To think there should be a site called "Racist Mumsnet"

[GothAnneGeddes]

That way, all the bigots who've been cluttering up Mumsnet of late could post there and spare the rest of us from reading their biogoted stupidity.

AIBU?

They should include a place where they can list all the black people they know, too.

MadSleighLady I grew up in a small village in the arse end of nowhere during the seventies and if I know that some of the shit that is posted is unacceptable then everyone should.

It's not where they come from it's the vile racist drivel that they've been brought up to believe is true.

I blame the parents

MadSleighLady I hope there isn't some implied anti-rural sentiment in your post? Where do these people live to hold such backwards views?

Do you remember some idiot at the DM saying how the most unrealistic part of the Olympic opening ceremony was the representation of a middle class mixed-race couple with two kids getting rid for a Sat night? And I remember thinking where can he possibly live because I live in a pretty little cottage in a small town in rural Derybshire and I can spit on three families meeting that description from my front door (perhaps that isn't the best way to make that point - hmmm)?

Honestly, I realise London is a lot more multicultural than the rest of Britain, but the rest of the country is catching up fast. Fear of the unknown has less to do with it for a lot of people than fear of the semi-known and blindly disliked. The BNPs biggest electoral successes have all been in London after all.

ready obviously not rid!

I was thinking of smaller cities and towns I've known, actually. But yes, it can be learnt anywhere. I imagine it's just harder to sustain bigotry in a place with a lot of existing multiculturalism - you'd either get used to it or move out.

It makes me sad that people feel threatened by other cultures/immigration enough to make stupid comments. Britain is a very open and welcoming society for the most part. I just think it's unfortunate that immigration has coincided with a dilution of what 'being British' means to people and people link the loss of their own cultural identity with the rise in multiculturalism. It reflects their own insecurity IMO.

Actually from what I've picked up from other threads it seems that the most vocal bigots come from multicultural areas and are fighting out about what they perceive is an erosion of their 'culture'. I've had closure of local butchers and greengrocers and replacement with 'ethnic' suppliers cited as an example.

I didn't understand the issue if I'm honest. Veg is veg, fruit is fruit, etc

While I love the idea, I've got to agree with pav really. These are people's real feelings and for some people discussing it is actually going to matter. Probably not for the OP.

I'm not a racist, but (oh, come on, I had to do this) I did learn something on one of the threads, because someone happened to know the figures for how much we export to the EU and how much (more) we import back, and that was really interesting. So now I know one way to make a better pro-Europe argument. I like that.

I would imagine for all of the people who post, there are also lots of others who mostly read and who're interested.

Jins, I think those are the probably areas I am characterizing as "relatively unmixed" (to London). The towns I was thinking of were all the north western satellite towns around Manchester, near where I used to live. They've got mixed populations, all right, but taken as a whole the town centres are about as forrin as pie and chips in a barm - certainly far less mixed than your average working district of London. And yet they have really powerful recent histories of tension, and London doesn't (or at least not for the same reasons!)

I suspect it's the very fact that people can focus in on a single greengrocers that sets up the conditions for bigots to get themselves het up. Where every second shop is run by someone of a different ethnicity, it's just not possible to target changes in that way.

So maybe Penelope's phrase is better and it's "fear of the semi-known".

*probably the areas

YANBU
..some people on here are raging racists. thanks mumsnet for reminding me that just like offline sometimes the only thing I have in common with someone else is that we are both mothers and I really don't like them, or their backwards views.

I like the idea of non-racist trolls popping over to Racist Mumsnet to do a bit of stirring.

There are places in the UK that are not used to multiculturalism... I live in Norfolk, and have encountered quite a lot of racism over the years... not very overt stuff, but a lot of subtle ignorance. A little bit of the 'the country is going to shit, because all the jobs are given to the immigrants' type spiel. My DP is from London, and he was the only white male working in the Sainsburys bakery, yet when he moved to Norwich Morrisons, only white people worked there (most of them also had grown up in Norfolk).
I also went to school locally, and growing up had very little contact with people that weren't white. The difference like another poster has mentioned is to do with upbringing - my parents never had a strange view of these things, and neither did we.

I will say I haven't seen much racism on here, maybe I am not on the right threads... Netmums however....

How do you get people to change their mind and consider alternatives if you segregate them off with people who only agree with them and reinforce their opinion rather than engaging with them and challenging their beliefs with logic, reason and intelligence?

YABU not for disliking racism, but for not seeking productive ways to deal with it.

I'm not an immigrant and neither is DH or DS but our DD is. All because I gave birth to her whilst living overseas. So on the census her and all the other thousands of people born overseas to British parents (e.g. children born in Germany to service personel) are included in this figure. Something that makes me laugh when my FIL starts banging on about bloody immigrants coming over here and getting benefits and houses etc. It's always good to see the look on his face when I gently remind him his GD is an immigrant.

YANBU!

MN, please can we have a little fenced-off section for scared and angry racists? It could be white type on a white background so they don't get shocked or offended.

Further topic suggestions:

It's now a FACT vat white people are a minorittie in Britin.
I cant be racist becaus my cleaner is Polish.
Its all they're fault for not integrayting and lerning to speak proper english.

I will never get over seeing a post on facebook (this was about six months ago now!) saying all immigrants should be hanged!! With loads of likes :(

I am bloody terrified that there are people who think like this in the UK. And I'm white british!!

The scariest bit I got out of those threads was the assertion that the Daily Mail reflects the opinion of the vast majority of the British people. Please tell me this is not true!

Beware - The Though Police will be here soon and then you won't be able to THINK let alone have opinions.

what RedToothbrush said.
It's extremely dangerous to ridicule people's beliefs rather than trying to engage and educate them. Dialogue might encourage people to change their minds. Pointing at them and calling them 'racist' is simply likely to alienate and radicalise them.
We do need to have a nationwide conversation about immigration because there are lots of problems with our current system. My friend worked in the Immigration Advisory Service for years, mainly working with individuals who had fled persecution. Our system is currently letting down a lot of immigrants but when any attempt to discuss immigration is automatically jumped on, nothing is going to improve

There should also be a site for stupid OP's

Can there be a Disablist corner on that site too

I have deliberately stayed off that thread because the title irritated me. My immediate thought about it was "so what"? Who cares what colour people's skin is?

On the other hand if its been in the news (why oh why) then I can see why people want to chat.

My only response would be "why should it matter"?