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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Thanks to many on Mumsnet, and MNHQ

223 replies

ArbitersCarbiters · 14/09/2018 22:36

For showing your true colours.

I’ve been a member of Mumsnet on and off for almost 10 years. It holds a special place in my heart - it got me through the long nights with my DC, bumps in my career, the breakdown of my marriage and helping me finally confront the grief at becoming an orphan far too young. I gradually stopped posting on here precisely because I began to see how hostile a place it could be (and was) for women of colour, especially those who called out micro-aggressions and thinly-veiled racist/dehumanising behaviour.

I wish MNHQ had let my (now deleted) thread stand as it was the perfect example of what so many black women have to face everyday (albeit hidden behind a sheer facade of disingenuous naivety and inclusivity).

Instead, it was deleted. The irony of that is that when people claim so many posters on here are and can be hostile to black women and our experiences, the evidence of that hostility is lost forever, and so those same posters and others can claim that it never existed in the first place.

Perhaps seeing the vitriol in writing might help people understand the reality (and denial) of our day-to-day experiences.

Or not.

And right now, I’m verging towards not.

As you were 🤷🏾‍♀️

OP posts:
Dorkdiary · 15/09/2018 00:16

I do think there is increased racism at the moment in general. The majority of my dcs friends are Asian and some of the comments they get are ridiculous and its regularly.

Oldaintallthat · 15/09/2018 00:23

I dont get this outrage, I really fucking dont. Jamelia was ridiculous this morning talking about chemicals/straight hair/chemicals and then finally realising it was about freaks touching her hair.

Ive had freaks trying to touch my pregnant belly. Is that sexism?

RaininSummer · 15/09/2018 00:26

Shocked that your thread has gone. Only read the beginning of it but you were totally right. Touching any stranger's hair is an outrage but I never realised this was such a common thing experienced by black women. As a white woman in a rather white county, I want to understand what shit people have to contend with so ty for posting.

Mookatron · 15/09/2018 00:30

I don't know why your thread was deleted. I didn't comment on it but I did notice a lot of shrugging off black women's experiences as not really existing.

I don't understand why a site so full of feminists can so frequently minimise the discrimination and othering of other groups.

Not on, MNHQ.

NC951 · 15/09/2018 00:31

oldaintallthat seriously, just don’t even bother.

log out.

close your browser.

don’t log on again.

abacucat · 15/09/2018 00:35

And I am amazed at anyone who posts saying they have not seen racism on MN. It is VERY common. And usually involves various posters saying something that is racist, is not racism. I have lost track of how many threads there have been about how golliwogs are only a toy for example. It is very very depressing.

Oldaintallthat · 15/09/2018 00:35

@NC951
Why?

TooManyPaws · 15/09/2018 00:40

There is so much denial of white privilege and of othering. It is rude to touch anyone's hair but it is a whole other thing when it is regularly white on black.

Believe the person who tells you about racism, about sexism, about bullying, about abuse. Just don't fucking argue. You don't live their life.

7salmonswimming · 15/09/2018 00:51

I think the only benefit, literally the only, of this Brexit and Trump era is that it’s allowed into the public domain people to show just how racist they are and in what ways. There are new discussions happening, with many many more people inclined to tell people to fuck off with their racism, to speak out about what continues to happen, and to change the validity of the discourse. This is the best opportunity for generations to really move ahead with a cultural shift, I think.

2018SoFarSoGreat · 15/09/2018 00:53

OP I did not see your thread, but am sad that it was deleted and that you had to start this one. Not sure what happened, but I'm sorry you are being silenced here. Not good. Not okay. Flowers

TheMaddHugger · 15/09/2018 00:57

SMH (((((((Madd Hugs)))))) OP.

ps if it was only deleted today. I believe [maybe] they can bring that post back

Seeingadistance · 15/09/2018 01:05

I saw your thread OP and although I had only read the first page, I was disturbed and shocked not only by what had happened at the bus stop, but also by the way so many posters were minimising it and trying to explain it away.

That thread should have stood as an example of racism and oppression as described so eloquently by the OP, and of the racism and oppression shown by those whose responses were racist and oppressive in their denial and minimising.

It should not have been deleted.

SergeantPfeffer · 15/09/2018 01:26

No shortage of racism on mumsnet at the moment, I’ve almost come to expect it, especially in AIBU Sad Often, it’s not presented as racism, but the OP is written in such a way that you know it’s to invite racist comments. Why MNHQ let’s these threads stand is a bit baffling tbh.

There are also a lot of people in this country that do not get that another persons experience could possibly be different to their own. It massively irritates me that rather than trying to understand another persons point of view they just minimise it to make themselves feel better. YADNBU OP.

SlowlyShrinking · 15/09/2018 01:26

The denial by white posters of black posters’ experiences of racism is shocking. Just like when men tell women that what they experienced wasn’t sexism, when we know it was. Why some white posters can’t see that, I’m not sure really.
I didn’t see your thread, but I’m sorry it was deleted and hope mnhq will reinstate it.

NewUserNameTime · 15/09/2018 03:12

OP have it reported this thread so MN reply?

newplacenofriends · 15/09/2018 05:47

MNHQ why did you delete? Does seem a bit like you were trying to silence OP here.....

Twotailed · 15/09/2018 06:08

Your thread should never have been deleted, it was important. Absolute bullshit, MNHQ.

Twotailed · 15/09/2018 06:11

Ive had freaks trying to touch my pregnant belly. Is that sexism?

Err, yeah. It is. Fairly obviously.

Mummyoflittledragon · 15/09/2018 06:33

I’m so sorry you’ve been made to feel so insignificant. You aren’t. I missed your thread but it clearly touched others. Flowers

daisychain01 · 15/09/2018 06:34

This is a TAAT so will go soon I guess

I hope not, the OP is talking about their own thread! They aren't coming on here bitching about someone else's thread, they are outraged, quite rightly that their thread about their RW experience of racism was removed. Not the same.

BitchQueen90 · 15/09/2018 06:35

I saw your thread OP and I agree with you.

Veronicat · 15/09/2018 06:41

As a mixed race woman, I can assure you that it's very real. I've had people in the past pull my then dreadlocks to see if they real! I can't believe the thread got pulled.

AwkwardSquad · 15/09/2018 06:45

I saw the thread and I agree with the OP too. In Afua Hirsch’s words:

“None of us want to have basic arguments about race. Speaking for myself, there are a million things I would rather do. Instead I find myself on TV arguing over the very fact of my existence, the reality of my daily life, while being shouted down by people who have neither experienced it nor had the humility to acknowledge they have not.”

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/24/white-people-tv-racism-afua-hirsch

I’ve just started listening to “Why I no longer talk to White people about race’, and as a White person, I’m finding it challenging but very important to me to hear and understand.

CognitiveDissonance · 15/09/2018 06:47

I agree with you OP. I agreed with your original thread and I agree with feeling like there is no place for me as a black woman on MN because it seems our experiences as black women are only valid or worthy of being discussed if some other posters can "see" the racism rather than take time to listen to explanations and understand. This is exactly why Reni Eddo Lodge wrote her book 😔

TigerDrankAllTheWaterInTheTap · 15/09/2018 06:48

People touching pregnant woman without her permission - sexist.

People touching a woman's hair without her permission when they wouldn't touch a man's - sexist

People touching a black person's hair without her permission when they wouldn't touch a white person's - racist

I'm sorry, OP.