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”.

I've googled it and re read the post you claim the poster is whitesplaining...

Congrats.

I thought this was a balanced comment.

Whitesplaining isn’t it on this one and shouldn’t be used to shut down conversation.

It’s a shame that on this thread:

There are those ridiculing white people and trying to silence and exclude them automatically thinking that sharing an experience is trying to belittle the experiences of racism by black/brown people.

There are those repeatedly not willing to learn the difference between prejudice and racism which then exasperates people who have truly experienced racism.

To those who day white people can't experience racism, you're wrong.

I look white. My ancestors were not white, my ethnicity is Romany Gypsy. I experience racism on a regular basis and you can't tell me otherwise.

@Brideandprejudice if you look white how do people know you aren’t?
If I recall correctly you mentioned your accent gives it away?

The irony of others saying white people are distracting from others' racist experiences as they rant on about white people never experiencing racism.

It's less common and often less severe. It still happens sometimes. Let people speak of they want to. Ignore the posts you don't like.

Anyone can be or experience racism. If it was all prejudice + power does that mean a blank person can never be racist towards an Asian person?

Why must you insist on responding to me if you won't answer any questions. You "didn't have the energy" to respond 10 pages ago and yet here you are.

How dare you ask someone that question. Would you ask the same to a person who is light skin black?

Well I know how light skinned black people are identified, by their skin.

I was simply wondering how people know you aren’t white & if it’s when they discover you aren’t that the racism kicks in.

Lots of people answered your question & it should have become glaringly obvious to you over time but you’ve somehow taken a personal offence to me. It’s just a discussion. No need for anything to become personal.

So if I was white then all of the things I've experienced are not racism, that's what you're saying?

So when I was asked last weekend to either pay first or leave at a restaurant, and when pressed the manager admitted that it's because of my ethnicity, that wasn't racism?

How about when I turned up to watch a film and the cinema security wouldn't let me through the door because they weren't "allowing any travellers in that day" was that not racism either?

@Daydreamsinsantafe what races are (implicitly) allowed to post an experience of racism that ticks your boxes?

I think there's a difference if you have the capability of being seen as white. It's right that you shouldn't have to change yourself at all to be accepted and it's awful what some groups have to go through. But I will never ever have the option to disguise myself out of racism. I could dress differently, have an impeccable non-othering accent, adopt mannerisms, religion or behaviour that 'fits in'. But my face will always be other in a world that was built by white people for white people. I find it odd that people that could pass for white can't see it? I'm quite light skinned compared to other people of my ethnicity and I can see and understand the privilege I have from that. Sometimes I experience hostility from people that are darker skinned than me but it is so far away from racism it's offensive to attempt to talk about it on a thread like this. I don't understand how people can't see the difference?

I can never escape racism by my choice. I have to rely on others to not treat me differently or abusively. People that have the potential to fit in by putting on a voice or wearing different clothes or changing their name aren't going to experience the same kind of hardships as someone who has their race written all over their face.

People that have the potential to fit in by putting on a voice or wearing different clothes or changing their name aren't going to experience the same kind of hardships as someone who has their race written all over their face.

That's 100% true but the nobody has said anything else. Nobody has said tried to measure or compare experiences except those mandating who is allowed to experience racism.

Of course there are varying severities and some people will never be able to hide their background or ethnicity in the way others can... But... nobody disputes this...
all they're saying is racism is not exclusively perpetrated by white peoples with non-white victims.

So because I can hide my race and be accepted I'm somehow better off? I disagree. There's nothing more degrading than having to pretend you're not who you are just to be able to live a normal life. That's not a bloody privilege.

@loopyfruit why are you asking me?
People can post whatever they want but some of it is racism and some isn’t. Is that not explicit?

@Brideandprejudice Are you an Irish traveller or Roma and am I right in thinking the two are very different?

@blodbav people are saying it’s the same.

“so because I can hide my race and be accepted I’m somehow better off?”

I am a lighter skinned black person with some more European features and that dilutes some racism that darker skinned people face. Apparently white skin, to some, makes zero difference.

So because I can hide my race and be accepted I'm somehow better off? I disagree. There's nothing more degrading than having to pretend you're not who you are just to be able to live a normal life. That's not a bloody privilege.

I disagree. If I could hide my race, I would do it. There are more degrading things than having to 'pretend you're not who you are.' One of them is to be insulted because of your race. Personally, I find that degrading.

You are not, in fact, 'pretending to be not who you are' by adopting a different speaking voice or by dressing differently. People do this regularly, according to the situation they find themselves in.

You would dress differently for a wedding, for example. It doesn't mean you are pretending to be not who you are, it means you are trying to fit in. Why can't you do this for a restaurant, or in any other setting?

You are better off if you can hide your race. Some of us can't.

And I’ll use the word privilege so others ms can see how admittance of it won’t end my life on the spot.
My light brown skin affords me some privilege.

@Aquilegia23 they definitely would hide it if it meant their safety and sometimes that’s what it can amount to.

It is not at all explicit. You have taken umbrage with some of these posts for not meeting your criteria, but not said which ones, (other than the ginger hair thing that has been done to death).

Please, break it down for me, explicitly.

I'm a Romany gypsy and yes the two are entirely different and it's very frustrating how we have been grouped by the rest of society.

He/she probably won't answer. Has done this throughout the thread, trying to discredit people but won't back anything up.

@loopyfruit they don’t meet lots of peoples criteria and further back someone gives a list of examples yet here you are tap dancing with me.

@Brideandprejudice yet you won’t ’back up’ how the constant racism you face occurs when no one even knows you are Roma.
That in itself implies everything is fine until the revelation that you aren’t white. So the whiteness is ok? Were you to conceal the truth all would be well?