Tonight is the night when I could give it all up

[Twofishfingers]

I was laughed at because of my accent, my nationality and my language. I have lived in the UK for 20 years, and tonight again I was again made fun of. I feel like I have wasted 20 years of my life trying to fit it to a country that will never accept me.

I honestly feel like shit. Please give me some reassurance that I will be ok here, and that the last 20 years haven't been completely wasted.

I get tired of the whole Britain is racist thing

Not as tired of it as the people being subjected to it I bet!

I’ve had racist things said to me.

My point is you’ll find racists everywhere. They are not specific to one country.

I get this OP, it is not a good feeling but it passes. I have been here 20 years too and still have an accent (probably always will) and I always have to repeat my name 2 or 3 times before people get it.

But I am so pleased that 95% of people are nice about it and interested in a nice way, that the 5% who say something hurtful or ignorant don't get to me.

The worst for me is when I forget I am foreign, and someone says something patronising like " your English is pretty good, your accent is not as strong as other people from your country" that I feel "othered", or if they comment on my attitude to life which is "typical for where I come from".

I always tell them I drink tea and play cricket, how much harder do they want me to try to fit in. That usually makes people laugh/breaks the ice

But yeah, it can suck when you feel you have fully integrated and someone points out your "otherness"(is that even a word, haha, I now feel self conscious about my English!)

It says more about them than you OP, they could probably not survive a day in a French speaking country

They are eejits, be proud of your accent why try to fit in?

I get teased with my accent, I’m fairly well spoken and get called Lady P. My daughters friend has a strong Sheffield accent and has been teased. Some family have Dudley accent, no one escapes.

Boring isn’t it, when people talk about racism.

@Neversayever I’ve had xenophobic things said to me. It doesn’t mean I get to dismiss the rampant racism/xenophobia in the UK as something to be tired of.

They were total plonkers, brush it off!
Hope you feel better this morning

people (including my employer) have casually said to me 'have you ever thought about calling yourself 'insert easy to pronounce English name' instead of 'European sounding, name quite easy to pronounce, and which is actually mine'.

I hope you said "No. Why do you ask?"

I’ve had xenophobic things said to me by people (who I considered British as they live here but they obviously don’t think they are) who live in the UK and say the British are all .

I’ve lived in Spain and had people reply to me in English when I’ve spoken to them in Spanish, which I think is really rude, refuse to answer me, pretend they didn’t understand (when the Spanish people with me said it was perfectly understandable). It’s shit, and hurtful.

But it is also true that most people in London anyway (can’t speak for the rest of the country) are accepting of people. I loathe the section of ‘we want our country back; how wonderful it used to be;’ twats. They don’t represent me or anyone I know. And Britain was pretty shit in lots of ways in the sixties. No nice restaurants (maybe in the centre but not in the suburbs); and all pretty boring. Immigration has brought huge benefits to the cultural and economic life of this country. It’s only narrow minded people who think differently. I live in my bubble most of the time and don’t realise there are these bigots around. OP.

In my experience this is worse outside of the UK.

Talking about racism in the uk is not tiring or irrelevant just because there are places where it is worse.
I do really wonder about the people who say this kind of stuff.

I am sorry you had that experience.

These people are arseholes. Don't let them get to you.

Sadly, there are pockets of racist twats everywhere. They don't represent the majority, but they have often felt emboldened and validated by the referendum result.

there are pockets of racist twats everywhere

Cue for a new nursery rhyme, I think.

"Sing a song of sixpence
A pocket full of racist twats"*

If you sing the last words together really fast it will almost scan

A lot of Brits are seriously insecure

Pining for an Empire that is gone

Pathetic

I was born here but even I am tempted to leave these days! Fed up with it (people laugh at me too because of my accent and I am British!)

amp.theguardian.com/politics/2018/may/11/uk-has-seen-brexit-related-growth-in-racism-says-un-representative?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=

Makes you proud, doesn’t it.