to feel bad about not acknowledging the George Floyd murder to my employee this morning?

[user47000000000]

One of the girls who works for me happens to be black. I happen to be white. This is only relevant in context of this situation.

We have a great professional relationship and whilst we aren't friends outside work I know I have been a support to her with some personal things and with her professional development.

This morning I asked how her wkend was and she was very flat. I sensed something was wrong and asked her if she was alright, again she was flat and said she didn't really do anything. Her DH is a frontline worker and we have talked lots about her anxieties with this and how she finds it hard to relax so I thought "she clearly doesn't want to talk to me but is clearly not happy" so I said "well I hope you managed to get some down time to relax" to which she replied "well its hard to do that with everything that's been going on this weekend in the world".

I then twigged.

We had a very brief, awkward moment and then just talked about work. She didn't address it directly and neither did I.

At the end of the call I said "Look, I'm sorry if I was insensitive earlier". and she said "don't worry, everyone's the same".

I feel awful as I have obviously been outraged, saddened, angry about everything that's happened and have thought about it loads, what I can do, whether I'm raising my children in a way which fights injustice etc etc but I didn't think to mention it this morning. so is this white privilege? I feel awful.

Being Rom is a protected characteristic in terms of race and nationality, and oppression of Roma is racism.

Not all racism is based on skin colour, or specifically black skin colour, in this case.

Dev; all strength to your education campaign.

In the end, things have to be different. This needs to be a genuine turning point. And while I understand the need to put targeted pressure on the U.S Govt about their post/slavery supremacist systemic oppression of Black people, our govt need to know that discrimination and inequality are not acceptable for any group.

But right now, with a shared history with the African Americans, I understand why BLM is of acute importance.

I think ethnic minorities with white skin can "pass" as white at first glance and so the prejudice they experience is limited compared to an umabiguously black person who will always be seen as "black" before anything else.

Also, I've found that ethnic minorities with white skin who experience racism such as Jewish people, usually do because they are not considered "white" by the racists and so are automatically less than

YinMinBue

I totally agree, and it is so important for the focus to be on BLM at the moment.
Of course I'm still accessing Roma news across Europe and words fail me.