Aibu? Sorry it's deep and regarding the vote to leave

[user1466952915]

I was born in the early 70's to parents that came from India in the mid 60's, I was born in a time where we saw our mother chased into our house by skinhead thug as she was on her way too work. We were spat on at the park, even had a air rifle fired at me. Never responded to the abuse, words and physical, never as I was scared what would happen if I did.

I was the only Asian child in my year at school, and was bullied, spat on and called every offensive name under the sun. The teachers at the time turned a blind eye and I had even heard our head of year laugh at it.

When I went to play at a friends one of my memories is her neighbours lad chasing me around cars pulling my hair and kicking me.

Late 80's it all calms down.......

My husband is white English, not that, that matters, but it did to his mother who sadly still had the archaic ideas about not mixing races, even though she is blessed with 4 gorgeous grandchildren.

Now it's all back and with a vengeance, devastated my friend of 15 years shared race hate posts, seeing posts all over twitter about the race hate towards all races.

To say I can't cope is an understatement, I was born here but have had it made clear to me I don't belong most of my life.

We have paid or way own our own home and are just a regular family, But now my husband is beside himself with worry over his job, it's a French company and trying to deal with me fretting.

Please don't tell me my fears and worries aren't real as I can see they are, what do I do? how do I cope, we just want our quite life back and not that I am a second class citizen or not wanted, I have no other country to call home.

Sorry used an alias, been losing my mind over all this, even in my hobby circle the posts are so abhorrently upsetting, people sharing memes with racist comments. I'm just not strong enough to cope.

". These scumbags have resented having to be PC for nearly 2 decades."

I think this is it. This vote has legitimised racists reminding us that, as Gerry Adams once said of the IRA in a different context, they "haven't gone away, you know". The fact some people who voted Leave voted for entirely different reasons is lost on them.. and that's because of the way the campaign was conducted, and allowed to be conducted.

A referendum should have been conducted with far fewer dirty tactics and rhetoric and lies allowed to stand. As far as I'm concerned, it is an undemocratic result because of the nature of the campaign ON BOTH SIDES being partisan and not factual and objective in how facts were presented. Referenda are not like elections, they need those presenting sides to maintain impartiality at a much higher level than is expected in a standard election of parliament. The biggest difficulty now with the result is NOT that Britain will leave the EU as such, it is the way in which the campaign has created serious divisions and hatred amongst communities because of what each side believes the other one to be about.

To be honest everyone should be scared of these new fascists. I know a white guy who was verbally abused and invited to fight on Friday night by another white guy who believed my friend had gentrified his area. Apparently my friend 'looked down on him'. My friend was just coming out of a shop and had never seen this man before but the guy was enraged and screaming in his face because my friend had a beard and looked like a hipster so he assumed my friend was wealthier than him and thus deserved abuse.

These people are full of pent up hate and are lashing out all over the place. These are probably the same people who were causing trouble in France recently. They are aggressive, often didn't take much interest in education, have poor prospects and blame everyone else for it.

I also heard about a couple of guys getting on a train singing 'hands up if you're English' if you're not fuck off'.

Very scary stuff.

Snowbells, great post, that articulated it perfectly for me. Virtually everyone I truly respect voted remain. Good, decent people who care about others. They didn't want even the slightest association with farage or the like.

Apart from one guy who posted that he thought farage was "bloody brilliant" and killed off our friendship in the process.

A man spat towards me from the back window of a taxi as I was walking by with my 2 children to pick dd up from school. I'm not shaken or scared...I'm accepting this is what it's going to be like now. My city voted over 70% remain...I guess I'm not safe after all. It's the 80's and 90's all over again for me.

Sorry. Must feel horrible. I'm also born here, in my 40s, black and parents from Commonwealth. It bugs me when people say there's no racism. I live in a wealthy southern city and still get 'n*gger' from ignorant people and subtle discrimination from well educated people.

I'm so sorry and so fucking angry that you are having to face this, OP. Please please know that I and all of my friends are completely NOT like this, and if we saw some of the terrible behaviour that's being reported just now, I hope, I really really hope I would have the balls to stand up and say this is not in my name. In fact, I pledge it now: if i see it, I will not be a silent bystander. That's how 'we take our country back.'

Brexit has made these racist twats believe that 52% of the population side with them. Hence, they are now so open about it.

This. There will always be racists, unfortunately, and they hadn't gone away but just felt they were no longer socially acceptable so kept it under wraps. Now, they think they are safe once more to be open about it. Someone who would spit out of a taxi - think about it - he is not an upstanding member of society who suddenly decided spitting at people is the way forward.

For the poster with the Disneyland analogy, yes, you should still go even if you hear that the racists are headed there. Racists will hijack anything. Look at the English flag - St George's cross has now sadly become a symbol of racism because the only people who wave it are EDL twats. Winston Churchill - you often see his face on far right posters, as these racists truly believe that Churchill would be on their side. Yes, I can just see it, Churchill spitting out of a taxi because he is bitter and angry about an Asian woman walking by with her young children

Anything good, evil people will hijack it and try to make it theirs. You do not have to give up on good things just because the racists have hijacked it. There are Jewish musicians who will perform Wagner's work for precisely this reason. Sometimes you have to fight back by doing what you believe to be good even if the racists have 'claimed' something as their own.

If you say that the UK is a racist country, then the racists have won, haven't they, because to them that's an actual compliment. They are racist and proud. The more power you feel they have, the happier they are.

What I don't get about the Leave voters who say they aren't racist is this: how could you ever back ANY cause that you know are also backed by the far right?!

I don't see how this is any different from chastising a Muslim or Christian or Hindu for the extremist factions of their religions.

Remember that the political spectrum is a circle rather than a line and the far right and far left have quite a bit more in common than some EU supporters would like to believe.

OP I'm very sorry for what you've endured.

Buttock that is awful, please report it. If you can remember the taxi firm and time the driver may be able to id the passenger. It's not at all something to accept its assault. How disgusting I'm sorry.

I didn't catch the firm name of the taxi..I was just a bit shocked by it tbh and was counting my lucky stars the spit didn't reach me.

I agree that racists have always been there but this vote has given them the opportunity to vocalise their screwed up feelings. A few years ago when islamophobia was getting popular I was called a "raghead" by a moped rider. It comes in waves and then dies away. I hope this is the same.

I will carry on as usual, as I can't afford to not leave the house but I hate that I have plastered a smile on my face and making sure I say "please" and "thank you" loudly with a massive smile to everyone to prove that immigrants aren't bad...I feel a responsibility to represent "us". Funny thing is I was born here and class myself as British.

I would suggest that if there is any lesson from this it is that simply shouting at people to STFU does not achieve anything. People simply hold their ideas to themselves without saying them.

Watching the behaviour of the so called fans in France made me feel quite ashamed for my country. (ps, poetic justice the team they supported lost last night!). Most were young men in their mid 20's. They have been educated in a PC schooling system. Yet they are still racist and biggoted.

I feel we need to be asking a lot of questions to understand why they are so racist. Until we understand the underlying causes of such intollerence we have absolutely no chance of addressing it.

I hate that I have plastered a smile on my face and making sure I say "please" and "thank you" loudly with a massive smile to everyone to prove that immigrants aren't bad

If it helps, try to think of the person whose day will be a little bit better because you smiled at them. You can't let the racists win. I fear that the racists will always be among us - because some people are just thick and there will never come a time when we can fix all the thickos out there.