To ask where ethnic minority Brits holiday in U.K.?

[CluelessBint]

I know I'm going to be flamed for asking this, but I can hardly ask irl!

I live in south devon in a very popular holiday area. The area is very white middle class. I noticed a few years ago that almost all the people who holiday here are also white Brits. Since noticing this I keep wondering where all the ethnic minorities British people go on holiday.

I travel to other south westerly holiday resorts a lot with my work (hotel industry) and it seems to be the case there too.

If 82% of the population are white, why are at least 95% (a rough estimate from looking out at the harbour the last few days) of grockles white?

No one is pouring scorn on Devon, just saying what their loved experience as a minority has been.

Torquay, Bournemouth, Blackpool have all been mentioned as a place where lots of people go: these are all large bustling towns. Exeter is a big place and has a University, so will be cosmopolitan. And yes, there are places in London which do not attract a representative demographic.

None of this negates the experiences of minority peoples in more isolated rural areas.

Lived experience, not loved.

A lot of Orthodox Jews were in Aberystwyth earlier this summer. We have noticed that Centerparcs is largely a white clientele nut I'm glad to say it's not as bad as it used to be.

That's a bit defensive, Ironing.

Stating Devon isn't very diverse isn't exactly news. It isn't very diverse. It may have got better in Exeter and some of the towns but it's still very white.

And it's not just one shop. It's indicative of some wider attitudes towards people who are not white British that can exist down here. (Although not among most people) There's a reason why UKIP do quite well down here.

My husband is mixed heritage, we just go places like Spain, Cyprus, Miami, Canaries etc..... why go somewhere the weather isn't guaranteed. I don't know anyone that holidays in Britain bar maybe holiday weekends.

I think it a shame if people miss what this country has to offer, though. My immigrant ILs made it their business to explore as far as their Railway employee passes would take them, on adventurous day trips.

I can't imagine living or working in a conntry and not having a curiosity about it, and wanting to visit cultural and natural attractions. In addition to being attracted to other countries. The UK is not the same from coast to coast!

Ive met plenty of ethnic Asian families in the southern Peak District (Dovedale, Ilam) this summer. Whether on holiday or day tripping i couldn't say.

I regularly (but maybe not often) see orthodox Jewish families walking in both the Peak and Lake Districts. I notice because there doesn't seem to be much of an Orthodox community where I live (S. Yorkshire).

They didn't do well in the cities which are more widely populated than out in the sticks.

And yes I am defensive towards out right snobbery,writing off an entire county based on one shop and some out dated prejudiced views. We should not all be defined by one shop selling a Gollywog and a few posters on MN saying they had heard you get stared at if an ethnic minority in Devon. It is actually more than unpleasant insinuating that as a county we are all Xenaphobic and racist in Devon.

Every school in the county will need to ensure they teach diversity and a variety of religions. Racism is not tolerated the same as anywhere else.

It seems a perfectly reasonable question to me, and I've seen articles about it before. I find it odd that some people get very antsy about a perfectly reasonable, non-offensive question. It's noticeable that the people who have replied happily in an unoffended way are actually largely the people of non-White, non-Brit origin.

I live on the edge of the Lake District and there are absolutely tons of Asian visitors, fewer black visitors but still a fair number.

I'm always a bit surprised when people say it's expensive to holiday in the UK. Surely if you live here, the lack of (school holiday price) air fares and car hire alone more than makes up for anything else being a bit pricey? I wish we could afford to go abroad more.

I teach a lovely Muslim girl in sixth form, and she mentioned once in conversation that her family like to go camping in the Peak District and that they always get funny looks for being the only Muslim family. It struck me as quite sad!

indulgentberries I think the Orthodox Jews have an arrangement with the university halls of residence in Aberystwyth and book a lot of the student houses in the campus on the hill for a few weeks, there are always a large number of them there every summer!

I noticed this in mevagissey yesterday there was one family and the rest were white
I live in barry island and we get a lot of daytrippers from Birmingham. As we are the nearest beach resort weirdly!

Err but some of you seem to be more upset by me (and by me I mean ethnic minority brits like me who've responded on this thread saying we don't travel in the U.K. that much) saying I feel like I stand out and some of people's race-based or skin-colour based assumptions are tiresome etc, rather than being upset that we have to deal with this low level everyday racism on a daily basis.

That's funny.

Honestly, the last time I went to wales, the whole drive down we saw so many billboards on people's lawns supporting brexit.. and I'm sure not everyone supporting brexit or the UKIP is against ethnic minority people - but the onus is not on me to go investigate everyone's biases and ensure my mind is always open and free of all prejudice until I have overwhelming evidence that someone is being explicitly racist. If I see a sea of white people, a couple of St George's flags, some pro-Brexit signs, and a handful of folk asking me repeatedly where I am from and telling me my English is remarkably good, then I think I'm entitled to just say that's exhausting and I'd rather be sipping aperol spritzes on a Spanish beach.

Of course this isn't everyone's experience and a fair number of BME posters have also said they do holiday in the UK. But it's true that many of us don't and we're just answering OPs question as to why.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/travel/2010/jul/09/black-people-camp-holidays

Ironing: you are not helping. Black people have said they HAVE been stared at. A few instances per week is enough to be tiresome. No one has said 'everyone' in Devon. To hear that people who purport to be non-racist (you!) get irate and accuse these people of 'snobbery', and get all riled up because of one thread / a few posts that you perceive as prejudice against YOU, shows that you have No Fucking Clue.

Listen carefully to the experiences people have in your (beautiful) county and think how you could help make it better rather than dismissing people who had discomforting experiences as snob!

The above article does seem to explain it a bit - lots of people from ethinic minorities come from places where the countryside is seen as poor and living in the cities is disirable so for them going on holiday to the country is not a thing.

I used to work in an Indian restaurant and if they went on holidays they would go to London or back home to Bangladesh. I live in rural county of wales and all the ethnic minority staff actually lived miles away in Cardiff!!

Holidays in the UK with DH (Asian) have been to Bournemouth and the IOW. Usually we go abroad.

I drag him (and now DS too) on lots of daytrips to deepest darkest Sussex (jk) because I like pub lunches, fields, and historical stuff and he always points out everyone is white.

I think sometimes DH feels a bit 'out of place' but I really dont want DS to miss out on stuff so we go anyway.

Big picnic day trips to beauty spots are a favourite with Indian /Asian families, whatever country they are in. In my extended family the massive pots of biriyani have travelled to most extremes of the rail network.

Dorset, well one particular place as two Bollywood films have some scenes filmed here so it does seem to be a bot of a prilgrimage

I grew up in Devon and in the 90s there was only 1 black person in a school of nearly 5000 people.
Outside of cities/very large towns there is still little representation of enthic minorities - my kids village school has 1 Asian family. The rest are all white.
We are very good friends with the above family and they do tend to holiday all over - they have in the past year or so been to Dubai, Italy, centre parcs, London and back to India.

I agree that it will make ethnic minorities uncomfortable when holidaying in places like Devon or Wales if they see lots of St George's flags and pro Brexit posters. So chances are they won't go again. There's no need to be defensive, it's how people feel. And it makes it feel like an unwelcoming place.

Mixed family here (white Brit/black Caribbean). Over the years we've visited Wales, Devon, Isle of Wight, Yorkshire, Northants, Norfolk, Cornwall, Northumberland and briefly Scotland. Oh, and Belfast. Got racist abuse in N. Wales and Peterborough, years ago. Other than that, a bit of staring but people were generally fine. We like to play 'spot the brown people' but it's just part of the general people-spotting that's fun when you're on holiday.

But as PPs have mentioned, if you have family overseas far away, you tend to use the majority of your annual leave to visit them. No point flying for 8+ hours to stay for 1 week. And that also rinses your yearly holiday budget, of course.

I'm not 'whitesplaining', Testtube. I'm not denying the feelings that people have said on this thread.
I am saying though that there are non white people outside of London. This idea that if you leave London you will get stared at is madness. Go into a small village pub in Devon, yes you most likely will, in my white liberal mind I like to think it won't happen but I expect it does.
Go into a pub in Manchester or Birmingham and no one will give a shit.

Also, as I said, my parents live in a tiny Dorset village. There are two Asian and one black family.
I live in a Suffolk town only 30 miles from Southwold. All of my immediate neighbours are black.

I will put my hands up and say that, being white, I have no idea what it is like. I've never felt being starred at. I've never felt on edge because of st George's flags and pro Brexit poster. I've never had abuse in the street.

What I do know is that it is wrong to declare that everyone outside the m25 is a white racist.

British ethnic minority here and as a PP has posted, we often holiday in the UK as it's too expensive to fly and go abroad with our kids.

I do save up and we all go "back to the motherland" it's actually completely "forrin" for my kids... or holiday in Continental Europe every few years. Otherwise it's, often rainy, UK staycations.

We've been to Dorset, Devon and Cornwall numerous times and say 10 years ago when we started going, we would be the only non-white family in any town. There may be a curry house or Chinese take away in larger towns, but we didn't see any other non-whites.

Fast forward through a decade and we can usually see up to 5 non-white families now in our travels around the West Country. In a week.

Does that make me uncomfortable? Not until I'm asked where I'm really from. Not until groups of youths shout "ni hao" following us along the streets. Sure, I could put it all down to "friendliness" or "curiosity", the white people are just trying to get to know me But it is "othering" and intimidating at times. As well as exhausting.

To people who are genuinely interested in "where I'm really from", I don't want to be rude but at the end of the day, it's none of their fucking business. Yet if I choose to be private then what's the chance that they'd go away thinking "we're all like that"?

We're not as mixed and multi cultural a country as TV or the large cities would lead us to think. It's a reality that when you step out of the large cities, as a non-white person you will inevitably be an anomaly. How the locals treat you will determine what you think of that place, as much as your response and what they'll think about you, as the representative of your race!

What I do know is that it is wrong to declare that everyone outside the m25 is a white racist.

But Snickers that's a bit of a straw man argument. I don't think anyone said everyone outside the M25 is white and racist. Of course there are people of colour outside of London.

But as I said, the onus is not on me to walk into a pub with only white patrons and a big ol St George's flag outside and force myself to smile and tell myself that most of this country is not full of racists. People are simply telling you how they feel. And by saying it's wrong to express that you're basically "whitesplaining". Of course if you're not saying it's wrong to express that then we're in agreement. Not everyone outside London is white, not everyone is racist. And some BME people do experience casual racism and being stared at when they're the clear minority, and some BME people don't enjoy subjecting themselves to that while on holiday.