To report friend to FB for photo of her blacked up?

[Greyhound]

I'm really shocked - cousin of mine has pic of herself on Facebook blacked up. She is white. The picture is of her at a fancy dress party - she has covered her face in dark brown stage make up and is wearing an "Afro" wig and Rastafarian style striped hat.

Her husband is also blacked up.

Yes, yes, and as I have already pointed out to you, dear, if you're so desperate to eliminate racism in the UK why not pop along to the Rotheram threads and give a nice big shout out to the white victims of Pakistani grooming gangs.

Hands camomile tea and brownie to Buffy.

I would, however, take the views of a minority person regarding minority issues as a great deal more valid than those of a white liberal hand-wringer

As I mentioned, I've been a minority in most of the countries i lived in, either through ethnicity, religion or culture.

I don't want to be listened to for the colour of my skin any more than I want others telling me what to think.

Take this thread:

"I'm going to report my cousin to FB for dressing as a black person. AIBU?"

Some people: Yes
Some people: No
Some people: are we living in 1984?

I think the most interesting response was the last one.

Are the Thought Police among us?

I wouldn't be offended, but I accept that others might be. That's entirely their business and I respect it. I am entitled to think it inoffensive.

What does frustrate and amuse me in equal measures is the militant outcry of 'racist' I see over and over on these boards. Often from people who have not travelled very widely and are blissfully unaware of how incredibly tolerant and inclusive the UK is compared to many places I have lived.

The sneeringly dismissive 'are you scared of furriners?'- type remarks and other snide little put-downs when people don't toe the Mumsnet liberal line.

With not a scrap of irony that they are judging and belittling and people purely because they are different.

I admire the way the Buffy debates; her posts on this thread have been thoughtful and she has not been afraid to question her own attitudes; in turn, I have been provoked to have some interesting debates at home about my own.

And I think with that, I must now bow out as I have a deadline; please someone stage a Thread Intervention if I pop up on here one more time...

Yeah - bog off Monte! You've been far too calm, sensible and eloquent for this thread! You're showing us all up!

I don't agree with the not seeing colour argument - you can acknowledge/see someone's race without it being racist, in my opinion.

I keep bringing this up because you insist upon rather conveniently deciding who and who is not subject to the horrors of racism. And that is because some stories do not fit neatly into your multiculturalism-loving ideologies. You are an ideologue because you zealously espouse these ideologies despite them being about forty years out of date and disingenuously ignoring the fact that some things have, you know, changed quite a lot for the better.

that's a rather strange take on Buffy's posts, Pistol. Or should I just say her character?

I've learnt loads from this thread myself, thanks to Buffy and stance remains - if in doubt, don't. I wouldn't upset someone intentionally, so I won't be donning blackface any time soon.

The problem I have with people like yourself is that you are desperate to be seen as achingly caring of women and minorities and women and minorities and women and...well, you get my drift - but when it comes down to a case like the Rotheram Pakistani abuse of young white girls, you are suddenly very silent on the subject of race. Here you are again, bleating that the only factors worth debating here are penises, maleness and class. Horse shit. Unless you have been living under a very dark, damp rock for the past twelve years you will have read articles by imams the length and breadth of the country bewailing the lack of moral leadership in our mosques which should be attempting to stamp out the beliefs of many that women are second class citizens and all non-Muslims are infidels without morals, and therefore easy game.

It is these cultural beliefs that have led gangs of Pakistani muslims to feel it is their right and duty to treat young, white, poor girls as dirty kuffar worthy of nothing but the worst kind of abuse. And it is the denial of these issues by the liberal Left that makes me sick. Yes, blacking up is racist and peurile, but as long as you are valiantly arguing for the love of minorities on threads like these whilst ignoring the race issues today in our Northern towns you will not get any respect for your views from me.

I have used the phrase moral hard-on here before

What a superb phrase ... I may well pinch that

What a sheer privilege to read your posts too, with their utter common sense and fairness. Somewhere or other a poster wrote rather snippily of you that "she doesn't speak for all coloured people" and while I realise nobody should do that, I can't help feeling it's perhaps a shame

I don't hate anyone, Buffy. What I despise is people returning again and again to the same themes whatever thread they bombast upon whilst ignoring the real issues today in cases like Rotheram and then going, all disingenous: 'But when did I say it wasn't about race?' You said explicitly upthread that the Rotheram abuse cases were about classism and misogyny. And that is horse shit.

OP here - I am at this thread!

I had no idea I would cause such a reaction... It has been interesting to read through the posts.

Never heard from my cousin but I see the controversial pic is no longer there.

I don't honestly think she is racist. Her DM is, though - one of her other daughters had a boyfriend who was Chinese and her mother was furious and demanded she end the relationship as she didn't approve of mixed marriages

Love the phrase "moral hard on".

To those who feel patronised at having their culture / race defended by other cultures / races, I do see what you mean. I sometimes find men who defend feminism a little condescending. However, one could argue that bigotry affects society as a whole and not just those it targets.

Peadophile White Catholic priests
Peadophile White Protestant television presenters
Peadophile Asian Muslim Kebab shop workers

The common denominators are male entitlement and the view that the victims were expendable. Misogyny and class

I would definitely think that race/religion or other subgroupings have a part to play, and different subcultures find ways to justify some things and minimise others. But race doesn't cause abuse, nor is there much correlation. None are immune.

It was a perfect storm of all those factors, you won't get a full picture by only focusing on the effects of one element.

Of course it was a perfect storm. The victims were from the lower working classes and the men were evil bastards. However, the peculiarity here which distinguishes the perpetrators from priests and celebrities is that they deliberately chose their victims from the perspective that they were scum; dirty kuffar and not really human. This is the language of a number of the muslim community towards white women and one which is perpetrated by mosque leaders up and down the country.

Oh dear, you really don't get it, do you? It isn't racist to suggest that there is a race element in the Rotheram abuse cases. No-one is suggesting we all begin to mistrust and avoid our muslim neighbours and friends. No-one is saying we must become racist in order to tackle all the 'dodgy brown people' in our midst. What I am saying is that being a liberal hand wringer leaves you with a problem in that you are forced to deny the race element where there clearly is one.

So...Lefty right on people like me, who only care about appearing to care about "minorities" and women allowed this to happen, because we care more about our moral hard ons than we do about young, vulnerable white girls in Rotherham. Right?

If the cap fits...

7days, slightly off topic but paedophiles don't only target girls so I'm not sure why you're attributing their actions to misogyny.

Do your male colleagues seem to get taken more seriously at work? Given more opportunities to take on interesting work or be mentored? Despite being as qualified and experienced

Sorry to burst your little bubble here , but no. And never was the case.

And to deflate your bubble further my firm assumed 8 partners in the last 12 months ; of them are female.

I know it doesn't fit your agenda but in real life actually businesses want the best people for the job.