Mixed race kids called mongrels

[Whatsinaname100]

Well I am fuming.

I am Asian my husband is white. Me and my husband were walking down the canal in Birmingham city centre today. We were with our 4 month old daughter and my 2 nephews and niece ( 6 to 11 in ages) We walked past a group of 4 young lads. They stared then started sniggering. As we walked passed they shouted "mongrels." This was obviously aimed at the children. We ignored them but I was furious.

I am angry that this was said in front of kids and obviously was a racial insult which hurts. Aibu to be so upset or is this the kind of abuse those in a mixed race relationship do encounter??

I know I should brush it off but didnt expect it in multi racial Birmingham.

Certainly is

So because you've never heard it means it didn't happen, Auti?

Shut your cake hole Auti. OP I would have been fuming too - it does make you wonder where those boys get their racist attitudes from (probably their parents). I hope your children didn’t hear what they said.

"I haven't heard it or witnessed it, therefore it can't possibly be true"

How arrogant and ignorant.

In my immediate group of friends nearly everyone is either mixed race or is in a relationship with someone of a different race or nationality
Yes - the point is, it's like that for a huge majority of people, friends and relatives of different backgrounds. It's not unique

Sorry @MistressDeeCee I really don't think it is like that for the vast majority of people at all. More like a small minority in a South London bubble. In the 2011 census 87% of the population were white/white British and only 2% mixed or multiple. I think you are doing your children a disservice if you don't equip them to deal with situations like the OP encountered.

whiterose I haven't mentioned my children so you've misread or mixed me up with someone else in the thread that I may have been responding to.

London is a big place - there's no 'south London bubble' it's a multi-cultural city. I live here so am speaking of here.

I don’t think darker skin isn’t beautiful. Mixed race children often just look interesting and unusual. I know someone with dark skin and Afro textured hair but with blue eyes and naturally blonde-ish hair and it’s very eye catching

Your posts are absolutely cringe. Stop patronising mixed raced people. They aren't "beautiful", there are attractive, mediocre, ugly mixed raced people just like every other race. And asking to touch peoples hair is fetishising them and not respecting them.

Really sorry you and your family experienced such vileness OP. It really does leave you fuming that in this age, In such a multicultural city this could, did and still happens.
I experienced a group of Asian young men shouting at me for not ‘finding someone of my own race’ in the Bullring, about a decade ago. I am Asian and was with my mixed race male friend.
My husband is white and I was questioned about how my parents felt about our marriage and how unusual it was to see an Asian woman with a white husband...this was hours after my EMCS.
We live in a multicultural town in the Northwest and have had older Asian ladies comment and point/follow us in supermarket aisles. I have even have friends Comment on how my children are beautiful...as they have light hair/pale skin/light eyes.

One of DDs boyfriends was asked what he was doing with “One of our sisters” by a group of boys in town. She suffered overt racism in one workplace with her colleagues discussing stereotypes of our race in front of her. Both of these were over 10 years ago. Grim. And I hear loads of ridiculous comments about mixed children by people who I thought would know better. All the “ mixed race children are so beautiful and “Wow look at their hair” etc. And this is a big multi ethnic city. So grim and very depressing.

Your posts are absolutely cringe. Stop patronising mixed raced people. They aren't "beautiful", there are attractive, mediocre, ugly mixed raced people just like every other race. And asking to touch peoples hair is fetishising them and not respecting them.

When have I ever asked to touch peoples hair?

Are you mixed race? My kids are. My partner’s non white. Funny how none of his family or my kids have ever complained that me saying mixed race people are interesting due to the genetic mix is fetishising.

Go find something else to be offended by.

MistressDeeCee
No ofcourse im not unaware of the light is right Eurocentric standards. However it’s not just Eurocentric. You only have to look at internet photographs from many countries. Women from
Sri Lanka to Nigeria and beyond see light skin as appealing and many people, especially women bleach their skin - poor women. This is so incredibly wrong.

Just look at these air hostesses. Yes they’re beautiful by today’s standards of beauty but not made more beautiful because of their skin colour. Then these cute kids would they be more beautiful if they had lighter skin? No no no. They are just lovely. People are beautiful because of who they are, not the outer shell. And thank goodness that’s the case as mine isn’t the loveliest but I’m loving and caring and have a good heart. And that’s enough isn’t it?

However I’m definitely not in denial of the existence of racism in the U.K.

My children go to a school in south east london and and in their classes they are both the only mixed race children.

Mr Spock isn’t your partner Indian

South Asians are not a different race as such. Most children from white European and South Asia won’t look mixed race they look often Middle Eastern eyes maybe darker than most dark eyed Europeans and features can be different but it isn’t as noticeable certainly not to white Europeans as if one parent is Chinese or black African

And to many people they would still be considered white just a bit darker say like Turkish or Iranian

I don’t say I’m mixed race but do use that term generally I think in discussions like this it is important to distinguish the differences in how people are treated. I was seen as a bit foreign growing up being exotic but that’s totally different to a mixed race child from a white and Afro Caribbean background

Though some friends I know who are mixed white and South Asian you would never guess and others are fairly dark skinned most are not noticeably not European

Sorry you had to suffer this OP.

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed

Yes he is.

My kids tend to look ambiguous, like it’s hard to tell where they’re from. My son could pass for Italian, Greek, Iranian, South American. I know what you mean in that it’s not obvious he’s got non white parentage (unless we’re out together and you can see his dad’s Indian) when he’s with me and my family. Whereas a half black child looks more obviously non white.

think in discussions like this it is important to distinguish the differences in how people are treated. I was seen as a bit foreign growing up being exotic hmm but that’s totally different to a mixed race child from a white and Afro Caribbean background

This is a fair point, actually. I think my kids fall into the first camp, because people tend to just comment on his large dark eyes and nice tan. We don’t get the same crap about touching hair and stuff that others get (which I totally agree is annoying and rude). People have often said “oooh aren’t your kids lucky to have a year long tan/such dark eyelashes” which I suppose is different to the comments someone with Afro Caribbean heritage will receive.

@MrSpock you seem unaware that black people from Africa are the most genetically diverse on earth?

Therefore when you go on about mixed race children have genetic diverse genes they don't really.

This is why others have pointed out about colourism as if it was really about genetic diversity people wouldn't say all mixed race children are cute etc.

you seem unaware that black people from Africa are the most genetically diverse on earth?

Well aware of that. The reason people think mixed race is interesting is because combinations that are frequently found in one race can be mixed together which results in a very unique look.

Like light eyes and dark skin, or light skin with Afro hair, for example.

I am half Jewish/half European. I am fair and look classically English - am half German. My DH traces back to 7th Century and is blonde and fair. The DC were blonde and sturdy and lightly tanned. On arrival in a paediatric consultant's office in SW London in about 2000 he looked up, beamed and said "I feel I've been visited by the Aryan master race". Believe me racism and inappropriate comments are not all about mixed race. He thought he was complimenting me.

I don't think it is patronising to say that one thinks that mixed race children are particularly cute, I think it is a matter of taste.

I live in Mexico and find Mexican babies are so much prettier than bald Irish babies as I like dark looks and prefer babies with a head of hair.

Call me shallow, because I am a bit.

Irish babies are born bald?

I never knew that! Good to know the Mexicans are waving that hirsute flag though.

I’m of extremely mixed heritage - Sub-Saharan African, Northern European and South Asian.
DH is Viking with a smidge of Celt.
Our DCs are a riotous muddle

We’ve had some awful comments, designed to wound, and some upsetting ones, with absolutely no malice.

I don’t feel hurt by the accidentally shitty stuff. Ground down a little sometimes but not personally aggrieved.
I do try and gently redirect the well meaning ones though so that the next person won’t have to deal with it.