You're white. You haven't experienced racism

[PatricksRum]

I'm so sick of repeating myself today.
AIBU or is ignorance just bliss?

I am white and i have suffered horrific racism!!

If you want to claim the BBC is teaching our population lies

Now someone has mentioned it

There was a huge Twitter storm about a BBC history YouTube teaching video a few years ago. The information in the video was eventually amended, because it had distorted the truth. Probably done by a well meaning historian, but who had a modern political agenda

The video was a cartoon about Roman Britain. It centered around a Roman army officer and his family. Who were all African. The information stated that this was a "typical" Roman family in Britain.

Were there people of African heritage in Roman Britain. Yes of course. It's a proven fact there were, but was an African family a "typical" Romano British family. No not at all

Even Mary Beard, a famous well respected historian specialising in Roman history, who got unfairly dragged into the debate, admitted in the end that it was a distortion of the truth.

I am white and suffered really bad racism off black people in the UK which completely ruined my teenage years and took me a long time to recover from so I'm sorry OP but you are talking utter bollocks.

@Hmmmm88

I don't doubt you have, and I'm sorry for any racism you have experienced, it is something no one should. However I'm sure you can understand that the systematic racism black people experience everyday, that is entrenched in society, that leads to so many black people being shot every year by racist for no reason other than the colour of their skin, is much worse, even more horrific racism.

Flaxmeadow take it up with the British education system as clearly these are revision notes.
www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zc92xnb/revision/4
I wasn't trying to find extensively detailed academic sources as this is an internet chat. I also don't expect people to do a ton of reading for a simple point, when the straightforward issue is the intimate economic connection between the former colonies and the UK. I don't want to derail with a big discussion of UK industrialization. You could start another thread if you are interested.

I wasn't trying to make the case that cotton was being produced necessarily by people who were enslaved by colonists, as after the war their enslavers were now Americans. The point is that cotton was being grown and harvested in vast quantities from slave labour and traded to England where it stimulated a new economy. It was one factor of industrialization but a major one.

It's also true that some Southern states came later to the cotton trade. Alabama wasn't a state until 1819 when the native people were finally forced off their lands in the western half of the state. The huge plantations that were quickly carved out however, were directly funded by London banks through Anglo-American banks in America such as Baring brothers.

@changeitupagain i can assure you i have experienced it and it was on a daily basis. I was spat on and punched every single day for being white so yes i experienced it alright

Op many black people sold slaves and profited from black slavery. White people fought against slavery and ultimately ended it.
More black people are killed by black people than white people. Looting is just criminal behaviour.

@Muminabun hope you’re happy with yourself. Black people are grieving and you’ve “won” a point on the internet. What a wonderful person you are.

@Hmmmm88 I have no doubt you experienced it and that is truly awful and I am sorry you went through it, there is no justification for it.

But your experience was a few horribly racist people, not a whole racist system which condones the killing of your whole race by not condemning those who do so.

You experienced racism, and no one has a right to erase this and your experiences. But you must understand it is a very different type of racism to those that black people experience every day of their life, merely for the colour of their skin, by systematic entrenched racism, not a few horrible individuals.

Two black police officers have been killed in the rioting. Where is the black lives matter for them. Or does it not fit the narrative of white racism.

I was once told I didn't get a job because the institution had a policy of positive discrimination. I performed best at interview and in selection tests. I had to suck it up.

Do black people or other people of colour want to achieve because they are 2nd best or because they are best? My view is that there can only be true equality when all people are supported to achieve their best rather than the bar being lowered.

There are many many issues but and many many wrongs rooted in wicked things that happened centuries ago. Those things cannot be put right by ingrainong the next generation with bitterness and resentment which becomes reflected and misinterpreted by every glance, every time they apply for and don't get a job. It is made worse by the liberal left in the public sector insisting that due to lack of privilege socially and educationally BAME people should not have to score as highly as white people. That does nothing to help BAME people be best and goes a long way to generating expectations that there will always be an exception or about unfair goalposts. There is an issue about every time a manager notes a black person is late, it's racism rather than a settimg expectations, or a conversation about quality of work turns onto accusations of racism.

What needs to be done is to ensure every black child can access an excellent education, just as every underprivileged white child should be able to access an excellent education. There is a huge section of British Society presently disadvantaged and unable to achieve their potential because they are so badly educated and the basics of a rounded education have been lost in the determination that every young person will leave education with a folder of too often relatively worthless qualifications backed up with a disproportionate sense of entitlement that turns into resentment when they realise that actually their circumstances have not equipped them to be equals on the playing field and the BTecs and NVQS and degrees from post 92's are not going to get them a post-grad job in a ftse100. They've been sold a dream that can't materialise. That's the scandal, not their colour or class

No person should break the law or social boundaries regardless of colour. Regardless of the rules that are broken a civilised society should behave equally towards the lawbreakers and ensure they are treated with the dignity every human deserves and that any force is at all times proportionate. Sentencing needs to be transparent and the punishment must serve as a deterrent.

Do black people or other people of colour want to achieve because they are 2nd best or because they are best? My view is that there can only be true equality when all people are supported to achieve their best rather than the bar being lowered.

Wow.

You do know you’re awake and typing that for real? In public.

I think I’m out of MN now. The racists are all here gleefully posting. MNHQ doesn’t care clearly.

I'm white but I'm of Irish/Roma descent and grew up in 70s London, I have experienced racism. Not to the extent that the BAME community have, but I have experienced it. Try telling 7 year old me that being called a "paddy terrorist bitch" is not racism, or being called a Pikey.

Although it isn't so much now, for hundreds of years there was institutional racism towards the Irish (potato famine), there still is towards the Roma.

Racism is wrong, full stop. My children have the right idea, I looked at Rosa Parks in history with my 6yo, and he was in tears because he was that horrified that someone would be treated differently because of the colour of their skin. As he said "we're all the same really, it's just some people have different colour skin and hair and eyes".

It feels a little like word games, rebranding what might previously have been known as 'institutional racism' as 'racism' and certain other behaviors, that previously would have been labelled 'racist' as 'racial prejudice'. I'm not sure how that's helpful
MollyFish82

I am not sure why quibbling about wording and definitions should matter to anyone when what is at stake in the US is Equal Justice Under The Law (see the west pediment of the US Supreme Court into which these words are carved). Are you suggesting that there is equal justice under the law?

Amy Cooper of New York City, former employee of Franklin Templeton certainly wouldn't agree with you. Video footage shows very interesting body language and tone of voice in the exchange that was taped by a black bird watcher who had a chilling encounter with her. Note the head tilt at 00:12/13 as she threatens to call the cops. At 00:18/19 - 00:21/22 she outlines what is effectively her threat to the life of Christian Cooper, who had told her she must put her dog on a leash. Listen to her taunting the man who has asked her to put her dog on a leash with the entire weight of white power over blacks in America.

Nothing will change until white people as a class confront the power of whiteness, something Amy Cooper wielded with complete confidence. She fully expected the well-spoken, educated black man dressed in MC clothing, with slightly greying hair, glasses, and binoculars around his neck to be afraid. And maybe he was. He should have been.

The point is she expected him to be afraid and she knew why. Calling the police on a black man is the nuclear option.

Op many black people sold slaves and profited from black slavery. White people fought against slavery and ultimately ended it.
More black people are killed by black people than white people.

The continent of Africa, with its host of failed states, endemic corruption and widespread tribal violence is an elephant in the room in these debates.

But America is undoubtedly racist, and I support the protests against police brutality.

@OhTheRoses @mumimabun

You are derailing this thread and being incredibly insensitive to the main issue at hand here. Black people being killed for being black. Yes racism exists against all races and to deny this is untrue wrong but so is to go into a rant about resentment and educational opportunities. Of course these are problems but now is not the time. The time will be when black people aren't being murdered just for being black, and the more people who fight for that the quicker it will happen and then, and only then, can we give the main focus to inequalities that aren't killing people.

Totally disagree with the op, racism isn't solely towards ethnic minorities.
I myself was targeted as a white child along with many other white underage females in this country by Asian grooming gangs. We were spat on and abused and racial references were constantly made. We were abused solely because we were vulnerable white females. Please don't tell me that white people don't understand racism or experience it because that's rubbish. Now as an adult bringing up white/Asian children in a predominantly white area my children have occasionally had racist comments because of their tanned skin but nothing in comparison to the racism I myself as a white person has suffered.
All lives matter, everybody can experience racism and to think that they can't is very uneducated. You are the one stating white supremacy and slavery and that is a very dated opinion. Most of us see us all as equals and you should be a confident woman and state you are equal rather than returning to history. Yes I agree there's still a lot to be learnt and educated on and the death of George floyd was horrendous but to say white peoples can't understand is just ridiculous.

@TehBewilderness, I am nodding at your post of Thu 04-Jun-20 05:36:52.

I am also white, in the US. I am not a citizen but nobody has ever asked me to prove I have the right to live here.

Meanwhile a black President was forced to release his birth cert attesting to his citizenship by birth. The same President was interrupted and accused of lying by a Congressman while he delivered a State of the Union Address, an unprecedented event.

Flaxmeadow take it up with the British education system as clearly these are revision notes.

I know what they are, I just disagree with some of the information .

As you probably know..How much did slavery contribute to the British economy, is a hot tropical debate in history circles. Sometimes tied in with a debate around reparations

This thread is going in many directions. I find it depressing to have to prove the connections of Britain to the slave trade as they are so well known that they should be a given in any conversation about the roots of racism in the two nations.

This thread is a good example of the frustration the OP is describing. When Black people speak up, immediately there is a constant qualifying of everything. Those grotesque charactures of Irish people only shows how there was an audience in British popular media historically for the othering of so many groups who didn't fit the profile of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) citizen of a proud and jingoistic empire.

Most British people were from working class families in the Victorian era and so while wc whites in the UK and USA were trying to improve their standard of living and working conditions, there was a class of people beneath them in the class and racial structure. There is no big secret about who they were and what they looked like. It's disingenuous to suggest otherwise. In this historical moment the descendants of those people are demanding the justice they are still not receiving. They are asking for something simple, to be safe and welcome in their own country. To not be treated as an enemy by those that are supposed to protect them and give them justice.

While I'm sure your experiences were horrific @lotusflower121 that is not the same as racism black people experience. You are not socially unequal because of the colour of your skin

These threads have turned into... yeh but my blight is worse than yours. Disgusting from all sides!

Whilst we have a country that elects a prime minister who talks of watermelon smiles and picanninies and who compares women to letterboxes, we have a real problem that is deeply ingrained.
The USA is shocking in the racism and targeted killings that is accepted but we really shouldn’t be smug in the U.K.