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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To Think The UK is a Racist Country and the racism is deeply ingrained.

386 replies

ACoolDad · 11/10/2015 17:25

For the last couple of weeks BBC Three has been running documentaries about racism and racial tensions in the U.K and USA. This week we saw a program called "Is Britain Racist?" it failed to prove much apart from black men are seen as more likely to steal from shops and women in Burka's are more likely to face verbal abuse.

As a second generation Black Briton from Jamaica, I have faced racism many times, I do believe the UK is a racist country but it is a in the closet type of racism that is hard to prove. The UK unlike the USA has a type of racism in which few people are openly racist, but racism is deeply ingrained into are mindsets as the program explored.

The presenter who comes across as a very anti racist person still perceived black people as dangerous sub consciously when she had her brain scanned. You have to ask why? You have to ask why black people have been sub consciously viewed as angry, violent and criminals.

I am so proud of my family and my black, mixed and white children and stepchildren. My family represent the tolerant modern Britain that we have and should be proud of.

My son aged 15 was stopped and searched two weeks ago. My white stepson aged 15 has never been stopped and searched, despite them wearing similar clothes, my black son has been profiled by the same mentality explored in the documentary. The type of racism is so difficult to fight as it is so difficult to prove it is racism.

Britain comes across as a country that is improving in terms of race, but I believe certain people and aspects of the media always have to push the idea of white supremacy in different forms. In the past it was considered that black individuals were considered less intelligent now it is considered blacks are more likely to be criminals.

It would be interesting to hear what you think.

OP posts:
Egosumquisum · 12/10/2015 10:44

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LucozadeBreath · 12/10/2015 10:50

LittleLionMansMummy you are right in saying Eastern Europeans get a lot of stick nowadays. I've been called a "scrounging polak" and various other things in the street. Got told I was exploiting the NHS because I was simply waiting for a doctors appointment Hmm funny thing is, I was born in Britain. I just speak polish with my mum because it's easier for her...so the person who overheard is in the doctors surgery just jumped to an assumption, like so many ignorant people do.

Tootsiepops · 12/10/2015 10:52

White fragility - why it's so hard to talk to white people about racism

Quite a lot of this going on in this thread...

NameChangerGoGo · 12/10/2015 11:10

I'm sorry I haven't read the whole thread but I agree with you, OP. To me it seems to come from the mentality of 'them' and 'us', the belief that black people are just 'different'. This is certainly what I see from my family as a white woman married to a mixed race man.

I also think there is something of the 'everyday sexism' about it. As you say, it's not about people openly saying 'I don't like black people' in the way that it's unusual for people to say 'I don't like women'. It is, however, about the small comments, looks, assumptions etc.

Egosumquisum · 12/10/2015 11:14

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LisbethSalandersLaptop · 12/10/2015 11:23

yes I would agree that Britain is a 'racist' country but that is not only about Black people is it?
I grew up in the 70s and lost count of the comments about my 'funny' name (hilarious yes having an Irish sounding name), and people asking if my dad was
.a. really stupid
b. an IRA bomber
c. an alcoholic
That wasn't just kids btw. And some of our old neighbours (in a London suburb) still seem to find something...amusing about Irishness.

crystalgall · 12/10/2015 11:25

Really like that article on White Fragility. Sums up a lot of my feelings about discussing race which I never do. In real life you just do not have these kinds of conversations with your white friends or colleagues at work. It is awkward. For them.

And I totally agree with the difference between experiencing individual racism as a white person (wrong) and living your whole life in a world which is institutionally and systemically racist. There is a vast difference.

Black people live in a systemically racist society which classifies them as drug dealers/rough/aggressive/violent etc

Asians are either exotic and 'othered' or backwards hillbillies

crystalgall · 12/10/2015 11:26

Being Irish isn't a race is it?

LisbethSalandersLaptop · 12/10/2015 11:27

Crystal it is true. Black people seem to be classified into either 'good' Blacks (eg professional) or gangsters/thieves. Nothing much in between, very one dimensional. I think that would piss me off if I was Black.

Egosumquisum · 12/10/2015 11:33

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LisbethSalandersLaptop · 12/10/2015 11:35

" Being Irish isn't a race is it? "

What do you mean? Being Irish is as much a 'race' as any other national group.
So do you mean that they are not a 'race' therefore cannot experience racism? Could you clarify?

crystalgall · 12/10/2015 11:36

Ok yes but it's not so institutional and ingrained that it affects Irish people's life chances. That's the difference in my opinion. ethnic minorities are always at a disadvantage because of this in a way Irish people won't be because they are white.

crystalgall · 12/10/2015 11:38

Sorry I mean Irish people are white aren't they? (They are right?!)

So of course they can experience racism for being white.

LisbethSalandersLaptop · 12/10/2015 11:38

Irish are an ethnic minority in the UK though.
And I would say that the historical racism against them would have affected life chances, yes.

LisbethSalandersLaptop · 12/10/2015 11:39

funnily enough in the states they were not counted as 'proper' whites, I believe.
You know how it was in London 'No Blacks No Irish No dogs'.

FattyNinjaOwl · 12/10/2015 11:40

But not all Irish people are white.
I suppose that sort of proves the OPs point though. You hear that someone is Irish and you automatically assume they are white.
Just like one woman I know was shocked that there was a black German footballer. She didn't think Germany had black people.
I was Hmm there's black people everywhere, they aren't all confined to Africa, America and Britain.

LittleLionMansMummy · 12/10/2015 11:40

Being Irish isn't a race is it?

Perhaps not by its truest definition of groupings by physical appearance, Crystal. But it is certainly discriminatory is it not? The only factor that is missing is the link to physical appearance - to say that all people with pale skin, fair/ red hair and freckles are members of the IRA or that all men sporting beards or women wearing burkas are terrorists.

Egosumquisum · 12/10/2015 11:41

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LisbethSalandersLaptop · 12/10/2015 11:43

" one group who pretty much face little discrimination in life "

white hetero males?

crystalgall · 12/10/2015 11:46

I feel very stupid. Of course not all Irish people are white. Apologies. I suppose there's my ignorance as a non white person there.

crystalgall · 12/10/2015 11:46

White men?

LisbethSalandersLaptop · 12/10/2015 11:48

oh Crystal the vast majority are, you know it.
I was just making the point that 'racism' exists against white people also.
I will never forget the filthy looks, giggling and nasty comments that came our way when I was at a pub table talking Polish to my ILs. Well they were talking and I was nodding and agreeing ..:)
And that was in a very 'multicultural' area of London!

LittleLionMansMummy · 12/10/2015 11:49

What about class-based discrimination Lisbeth? What happens if that white hetero male is a toff? Or a pleb?

LisbethSalandersLaptop · 12/10/2015 11:50

doesn't really matter if toff or pleb, lions

Egosumquisum · 12/10/2015 11:51

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