You're white. You haven't experienced racism

[PatricksRum]

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

... Black Codes, Jim Crow

What has this got to do with the UK?

And what have USA trade deals and strategic political maneuvering after WW2 to do with everyday peoples experiences in the UK.

Our law enforcement, military, parliament, political parties, trade unions, and their history, are nothing like the USA. Especially law enforcement

Of course it’s a lot less common, but I know of a white girl who experienced the most blatant racism while living and working in Japan.

@Trevsadick

White people were always free, as inmathanxiety'sillustration of the woman in Central Park, to call the full force of the state down on a black person.

Not if you are a white female teenager, in the UK being used as a sex slave by an Asian gang.

stop coming back to this. One societal problem does not negate another.

I think lots of posters are getting off on this thread now. There is blatant trollery and whataboutery and it's just not worth engaging with those people.

I've not read the full thread, @PatricksRum, but wanted to say that yes, it's worth repeating, because some of us are learning from the message that's being yelled out since George Floyd was murdered. I didn't know the difference between racism and racial prejudice, and now I do. I've not had these debates with people, and so although I understand racism, I didn't understand the terminology for this.

I think those who want to argue shout louder than the ones who are thinking 'Oh, I see what you mean', and so you probably wouldn't know mostly if you were reaching some people. That's why I wanted to post here.

No, I'm relating my own experience. Funny how defensive that makes you.

No you didn't. You told someone that their knowing experience of their hom country was 'rare'.

Thats not relating your own exeprience. It make me defensive of people being told, that they don't know their home country and their experience doesn't count.

Why wojld it make me defensive of me? I am neither Chinese or white? I have no horse in that particular race.

If you were relating your experience, only. You wouldn't have added the 'your experience is rare' and told them they are wrong.....about their home country.

I can't believe the amount of whataboutism on this thread. Yes many people have suffered injustice and pain but right now we all need to put that aside and let people of colour Express their grief, anger, frustration and pain.

Right now it's time to focus on black lives matter - yes all lives matter but for some inexplicable reason black lives have mattered less for far too long and we should be asking ourselves why not trying to justify.

Saying yes but......... is the same as when my friend tells me she has terminal cancer I tell her I understand her pain because I had a miscarriage. Yes we both have pain but it's not comparable and it's not the time for me to share my experience but to put my pain to one side and support her or find someone not in pain to share my pain with.

Op yanbu and it isn't your responsibility to educate white people I am sorry you are dealing with this on top of everything else.

I wandered on here to see if George Floyd was a topic on MN. Just got to pg 2 and trying to understand the debate until....

'...racism? Or “knee on your neck” racism?

@AvranaKernsBestSpider - I'm never going to forget the phrase 'knee on your neck racism'.

@SharonasCorona - No, I'm relating my own experience. Funny how defensive that makes you

Yes, you related your own experience. But you then told PlanDeRaccordement that her experience of her own country sounded "rare". So Trevsadick was spot on. You were using your own limited experience of China to tell someone how racism works in her own country and that her knowledge and experiences of her home country were wrong. Funny how you then get all defensive and accuse Trevsadick of being defensive, which she clearly was not.

I’m from an Irish background living in the U.K. my grandparents lived in London in the 1950s when the rule ‘no blacks, no dogs, no Irish’ applied in many HMOs and letting agencies. I was educated in London during the IRA bombing campaign of the 1970s. My mum married an English Protestant whose family strongly and openly disapproved of him marrying a bog trotting papist. Even now I sometimes hear ‘stupid Paddy’ jokes or ‘jokes’ about Catholics and big families. So we certainly experienced racism as well as sectarianism.

That being said, what we experienced was nothing compared to the institutional racism that appears to be engrained in the US culture or the underlying acceptance of white superiority that pervades in Europe and the wider world as a whole. And that’s why this middle aged white woman will be attending a kneeling protest in support of BLM this morning.

stopcoming back to this. One societal problem does not negate another

Where did I say it did. I quoted someone saying that white people always, have the ability to call the police and the full force of the state down.

No they don't. I havent made a judgement about anything negating others. I have spoken about racisim, about racisim against white people. And how thats not the issue at the moment and people need to accept that.

The statement I quoted was factually inaccurate. I pointed it out. Nowhere did I say its worse or cancels anything out.

Funny how people want people to stop coming back to young girls being abused.

Right now it's time to focus on black lives matter

you are right, but people like the OP who with such a poor attitude are not helping.

Denying that racism exist in other countries or circumstances because you haven't experienced it yourself is ironically exactly what the OP is complaining about, then doing exactly so 2 sentences later.

It ridicules the whole movement.

@Trevsadick because when I was in China, Chinese people were unfailingly friendly to white people. So I don't think Plan's experience was the norm.

Why do you have such a problem with this?

Of course white people can experience racisum.

Those poor white girls in Rotherham were victims of racisum.
The Irish suffered for many year from the English due to racisum.
White women can be harrased horribly in Arab country's due to racisum.
Jewish people have been the subjects of slavery and genocide, due to racisum.

Yes Black people suffer horribly in many many countries around the world. But to claim they are the only people that can suffer racism because they have no power and all white people have all the power is just factually and historically incorrect.

It ridicules the whole movement.

Only to ridiculous people.

[quote PatricksRum]@emptyplinth White people are the ethnic majority. It's simply not possible.

Why, again, am I forced to educate you? This is not my duty.[/quote]
It is possible. It's happened to me.

You're wrong.

I am white and have experienced white people making fun of my pale skin (I am too white). People are just vile in general.

"Those poor white girls in Rotherham were victims of racisum.
The Irish suffered for many year from the English due to racisum.
White women can be harrased horribly in Arab country's due to racisum.
Jewish people have been the subjects of slavery and genocide, due to racisum."

You list all these examples, but don't mention the Asian people or Islamophobia, which is as bad as anti-Semitism in the UK. Your agenda is very obvious.

Racism exists wherever you are the minority.

As a white person I've been called some horrible things when living in countries where I am the visible minority. I was sexually assaulted because as a white woman I'm considered "easy" by some. I've also had kidnap prevention training because my skin colour makes me a target in some places.

But the present focus on racism comes as a result of George Floyd's murder. Let's not forget that. My personal shit isn't relevant. Black lives matter and that should be the focus right now.

The more I read the more I am confused about this thread...

I'm American (living in Britain). My mother is Hispanic, my paternal grandparents were holocaust survivors. Minority groups have of course experienced racism regardless of colour. White people can and have experienced racism.

I think what the OP means is that white people in Britain have not experienced systemic racism in their own country as black people have. This is true. It's also important though not to conflate American issues with British ones.

I am white and have experienced white people making fun of my pale skin (I am too white).

Yes! Let's recognise pale white people as a protected minority please.

White people are the ethnic majority. It's simply not possible.

Where? In the world? I don't think that's true. In individual countries, only in some. In individual areas in European countries, also not true.

To be white is to gain privilege on account of your race, but it does not mean you are necessarily privileged in an absolute sense. Most working class white people will have tougher lives than, say, Obama’s daughters. An average working class boy from a poor neighborhood in Britain will have a tougher life than an average middle class woman.

That is an obvious point (or at least it should be) but seems it’s often brushed aside. And failing to acknowledge it means that the fact of white privileged or male privilege is often, understandably, met with resistance or resentment by underprivileged people who see people pointing and saying “you are SO privileged because you are white/male”. And they resent it and refuse to acknowledge the privilege they DO have.

Until society has greater economic justice in general, racism and sexism will just go round and round without getting solved. It’s like expecting a team to build a safe and functional home with insufficient building materials... and then when the thing collapses blaming the mostly white builders on £10 an hour rather than the building company - and, yes, those guys in the company office are mainly white and male but too, but there also women and POC there. And the defining thing they all share is their greed.