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”.

You very clearly told people to use a certain definition. I didn't tell anyone to do anything, merely pointed out that your definition was obsolete. We can't have any meaningful discussion without knowing the terminology, if you want a mumsnet bunfight count me out.

From what I'm reading atm, please excuse my beginner status, it is true that black people cannot be racist, in a similar way that women cannot be sexist. The keyword is power and who has (had) it. Racism = prejudice + power. However according to my understanding so far, anybody from any ethnic background can be discriminatory. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong. These things are important for me as a white person to understand.

I don’t like this gate keeping, whether someone faced prejudice or racism at that point in time they were scared and upset. It’s divisive. There is truth to the idea that being in a minority group means there is a different heft to what you face but anybody who has horrible shit shouted at them or was assaulted has my sympathy, do we really need to diminish someone else’s experience right here and right now?

Instead of just sharing these horrendous experiences there is now an argument about what counts as racism. I absolutely do believe women who’ve been called white slags, I’m asian, I’ve met that type of man (don’t know anyone personally or related to anyone who would do that shit but definitely know the type).

I'm white but I'm Jewish. Does that count?

I did not clearly tell you to use one definition. I pointed out that another definition have been added, (see point about critical race theory) however the original definitions have not been wiped off. They are still there. They are not obsolete. Even if you have decided to sticks to the one definition that suits your ( also racist) narrative by declaring black people cannot be racist, (when quite clearly they can). It does not mean that you get to wipe out other people's experiences by ignoring the other, still valid, definitions.

I do not like the gate keeping either, and it strikes me that it is an attempt to build a system of power.

You might want to consider what power is, how it is created and how it manifests.

If you have a bunch of men or boys of whatever skin colour hurling abuse at a lone woman or girl of an opposite skin colour - it is striking that so much of these are males against females - then you very much have a system of power.

Most of all, power lies in an identifiable group telling another identifiable group what they can and can’t talk about and what they should call things.

I worked with a woman two years ago. I am from a mixed background but not many people can tell, my gran is Nigerian. This I shit you not was a woman job sharing with me in the NHS saying this in work. Some of her delightful comments below:

Harry and Megan’s kid would look like a gorilla and look disgusting

all Indian people were dirty

she saw a black person and called him ‘one of them ugh’

all mixed race people were thieves

this was reported to management and I was told leave it alone because it would be horrible for her to be disciplined about it. I thought what about the fact my family experienced racism where I grew up, why is not horrible for me?! Why is it ok for the rest of our dept to hear!!!

I kid you not I will never get over that experience as long as I live.

Sorry I mean all
of it is bad but get over the fact that I was told to shut up.

@Applesonstairs I can't believe you were told to leave it, that's outrageous!

@hatchyu I know!! They are only a couple of her comments. It was awful!

I've already asked this once but the poster who said it won't tell me. Now there's a gang of people agreeing and nobody will say. Who is this about?

Not directly against me, but the worst I've ever experienced was when my friend's dad died in police custody. Not only were the police supremely unbothered, but I lost count of the amount of comments minimising or justifying it along the lines of 'angry black man'. Literally, someone died. Nothing I've ever personally experienced approaches that.

I suffered racism in college. My classmate told me that my lunch looked like sh#t, mocked my accent and told me that I need to learn to talk properly (I speak perfect English) , told if anything goes missing they will “know its me” who done it.

I was humiliated and excluded, spoken to like I was sh#t, I was likened to other people of colour on TV. Called food names (food from my native country). I was likened to other people of colour that they had met.

They all believed what they were saying was an acceptable joke as they had spoken to other people of colour so possibly couldn’t be racist.

The saddest bit is when my work was marked they all passed with flying colours and I failed. I had to have all my work remarked my an external person and guess what?!! The tutor had wrongly marked my work.

Years later the awareness around racism has increased. Today they would not be able to do or stay what they did. I pray that these racists have had their comeuppance.

Thank you for responding to this.

Thankfully most people won't have had to explain to small children why they can't go in the soft play when all the other children can. But you know, some silly TV program means racism is fine.

FYI to @FrasierCraneDay that show was mainly based on Irish travellers. Not Romany gypsies.

Some of the posters on here remind me of Gary Lineker's recent disclosure about the racism he faced because he tans easily!

I have several Jewish friends and the racism that they have experienced is the worst I have ever come across. Any Jewish meeting place needs to be protected by security guards for fear of attack.

Many have had whole sections of their family murdered because of their race. The Nazis killed because of ethnicity not religion.

But I guess this doesn’t count as their skin is white and so it’s just ‘racial prejudice’.

Could you define racism and who it doesn’t apply to specifically?

For @Daydreamsinsantafe too

Some people don’t seem to know the difference between prejudice and abuse - and racism.

Jewish male

As a child, I was spat at from the second deck of the bus, had someone approach me in the street and punch me in the face, chased with a knife.

As a young adult, had people joke about Jewish noses not knowing I am Jewish and, on another occasion, get up from a group at a party and walk away upon finding out I am Jewish. Been threatened on a train by stranger because I looked Jewish.

But regularly told by others that I am a privileged white male

I have Jewish friends who's families have left France because they feel so threatened.

@Hope54321 that is just heartbreaking.

@Simcha the two things aren't mutually exclusive though. You can be Jewish and experience abuse due to this and you can also be a privileged white male at the same time. Perhaps you aren't aware of the many privileges you are provided each and every day, but they exist.

I agree that some instances described by white posters are more specifically prejudice than racism, but not all. Some describe racism.

There seems to be a group determined to do the usual shouting down any white posters, mocking them, diminishing their experiences, outright calling them liars with great imaginations or implying they’re racist etc.

The contempt for them goes beyond trying to explain the difference between explaining the difference between prejudice and racism, it’s palpable and verges on hateful.