Miss Dickson Wright - what a nasty vicious racist woman she is!

[vivizone]

Well she fits in very well with the DM ethos.

Disgusting person

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2233958/One-Fat-Lady-race-row-Muslim-ghetto-jibe-The-Islamic-area-Leicester-frightened-says-TV-chef.html

I am from highfields which is the ghetto described in Leics and its not a bad place. in fact my mil wouldnt live anywhere else. I am muslim n asian btw.
There are a lot of places in this country and in Leics where I have been made to feel uncomfortable. Infact there are predominantly white areas which are no go areas for blacks n asians. Families subject to direct attacks because of race.

If we choose to build ghettos where we are safe and where people dont tut when you walk past. then that is our business. we pay our taxes and contribute to this society and can choose where and how we live. If that makes you uncomfortable then tough shit.

Go to another part of Leicester and you will see the regular 'demonstrations' held outside friday prayers,by people who quite clearly dont want to integrate with people like me. so why should we make the effort, or have to prove our contribution to society? I am entitled to an easy lif, wherever that may be.

LRD,

If someone obviously lost called to you from a car asking directions, you would not reply? Why not? How antisocial.

And which "race" is she being "racist" against? She does not have much time for Islam, but that is not a race and most of MN does not have much time for religious people (sadly). And, saying that people who could not be bothered to learn English might not be able to understand English is, again, not racist. She is not saying or implying (unless you really stretch it) that any particular race is unable to understand English, merely that they choose not to.

rant over.

once your over the shock of being surrounded by scary muslims.. these areas are great for cheap beauticians (eyebrows n tache threaded for £2 anyone?), and wholesalers doing cheap deals on rice, oil, fruit n veg... anything.
plus you can barter for cheap deals...it really is like being abroad!

Reading some of the comments on the daily mail article, if I was asian/muslim, I would not want to integrate with the likes of them either. You cannot do right for doing wrong. And all this 'my country' bollocks. Are we talking about the whites in Australia, South Africa, America that have totally overtaken the county. Or (as usual) are we talking about the asians etc in this country.

I am fed up of the hypocricy. So what if Asians want to congregate together? How is it harming you? Or is it the fact that it's something you have no control over. And colonialism is over is it? Not in the minds of some, obviously...

well said chummymummy. It's this fucking sense of entitlement which drives me in sane.

Music,

It is a fundamental question in any country. How much immigration is good? Should immigrants be expected to assimilate at all (language, culture, integrate physically)? Is there such a thing as a national culture at all?

There are no easy answers. Clearly some immigration is a good thing. Clearly, at least to me, there is a limit about how fast it should be and how far it should go. It is certainly not racist to believe that it is "my country". As someone whose ancestors were Jewish and came to this country various generations ago, I still believe myself to be British and this to be "my" country because of the schools I went to, the nursery rhymes I learnt, the national monuments I have seen etc etc, and the language I speak and write. I think that it would be wrong if I were speaking Yiddish in a ghetto in East London. I think immigrants do have some duty to assimilate. Why is that a racist or unreasonable perspective?

So, non-white people should only speak when they're spoken to by white people who don't want to particularly speak to them anyway?

I am not asian and I am a woman and I would have ignored the buffoon too. It seems to be that she already had these fixed beliefs before she travelled to the 'hood'. So if an Asian/Muslim person feels threatened when they go to their place of worship, that's ok as we are allowed freedom of speech. But Asian/Muslim people are not allowed the 'freedom' to worship.

Oh do fuck off!

larry, I wouldn't reply to someone calling to me from a car because it doesn't sound terribly safe to me.

It's not antisocial - it's pretty basic!

If I realized she was lost, and she was asking politely, I would of course want to help. But I can easily understand why people may not have replied to her, too. If you can't, you must have lived an exceedingly sheltered life.

This is what bugs me here: her assumption that, of course, it was only her who might be scared, and no-one might be scared of her, or might find her accent strange and difficult to understand.

Btw, you really need to read what she actually said, instead of making up your own version and claiming indignantly that it's fine.

She said she thought these people wouldn't understand because they couldn't read English. Ie., she chose to write something offensive, but thought it was fine because the people she was talking about wouldn't understand it.

Nice, huh.

I have seen her on tv many times she comes across as pompous and I am quite sure that is how she is all the time

she made it quite clear in her remarks she felt superior to them do you not think others sense that do you think people do not pick up on racist vibes you do not have to be screaming xxx out at an edl march to be called a racist and for others to know you are

I agree with chummymummy about the Asian areas being very good for food shopping. Lower income white British people seem to eat crap food from shitty convenience stores. Asian communities otoh have shops filled with fresh fruit, veg and meat. Big contrast.

I'm not sure if I would or wouldn't want to live in these areas. To be honest we don't talk to our (white) neighbours in our middle class area where we are now, so that's not an issue. Some of the young Asian males seem to behave quite poorly, drug dealing and so on, but again I don't think this is any worse than you would get in a low-income white area.

But quite easy to be positive about it when you live in a nice detached house I suppose, and have visited a dozen Asian countries yourself, so you get some understanding of where these people have come from, rather than just perceiving them as 'foreign'. It's quite very easy to be snooty about white working class racists, but these matters are not simple really.

I understand your points but it is often very much the way it is said...in a very patronising and British Empire style way. (Don't get me started on the BE, who went into many countries and adjusted the country to fit themselves, not the other way around). A 'duty to assimilate'? Are immigrants Borg? (Star Trek reference) Immigration does indeed need to be treated really carefully but also with some sensitivity. Many people - British in particular - go to countries and do not bother to speak the language. They stick to little ex-pat enclaves. What is the difference?

That said, I feel it is helpful to feel less lost, as a foreigner (my family are from India) to be able to understand and relate.

So to speak of it being a 'duty' is unhelpful. To say that it would be great if we could also discuss the issues, would be better.

I witnessed a friend of a friend speaking in a a violent and hate-filled way (she spat) about the 'poles coming over here....' Her family came over from Ireland in a time when they were considered a plague and hideous notices were put up: 'No blacks, no dogs, no Irish.' They were once the hated immigrants. They forget.

Also few people resent the slavic or australian influx...and there are quite a number...so often it does pin down to colour and sadly, pure racism.

So yes, there needs to be dialogue but 'these immigrants' (horrible phraseology in itself) do not need to be talked down to in a high-handed British Empire style. Why not criticiss the ex-pats in Spain who barely speak a word of Spanish.

No, I do not consider any country is 'your' country because you live there, speak the language etc. The world is in flux and will increasingly be so.

(I was talking to Larry btw)

I would just like to point out, as some people have above, that 'ghetto' is defined as 'A usually poor section of a city inhabited primarily by people of the same race, religion, or social background, often because of discrimination' or 'an area where people from a given ethnic background or united in a given culture or religion live as a group'. It doesn't mean it is crime-ridden or rough. I don't click on the Fail, so I haven't read the article, but whatever else she is, Dickson-Wright is highly educated and is unlikely to be using the word in the modern slangy (always derogatory) sense.

She probably is racist, though. It is common enough. I heard an old lady on the bus last week saying 'Enoch was right'.
I was going to ask her where the rivers of blood were, then, but my boyfriend is trying to discourage me from getting into rows with old people on public transport...

This thread is unintentionally hilarious. A handful of you have spent the weekend screaming "racist" and then this morning we have someone who claims to be from those very "ghettos" who says she doesn't give a shiny shite and integration as far as she's concerned is "paying tax".

I'm also gobsmacked at the claims you'd never speak to anyone from a car. Really? What an enormous porkie-pie that is. Are you actually saying that if someone pulled up looking flustered and said "excuse me, I'm so sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for Main Street" that you'd ignore them?

I thought she made a pretty good point. I wouldn't give a fuck about 'integrating' with CDW either, she sounds like a tosser.

down - no, of course it's not a pork pie. And of course it'd depend whether I was in a tiny village or on a busy city centre street. You'd have to be pretty thick to want to speak to someone calling from a car in a city centre round where I grew up, especially as a young woman, trust me. I don't even like to do it round here although I'm sure it's safe - it's conditioning.

She (and/or the DM) makes a whole string of assumptions that are all annoying, ignorant and wrong! Even more annoyingly, she perpetuates so many stereotypes in such a few paragraphs that I end up not believing her account at all...

• An area where 'one in ten of the population is Muslim' (1/10!) is a 'ghetto'.
• She is unwelcome there - a 'pariah'.
• Muslims are unfriendly and unhelpful to white people.
• This is her country more than it is theirs.
• The traditional clothing that other people were wearing has something to do with her.
• The men didn't talk to her because she is a woman.
• Asian men don't talk to women they don't know.
• Muslim women always walk behind their husbands.
• The women didn't speak to her, therefore they don't speak English.
• Asians can't read English.
• The only good thing about Asian culture is the food.
• (And most outrageously of all) The link she makes between these people innocently walking along the streets, and 'radical Muslim preachers', 7/7 and terrorism.

The woman is - at best - shockingly ignorant for someone with her background, education and advantages. Personally, I'd say she's a frightened, scaremongering, publicity-hungry bigot.

'British in particular - go to countries and do not bother to speak the language. They stick to little ex-pat enclaves. What is the difference?'

if they are taking the nationality of the new country, they should do.

Dad lived abroad for a couple of years in his youth (national service) and made a point of learning the language and socialising with locals. He loved it.

DowntheRabid

You think CDW was simpering "excuse me" in a mild mannered way? When did she have the personality transplant?

For me, part of the issue is that multiculturalism is not spread throughout the country in an even way. I live in Central London and my DH is North African & Muslim so I am used to a very ethnically mixed neighbourhood. It comes as a bit of a surprise when we go to some parts of the country and see how much more homogeneous the population is.

I think that for some people it is a real shock when you got to an area that is very mixed and it takes them out of their comfort zone. Part of the reaction is fear of the unknown and falling back on stereotypes because you have no direct experience to draw on.

Sorry couldn't resist - this thread reminded me of this:-
Catherine Tate - Posh People sketch

Watch this from about 55 secs in

Absolute nonsense, OP, YABU. She is entitled to her opinion and if she was made to feel uncomfortable by certain group of people, she has every right to say so.

The point is though, Rollmops, that she wasn't "made to feel uncomfortable by certain group of people"... She was made to feel unconfortable by the fear and preconceptions inside her own head!

Eer, no. She was made feel uncomfortable by a group of people. On the street. Not in her head.
I can entirely sympathise with her as have had similar experience in the very heart of Kensington only 2 years ago. In a small ethnic shop on Ken High Street. Went in to buy fruit and was treated like a dirt by the shopkeepers. They stared at me with such hatred and disgust that it absolutely stunned me and ignored my questions completely. Shocking experience. Oh, they also sold posters of Osama Bin Laden. How interesting is that.
It wasn't in my 'head'.

Oh, and before the harpies fly in with cultural differences etc, I was dressed in a long winter coat and hat so fully 'covered'. I was polite and wanted to buy their bleeping merchandise.