upon one another’s experiences?

I have read all of the incidences on this thread. I feel angry that they all happened & in some ways it has really opened my eyes. Yet seems some posters want to draw lines as to when it is and isn't racism, talking about removing posts, instead of allowing an open forum. So where is that line? To be extremely crude, is it with people who are: black, Asian, Chinese, Eastern European, mixed race, Irish, white British, white Scottish? (Etc.) Several religions have been mentioned too, Muslin, Jewish, Sikh. Why do you think it's acceptable to draw hard lines on who can and can't be affected by an individual racist experience of being singled out for what you look like or are identified as? Other than the posts regarding ginger hair, which is extremely cruel bullying but not racist - clearly you're talking more widely about some of the people identified in the groups above as not being capable of experiencing a racist incident. The post asks for your personal worst racist experience, nothing more or less.

@oohfancythat people keep responding to you and you keep ignoring it to say the same thing😂

So many things mentioned on the thread are not because of racism. They are still horrible experiences and looking at recent comments, there have been examples of xenophobia. That doesn’t mean it’s okay or it doesn’t matter. It simply isn’t racism and is xenophobia/discrimination/prejudice/racial prejudice etc. Why are you so bothered that people are educating those and giving them the right terms and clearly pointing out that the example mentioned isn’t an experience of racism.

If I came on here with a story but it wasn’t actually because of racism but was actually xenophobia. I’d be happy to know the correct term so not sure what the problem is?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that issues between Irish/Catholics/Protestants and also English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish are obviously awful and also violent at times and obviously upsetting, these are examples of xenophobia and discrimination rather than racism.
This doesn't mean it is any less upsetting for the person on the receiving end of these insults. It also doesn't mean that the issues that give rise to these insults are any less important.

However, in order to tackle racism, people need to recognise what it is in order to call it out. It is impossible to fix a problem that is undefined or that people refuse to recognise or that people minimise with "whataboutery"

Please read my comments about what I experienced as a white person. Being told to get out & that I can't eat in a certain place or shop somewhere etc because of my race is the very definition of racism. I discovered the tables turn when you are the minority.