Someone just called me 'ghetto'...

[Parmina]

I'm mixed race black and Caucasian, have afro hair pulled in to a bun and a head wrap on (pretty much my go to style), small gold hoop earrings and am wearing a black knee length pencil skirt with a plain black hoodie and silver pumps.

Walked by 2 women on the stairs at the train station and heard one clearly direct at me "she's a bit 'ghetto' looking for " and they both laughed and walked off.

I may have got this completely wrong, but before I jump to conclusions, why on earth would they think I looked 'ghetto'?

AIBU to be sensing a racist undertone? Or is that my paranoia kicking in?

Never been called ghetto before...

Your style sounds great, more stylish than anything I could pull off for sure

Small minded rotten racists

my son and I use the word 'ghetto' as a shorthand for a shabby rough looking area. (as in 'this bit of C. is a bit ghetto isn't it?) To use it about a person wouldn't cross our minds. It is racist, no doubt.

It's blatant racism.

I'm white and have mixed race children. Reminds me of the woman who described my baby as a 'gangster'

Absolute twats!

No doubt these knobs were being racist but I had to take a friend to task recently for using the word ghetto. She thought it just meant urban and funky. She’d no idea of the connotations and definitely didn’t mean to be racist.

Brum is a fab city. I travel in twice a week.

I've had Elvis stuck in my head for about an hour now... in the ghettoooo....

YABU for not immediately retorting "That's a bit racist for "

Joking aside, I'm sorry that you had to endure that shit.

Yes it was racist.

Racist and bitchy.

Your outfit sounds v stylish.

Sounds racist. Even if it wasn't though, commenting on someone''s appearance or anything else within earshot and laughing is totally rude

Totally racist.
Wish people would give more of a shit about this actual racism than Jamie Oliver fucking a recipe up and being accused of cultural appropriation by keyboard warriors.

I’m mixed race, and in these type of situatuons I think of Michele Obama -“when they go low we go high”.

You sound smart and sassy OP, whereas they sound like bitches!

@Parmina

You sound great, your outfit sounds great, (although aren't you hot in a hoody?) I'm wearing a T-shirt because it is so warm.

I love it when I see people dressed in things like headscarves I always look at them and think I wish I could pull that off.

If I wore my hair in a bun with a headscarf I would probably just look like someones Nan .

I'm sorry that you had to hear that op. Sounds like racism to me too.

Further to the post about comments made about school children , I had a similar experience when I worked as a TA for a school with about 70% black pupils. We took the class to a big London art gallery and the security guards were pretty off the entire time , one even said (to the teacher) that this may not be the best place for this class to visit. This gallery is promoted as a family gallery and has interactive games and even play areas inside.

It was really upsetting as the kids were just pointing and talking about the colours and shapes that they liked.

The teacher wrote a complaint email to them as we were both really upset by the comments.Thankfully the kids didn't hear.

I'd like to point out that I've never had such an issue in my current job on class trips...predictably most of the kids are white.

So racist and ignorant. I'm furious that this happened to you.

Racist. Your outfit sounds totally normal- stretchy, comfortable and practical for pregnancy, right? Silver trainers..love it. I have chunky trainers with silver stripes. I have been known to wear a hoodie. Never been called ghetto. Plus a hair wrap is just good sense for lots of people with textured hair as well as the fact that I personally think they tend to look really stylish.

Gawd this makes me want to scream.

Good luck with your pregnancy, op.

no I'm just outside Birmingham amazingly. Would've thought people were used to us ghetto folk by now!

You don't have to stray too far out of Brum to start running into towns with little diversity and a shocking number of racists. It's how Michael Fabricant keeps on getting elected in Lichfield...

@ScattyCharly sorry, I fell foul of getting annoyed at Jamie Oliver (or his marketing team anyway!) - nobody makes Jerk like granny

But yes you're right!

@MetalMidget I LOVE Lichfield! I want to live there! Don't ruin my dream

dont give them ur time or your thoughts.this says everything about who they are and nothing of who you are.
when you described what you wore I pictured it and I thought how lovely you sounded.
go be you.head held high knowing that is two people you are so much better than,kinder than and more compassionate that.what knobs.

I'm white and many years ago I had a black boyfriend. After we broke up I started seeing a white guy...one evening I went round to his for a takeaway...he said 'sorry we're not having a ghetto fabulous night like you're used to'

@formerbabe fuck sake that's nuts! I would've kicked off! Ghetto fabulous? You should've said 'there are lots of things black men have that white men don't' and let the stereotype eat away at him

I understand how you feel OP

I can never just bounce back from a racist comment. My parents have been known to say "If you heard as much as we did when got here you wouldn't care so much".

but it's always a shock, and I think for me it's partly because there was a drop in racism, I felt, in the 90s and 00s and suddenly it's come back full force.

so I still rear back and never say anything. probably people can see I'm hurt but that might not be a bad thing.

I think racism is still around but expressed in a very different way then it was decades ago. Even the most racist person nowadays knows it's socially unacceptable to yell racist abuse at someone in the street so it is expressed in subtler ways.

When myself and my friends said it, it was in the ‘trailer trash’ context...

So the trailer trash comment is acceptable to you?

@RoseWhiteTips it's literally exactly the same as calling a black person ghetto.

'Ghetto' - poor black person
'Trailer trash' - poor black person

It probably hurts more when directed towards a minority but neither are acceptable IMO