To say it's mainly a 'white voice' on this forum?

[Wonderingg]

I have been on the site for a few weeks now. I have noticed that it is possibly dominated by white women. If I am wrong please let me know, however I personally do not hear any black or asian voices. Or anything relating to those communities whether it be food, culture, clothing, traditions or issues specifically found in those communities.

How can you tell?

You might be right. I am white. But I'm probably not a very strong voice on this forum.

I can't tell by the posts what race others are but maybe that is because they are white and so am I - not sure.

how do you know?

I think you're not looking very hard.

Well if you've only been around a few weeks, probably 90% of what you've read concerns Christmas or in-laws, with a few LTBs thrown in.

Pretty universal issues for the Uk in December I'd say, definitely not a 'white' thing

There are lots of posters who, when they identify themselves, are Asian or Black. However, if someone is talking about, for example, early waking or the best pram, who would know?

There are specific threads, I'm thinking of the Muslim tearoom, where you might find more people talking about their communities' religion/culture.

86% of the uk is white, so not really surprising is it?

You are probably right because it is primarily a UK site and the majority population of the UK is white but as to whether you are definitely right, I can't say because I haven't seen the ethnic group tick box on here and only very few posters have mentioned their ethnicity on here, on threads where it might be relevant to discussion.

The Crumpet Queen speaks sense.

I agree with Crumpet, the demographics of the UK are mostly white. But I agree that sometimes posters say very "privileged" things that subconsciously imply they are white. There are certainly black voices on the feminist boards as people openly mention it about themselves but generally how can you tell?

I would imagine so, purely because it is mainly a UK voice too, and given that the UK is mainly white.

There's a graph floating around the net, which I can't find at the minute, showing how people tend to massively overestimate how many British people are black (and Muslim, and other groups the wankers would like us all to imagine we're overwhelmed by ).

There are posters who I know aren't white but I think it is most likely you are right.

Why it would be 'unreasonable' I am less sure; it seems pretty straightforward to me, unless you think there's some nefarious reason why the demographics of a site would reflect the demographics of the country from which the majority of its posters come.

So fucking what anyway? I hate threads like this.

According to the 2011 census, only about 15% of the UK population is other than white British. So, the whole of the UK is "mainly a 'white voice'". Therefore, YANBU to say so. YABU if you are saying it is a problem.

There certainly are black and Asian people here. I'm not sure how you'd work out (across the whole of MN) if there are disproportionately few. I guess that there are disproportionately few men, however. Is that a problem?

Actually, thinking about it, the only blogs I've been arsed to read recently were Meera Syal's and the one by a young Roma man. Where you can see people's ethnicity, maybe the diversity of MN is more apparent.

I like the fact that this site is colour blind.

I think you're probably right, given the ethnic make-up of Britain.

Why do you ask, out of interest?

How can you tell?

I don't have a clue what colour people are, unless they say. Most don't, as it's not (usually) relevant.

I like the fact that this site is colour blind.

That is a good point. I might have spoiled that with my post - was just trying to be helpful and answer the question!

graph from 2009

How do you know someone's colour on an anonymous forum.
I've notice a fair few non white posters as well as posters who are married to someone from a different ethnic group. It only comes up when the relevence of a subject needs it.

Well people tend not to announce their ethnicity before posting. It would be quite odd if we did.

But, as LRD says, what else would you expect in the uk?

I don't know how you would know though, tbh.
I am white, my DH is black, my DCs are mixed race obviously
But if we all posted on here, I doubt you would be able to guess who was what ethnicity.

"I personally do not hear any black or asian voices"

And what do we sound like I wonder? Do you imagine me sitting here donned in a sari with my tikka masala chanting "Hare Krishna" or something....

ffs

How can you tell?

I am not white but my food, culture, clothing, traditions or issues are the same as my white next door neighbour.

I wouldn't want anyone to assume these things are different for me just because of the shade of my skin. And I would be quite offended if they did assume this.

However MN is predominantly a UK site and as the majority of women in the UK are white I would expect the same proportion of mumsnetters to be white.

So what?

The vast majority of mumsnetters are female. Yet females comprise only 50% of the UK population.

So what?

What is your point OP?

YANBU to say MN is predominately white, so I guess it has a predominately 'white voice' whatever that means.

But again I say "so what?"