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

[chummymummy]

None of us were there Thats true.

I am from there, Leicester is my hometown and I love it. Abbey park, Rossas chips, Melton Road... the whole lot. These so called immigrants care about it enough to defend it from the EDL every time they pop by.

I resent the negative vibe she has put out about my city. I accept that she saw lots of people in religious or cultural clothing. I dont accept that she saw lots of minion wives trailing their husbands. In my whole life , I have only seen 1 elderly couple do this. And even she looks like she cant be arsed to catch up.

I also resent the assumption that we are all immigrants just because we wear traditional clothes. I wear western clothes in the winter and asian in the summer because of comfort. It is as simple as that. It doesnt mean I am sticking two fingers up at the western world.

Nobody sees the transition made by non whites when they come to this country. There are people in various stages of transition, third generation British Nationals to people who arrived here yesterday. Those who are fully integrated and those who aren't. Who do we have to prove ourselves to and more importantly why? If you live in France and decide to cook full english every sunday, does it mean you're not fully integrated?

The thing is it easier for CDW to tell herself that someone didnt speak to her because of their culture, rather then that they just dont like the look of her. The people she encountered may have been exceptionally rude, and she could have said that rather then bring it to race.

As for saying that we cant read english, well that is bulls*it and everyone knows it. Its like me saying that she wont be interested in this thread because its not dipped in lard and deep fried.

[Haberdashery]

While I see that expecting people to integrate and learn the language of the country they call home isn't racist, I think it is incredibly racist, not to mention extremely ignorant, to insinuate that they can't be bothered to do so (the rubbish about being surprised the people she was talking about could read it).

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

I wonder if CDW would have argued the same lack of willingness to integrate about an Italian friend of my parents whose mother never learnt English properly despite 50 years in the UK?

[flow4]

Applauds chummymummy < :)

[nailak]

"As for her "interpretation", I think that is how most people would feel.

only racist people imo. The people I know wouldn't feel like that

"There is nothing racist about expecting immigrants to attempt to integrate up to a point or to try and learn the mother tongue of the country in which they choose to live."

There is something racist about asssuming ppeople who dress a certain way

1. are not integrated, I mean you know nothing else about them! You don't know if they work, if they study, if they volunteer, etc, I mean I dress in that way, I believe myself to be "integrated" How can I not be integrated, I mean this is my country, I was born here, went to school here, had my kids here.
   
   2)They cannot speak English If they did not speak, how does she know they could not speak English?
   
   
2. This is the country they have chosen to live in. I was born here, so were a lot of women with brown skin who cover. My choice to live here is no different to yours. Why would i emigrate? That would cost money I don't have, skill I don't have (like speaking a language apart from ENglish) and anyway I don't want to.
   
   "There is also nothing racist about being against "multiculturalism". They are views about how all people should live in an adopted country."
   
   This is NOT MY FUCKIN ADOPTED COUNTRY THIS IS MY HOME
   
   It is racist to think that for all people who are not white this is their "adopted" country, and it is racist to think that all women wearing "burqa" as some like to call it, which is actually abayah/jilbaab are non white british.

[nailak]

by the way, I never felt like an outsider, like I was different, not part of society etc, until people with these stupid views started telling me I was. Like when I saw stuff on the news etc.

It is a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy.

creating an "us" and "them" situation where previously this didnt exist, I didn't question my Britishness, My englishness, that this was my home. That how I choose to dress can't change that.

I have been told by people that "I can never be properly British" and stuff like that. Well what am I supposed to do? beg or say fuck off, if British society doesn't want me, if they view me a some forrinner, who they have done a favour by letting me in to "Their" country, and I have to follow "their" traditions, as for some unfathomable reason this is not my country as much as theirs, then Fuck you, Fuck off, who wants to be fuckin British.

[Frontpaw]

Nailak - are you ok? Ive never heard you so cross, and we've beem on a few threads like this together! Hope you're ok, that's all!

[chummymummy]

I know exactly what you mean Nailak. I never questioned my 'Britishness' until it was questioned by others. All through my childhood, teens and early twenties this was never an issue. It has become one of late. It is like a real kick in the guts.

The sad thing is my kids have that innocence that I once did. They see themselves as english, and if people pass this shit down the generations then they will find themselves in the same situation we are.I had better just start scrubbing that brown right out of their skins.

I am encouraged by all the reasonable voices I hear on mumsnet. That out of a lot of people who have posted, the majority understand the basic notion that you cant judge a whole race or community based on an isolated incident. You cant tell us what to do, where to live and what to wear because we are easier to bear in small doses, and that we become dangerous and threatening when we congregate.

Focus on the positives... I keep telling myself!

[Frontpaw]

Applause ((()))
Thats me clapping!

[larrygrylls]

Nailak,

Clearly you are British. I totally agree with you that you cannot judge people solely by the way they dress. People should be able to dress how they like within reason (I don't think anyone would allow people going around naked or carrying weapons, for instance, whatever their national or religious traditions). There is something a little strange to most people of most nationalities to the complete covering of the face. It is denying human interaction and is very much against most national cultures (except, in my view, deeply patriarchal and misogynistic ones).

But it is not so simple as you (or me, as a British Jew) feeling British. It is about how our communities behave in toto. When the immigration is too fast and uncontrolled and you have whole communities where English is a second language and that practice traditions a long way away from what is the norm in this country, it is bound to create fear and resentment. And that is leaving aside the small (ish) minority of muslims who actively detest the UK and fight against it, whilst still living here.

Although Miss Dickson Wright may be stating what is politically unacceptable to say and getting the dog whistle backlash from the politically correct, she is stating an uncomfortable truth that many feel but would never say. Well educated people like you need to work to bridge this gulf and also to stop young girls of 17/18 being brought in as "wives" (aka domestic drudges) without a word of English or any intention of ever learning it. There have been many waves of immigrants successfully assimilated into the UK but it does take work from both sides to do so.

[FreudiansSlipper]

larry you are so patronising. what cdw said was racist simple as that what has being pc or not go to do with it. that line is trotted out again and agian when racism rears its ugly head

her view was very much them and us, i know excatly how these people are because what excatly because they are brown, they are muslim, the are from pakistan

[Bloodyscissors]

She is right. There are "no go" areas that have turned into ghettos where white people are made to feel uncomfortable. I have been racially abused and intimidated whilst walking in a certain part of East London as a single white female on my own.

It seems to me, especially with the latest case in which the report about paedophiles in certain communities was toned down, that some obvious truths are dismissed because of fear of offending certain communities. This is not going to end well.

[nailak]

I have been racially abused too. But when I am it is the fault of immigrants for causing fear and suspicion? They have to expect it?

Even if I an not an immigrant?

I don't understand why communities with different traditions and languages would cause fear and resentment actually?

For me it is a wonderful thing, a blessing to be able to live in a community with so many languages and cultures.

I don't know why people would be afraid?

We had lots of polish immigrants, we wasn't afraid, we welcomed them, I learnt some polish, visited poland, learnt to sing stor lat and say nazdrovije.

My sis in law came at 16 with no English, over 20 years later she is a strong independent women, she has worked as a childminder, she is very active helping her community in her own way, she establishes community saving circles and stuff. She has raised children who are integrated went to uni, work etc.

[nailak]

frontpaw thanks for caring, sometimes it gets too much. With people defending the indefensible. Making it ok, accepted, praise worthy even.

And I just get fed up of repeating myself.

The point is so I am clearly British, from talking to me you know. But if I was walking down the street behind Dh then what would you assume? And your assumptions that I should adapt the culture of my host country like I am a visitor in my own land or that I can't speak English or whatever would be justified?

[nailak]

You know what clearly plenty of people if they saw me would be suspicious and afraid and would think me to not be British or integrated, so I think ill stick to my ghetto where people don't think that of me.

I have a friend who is white and covers her husband is black, she wanted to move out of London, but the places she visited they weren't exactly made to feel welcome, so even though she hates London she is sticking to it.

It is your attitudes that creates ghettos.

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

Where I originally come from quite a few people would fail some of the integration test

Don't speak English in the street
Watch TV in another language
Don't support England at sport

Damn us Welsh we really should make an effort we've only being here for a thousands of years.

p.s. I still don't support England at Rugby despite living in England so I would fail the sports test!

[larrygrylls]

Chaz,

No they wouldn't. They are being Welsh in Wales. They are perfectly integrated. On the other hand, were there an area in London where the most heard language was Welsh, everyone went around in traditional welsh/gaelic dress and where a large number of the inhabitants could not speak English and had no interest in learning it, then that would be failing the integration test

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

Larry
I was being facetious.
Welsh speakers who live in England would speak Welsh to each other not English.

[nailak]

where is this place where people can not speak english and arent interested in learning it?

I live in Newham and most people are interested in learning it, the ESOL classes have massive waiting lists.

and why would wearing traditional dress mean they arent integrated?

[mignonette]

To be honest I'd not talk to Clarissa Dickhead Wright if she bumbled into my neighbourhood.

Because she has a history of ignorant racist comments and her food is all stodgy, literal reproductions of a cuisine and lifestyle very much stuck in a pseudo Edwardian past.

Oh, and Giles Coren and AA Gill revere her. That is a reason in itself and a whole other thread...

[FunnysInLaJardin]

I'm from Leicestershire and Leicester and Loughborough have some of the most well integrated communities in the UK I would have said. Certainly DH says in West Yorks where he grew up there is far more racial tension.

I used to like CDW, but that article shows her to be a prize twat

[ArtfulAardvark]

When I was younger I used to be incandescent with rage every time my grandfather used the word "blacks" but you know what its how times have changed that is how they grew up and, yes, maybe they should move with the times and moderate their language into a way that is acceptable to society in general I cut him slack because he was old and had no personal exposure to any other ethnicity because of the leafy white area he lived in.

I cannot count the amount of times DH has looked at a job to be told "Grandma doesnt speak english" despite grandma living here since the 70s - is that not equally unaccepable or is it ok because we are not talking about a white person.

I am so sick of the assumption that racism is a white thing, my Jamaican friend used to be hideously racist towards anyone asian and I have seen many a forum where asian lads have made the assumption that British girls are drunk slags.

I think it is equally unacceptable that British people live for decades in Spain without talking Spanish or making Spanish friends - if you move to another country you should have a responsibilty to integrate into the existing society not create your own.

[ArtfulAardvark]

Ive never really "got" the whole CDW thing though tbh - the Two Fat Ladies used to make me cringe when they were handling food wearing their jewellery and bright nail polish.

[mignonette]

Yes Artful. should have been called 'Two Fat Drunks who look like they do not wash their hands after using the toilet'

[Punkatheart]

Sending support and sympathy to Nailak. I am the daughter of an immigrant and have seen my poor mum try and fit in to the point where she almost denies her Indian roots. She came here at a time when abuse was prolific. I had some cries of 'paki' at school too - but it made me strong and proud of my cultural roots...but yes, Nailak, it can create an us and them feeling, which is counterproductive.

I also get very angry with certain attitudes, assumptions and repeating of Daily Mailisms.

Re tradtional dress - lots of people live in foreign countries and do not adopt the national dress. So what?