You're white. You haven't experienced racism

[PatricksRum]

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

Takeme

So you were a minority surrounded by a different race majority. You didn't experience this from birth until now, did you? How did it feel to be told you are less superior because of colour of your skin?

Imagine how black people feel surrounded by whites all the time.

When they are actually endengered due to this, there's a risk to health, life, constant scrutiny from people in position of power and they aren't even safe from police misjustice in their own home, sleeping in their beds.

I'm not sure if I completely agree systemic racism, my experience is with upper middle class black men within my family. But my family are UK based and UMC, In my experience it's more class based than race, but I accept that maybe we're not typical.

red it’s horrific you had to go through that. Those men are pigs. Sadly my family’s experience shows that women native to those countries don’t escape that kind of treatment either. As my grandma used to say “women must look fierce and carry a sharp stick.”

White privilege doesn’t mean you’ve never suffered, it just means it wasn’t because of your skin colour. That’s not that hard to understand. No one is saying white people have a perfect life automatically.

I’m white, my life is pretty shit right now but I can still recognise I have white privilege. My life is hard, just not due the colour of my skin.

I have always thought it would be better if the racism black people endure had its own name as it would stop the “whataboutery” shit. In the way that there is anti- semitism and islamaphobia.

Please use your privilege to help our fight.

I believe I do in my every day life, but what do you need exactly? And I hope that doesn't come across as a request for education because it isn't. I challenge racism where I see it, I understand that others do not experience the automatic acceptance I do, as a white person. I genuinely want to know what you need but I am having horrified posts directed at me not not knowing.

Maybe I haven’t experienced racism but I refuse to feel guilty for being white

Please use your privilege to help our fight.

Just to reiterate my point @YgritteSnow this is what you should read

@TakeMeToTheDarkSideOfTheMoon
Sorry to hear that.
However what you experienced was an attack. Not an attack due to your superiority.

Bold fail 😅

With all due respect OP, I do think you need to educate yourself a little here too. My stepmother left her HOME country and came to the UK because she was terrified she would be killed (which includes being shot at) for the fact that she is WHITE. She occasionally visits, but has to stay in a completely enclosed and guarded estate compound.

If you have a race (as we all do), you CAN experience racism.

But other forms of racism are not and should not be the current focus.

Black lives absolutely do definitely matter. From the bottom of my heart I hope things change.

OP. How can we help. What practical steps would you like to see white people undertake to help tackle this with you?

I came out of a kosher bakery. I had 2 men chase me down the road shouting obscenities. Calling me a fucking jew and telling me to go home, no one wants me here (my maternal grandfather has been in the UK since Cromwell let the Jews back in so I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go).

I was terrified, it was late, my car was parked down a deserted side road.

I'm as white as they come with dark blonde hair. Is that racism?

@schoolsoutforcovid. I no interest whatsoever in arguing with you. You directed a "shocked" post at me. I wanted some clarification of why you did that. Still haven't got any but never mind.

@schoolsoutforcovid Thank you so much. From the bottom of my heart.
It's our fight but we need people like you.
You are our voices when we cannot be heard.

OP
'changeitupagain
You are of an ethnic minority and therefore will have sadly experienced it too.

Being of an ethnic minority yourself, how do you think it's possible to think you superior to a, for example 70% majority race compared to your 1.2%?'

OP I take it you do know that in some countries white people are the heavy minority?

@Porcupineinwaiting

So *@rosiejaune* are you saying that antisemitism isnt a form of racism, or that some Jewish people arent white? Or that white Jews dont experience antisemitism?

Did I say any of those things?

All Jews are mixed-race. Even light-skinned Ashkenazi Jews are 50% Middle Eastern (even if the Holocaust resulted in them looking less Semitic, as the whiter-looking ones were probably more likely to survive).

And of course there are plenty of Jews with heritage from every other ethnicity (Chinese, Indian, Ethiopian, etc) too. They commonly experience racism within Israel, due to their origins and skin tone.

So light-skinned Jews (at least secular ones not wearing identifiable clothing) have white privilege to some extent, as strangers on the street will assume they're white - police are no more likely to stop and harm them than white people.

But as soon as people e.g. hear their name, they know they're Jewish and will act accordingly with their prejudice (whether they realise they're doing it or not).

I am Jewish, by the way.

@redbigbananafeet did you see Rosie's post about not just being a numerical minority but a social majority?

"The people arguing that they're white and they've experienced racism"

Are you aware that many thousands of rapes and other acts of abuse and assault, along with murders, blackmail and so on have been established, in court, to be racially motivated in the uk, and that it's well understood that for crimes like rape the ones where a conviction happens are a minority of the incidents in that category?

This is a site with a large audience. Someone reading your post might not fit into your EXPLICIT CATEGORISATION OF HUMAN BEINGS BASED ON SKIN COLOUR. Just saying.

@Cornana - what utter balls tho. Why on earth would “systematic racism not be a thing that white people face”? Try living in China or the Gulf or many other countries with a majority non white population. It’s just a load of rubbish.

Of course black people suffer from racism. But so does every other group. Maybe less often or in different ways but it still happens and is just as harmful. Even in the Uk White people can suffer racism for all sorts of reasons e.g I’ve seen some horrible treatment of Romanians. I’m a Jew. We suffer racism too.

You might think you’re exceptional op, but sadly you’re just another person with some dodgy racist views.

@savingallday Regardless of the country you are in. You hold the power worldwide.
We have no power over you hence the inability to experience racism. Racial prejudice yes 100%, racism no.

Again, this was not an attack it was a campaign because they felt I was inferior because of my skin colour. I was told I was unworthy because I had pale skin. I had endured 5 months of this and had to be moved after finally my complaint was heard after police were involved after one held a knife up to me threatening to cut my "white face off". I was terrorised because of my race.

I reiterate that this takes nothing away from the trouble black people regularly receive and I am firmly behind Black Lives Matter.

@PatricksRum I'll never stop challenging and I'll bring my kids up to do the same. I'll talk about it all the time...because actually, once it's articulated by someone you actually know you might understand it.

OP I take it you do know that in some countries white people are the heavy minority?

In the west?

Or are we also trying to solve world hunger, malaria, global warming, and the bloody coronavirus on this thread too?

It's as if people cannot stand the fact that systemic racism against POC in the west is the focus of this.

Can we not just let them have this? Please?

And for the record I'm white, but I have so many American friends who are POC, and british family who are POC and my heart breaks for them.

kingsheathbelle

You educate yourself lass. This is 2 minutes and I think it will help. And it’s funny.