Questions for white people

[Questionspandemic]

Why are white people offended by black people talking about racism?

Obviously not all white people are racist and name changed - in case of gaslighting.

My point was that many of the people stopped and searched are doing something that warrants them being stopped and searched

What does 'many' even mean? And what do you mean they're doing something? Doing what? Ok you can stop a young black boy in Lewisham and find he might have a tiny bit of weed on him and use that statistic to 'prove' stop and search is justified but it's nonsense. Go and stop some of the hoo-ray Henry's in the city on a Friday night or some of the poshos on the kings road and see how many of them have drugs on them..why not stop and search them?

Older white men are more likely to be paedophiles...why don't we randomly stop them and search any phones, laptops they have on them...stop enough and you'll be bound to find something.

@EDSGFC

Tell me I suffer the original sin of whiteness and I'll quietly remove myself from the conversation.

Yes, this.

I don't really respond to this style of campaigning, which ironically comes mostly from white allies, new to this issues.

It's evangelical in tone. It's shallow analysis. It doesn't allow for the wide range of black thought on issues of race.

I prefer to quietly do my thing. I'm confident I'm performing my small role in tackling racism in my country. That's all I'm called to do. I don't need people to see me genuflect.

@Itisbetter

Knobs come in all shapes sizes and colours is NOT news.

My point was that many of the people stopped and searched are doing something that warrants them being stopped and searched This is true if you think driving your car in an entirely unremarkable way but not being white is “doing something that warrants being stopped and searched“.

@EDSGFC

Tell me I suffer the original sin of whiteness and I'll quietly remove myself from the conversation.

Yes, this.

Yup.

@Itisbetter

Knobs come in all shapes sizes and colours is NOT news.

Yep.

It’s not acceptable for any couple to be discriminated within the family, so those saying ‘but I’m white so that’s ok’ well no actually it isn’t and pretty much all of my contacts of all hues would agree with that.

We shouldn’t tar all people with the same brush.

Older white men are more likely to be paedophiles...why don't we randomly stop them and search any phones, laptops they have on them...stop enough and you'll be bound to find something.

If that was found to yield results then yes, no problem with it. For sure, gather the intelligence to target particular groups.

I want to live in a society where I don't have to fear for my safety, or my kids safety, when we walk out of our front door because some yobbo will think nothing of pulling out a knife to rob you of a tenner, let alone your phone or a kids bike. We've had spates of gangs mugging school kids on the way home from school. They target schools in my area that are close to tube stations, mug half a dozen kids and then escape on the train before the police turn up. This was such a problem that schools requested parents collect students from school if at all possible.

We shouldn't have to live like that so if that means the police deem it necessary to stop and search people then I'm ok with that. What I do want though is accurate records kept of each and every stop and then independent oversight of that data to make sure that a particular group are not being targeted unjustly. I think police bodycams are a good thing - every one should be recording continuously so that there can be no question of a corrupt officer only recording "good" stops for example.

This is true if you think driving your car in an entirely unremarkable way but not being white is “doing something that warrants being stopped and searched“.

No, I don't think it's acceptable at all.

If that was found to yield results then yes, no problem with it. For sure, gather the intelligence to target particular groups

Oh please, if police randomly started to stop older white men and demanded they handed over any phones or laptops to be checked by the roadside, there would be riots on the streets.

Oh please, if police randomly started to stop older white men and demanded they handed over any phones or laptops to be checked by the roadside, there would be riots on the streets.

Well, we've had riots for years about police stopping black people. If police can show that it's justified, that the end justified the means then personally I've got no problem with it. The reality is that I doubt the pice actually need to stop random older white men in the street in order to catch them. I'd imagine, in this day, that the internet is involved in their crimes so increase electronic surveillance, far more sting operations similar to.the ones conducted by the paedophile hunter groups, monitoring of internet traffic etc. I would imagine that's a better way of catching them than street stops where the phones they carry may well have no evidence on them at all because it's all on their computer at home.

@EDSGFC stop and search in isolation is fairly uneconomical. Really we need a return to community/intelligence based policing, so where you have gangs outside stations you move resource to reduce it.

Off the top of my head, it’s worked before in Stoke Newington, Glasgow and Tottenham.

The task force set up to reduce crack crime in Tottenham was so successful that its budget was reduced then disbanded. www.amazon.co.uk/Crack-House-Harry-Keeble/dp/1847391524?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Random stop and search just harasses folk and only produces 30% of crime. I know coppers who see non-intelligence led S&S as a waste of time.

But the above is waaayyy off topic so I’ll not comment further.

The title of your post, "Questions for white people" is racist, just as it would be if it was Questions for black people, or Questions for South Asian British people. It's lumping a huge group of people together based on the colour of their skin. People try to soften it by adding the word 'community' but it's still gross.

@changerr

The title of your post, "Questions for white people" is racist, just as it would be if it was Questions for black people, or Questions for South Asian British people. It's lumping a huge group of people together based on the colour of their skin. People try to soften it by adding the word 'community' but it's still gross.

Yeah. We all not only look different, but also think differently, have different morals, ethics, habits and traditions. I am European and UK is still a completely different world😂 Plus not all of us benefited from slavery. If my family got anywhere near slavery, they would probs be sold too...

I think lots of issues come from people talking about US style racism when talking to Brits about racism. Completely different thing there!

Phoenix21

I absolutely agree. Whatever is used should be intelligence led and targeted. Obviously that won't eliminate individuals who behave erratically and arouse suspicion eg see an officer, turn round and run.

But yes, I would agree that measures should be targeted.

The title of your post, "Questions for white people" is racist, just as it would be if it was Questions for black people, or Questions for South Asian British people. It's lumping a huge group of people together based on the colour of their skin. People try to soften it by adding the word 'community' but it's still gross.

Do explain why you think a question addressed to people of a particular race, about race, is 'racist'?

@Questionspandemic Is that you PatricksRum or whatever you’re called?

Plus not all of us benefited from slavery. If my family got anywhere near slavery, they would probs be sold too...

That's how I feel. One side of my family were Polish Jews and fled here to live in slums in Londons East End. I can't imagine what they suffered, or their parents and grandparents suffered, living through the pograms or what their lives were like but to think that they benefitted from slavery seems to me, absurd.

Likewise though, did any working class people in Britain benefit from it? If so, how? Reading about how poor people lived in the 17 and 1800s how did those people benefit?

I think the police should be able to stop and search/use intelligence lead policing on whichever demographic is committing the most crime in any given area if they believe they have cause to do so.

To extrapolate that to be racist is to try to cover up the stats.

When the IRA was at its height Irish people were targetted, that philosophy should apply across the board. If grooming gangs are proven to be predominantly Asian then they should be targetted, if paedophiles fit certain characteristics ditto. White hooray henries may fit the cokehead/dealing/ tax-dodging box, so target them.

Colour should not mean we shy away from factual evidence with regard to who commits what type of crime and where.

Everyone should want to see less crime and safer streets so if that means your demographic fits the bill for closer scrutiny, so be it.

I have no issue acknowledging I have white privelege. and that racism is a huge problem in the UK. One thing I don't feel is guilt, though. I did not oppress anyone and am not to blame for anything my white ancestors did. I have benefited from white privilege yes. But I wish that everybody has privelege. The issue isn't that I have privilege it is that black people don't have it and they should. We all should.

@EDSGFC

Plus not all of us benefited from slavery. If my family got anywhere near slavery, they would probs be sold too...

That's how I feel. One side of my family were Polish Jews and fled here to live in slums in Londons East End. I can't imagine what they suffered, or their parents and grandparents suffered, living through the pograms or what their lives were like but to think that they benefitted from slavery seems to me, absurd.

Likewise though, did any working class people in Britain benefit from it? If so, how? Reading about how poor people lived in the 17 and 1800s how did those people benefit?

also Jewish and yes, I agree with this one hundred per cent.

The same way you benefit now from your clothes, food etc being made in impoverished countries by workers paid pennies.

@GoatWardrobe

The title of your post, "Questions for white people" is racist, just as it would be if it was Questions for black people, or Questions for South Asian British people. It's lumping a huge group of people together based on the colour of their skin. People try to soften it by adding the word 'community' but it's still gross.

Do explain why you think a question addressed to people of a particular race, about race, is 'racist'?

Race is a social construct. Lumping people together on the basis of skin colour, or in many cases not even skin colour but how they identify, indicates a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits, opinions, lived experience etc. Which is racist.

Beyond racist, it's prejudiced...
"Questions for Jews"
"Questions for Muslims"
"Questions for trans people"
All are implying that these people are all alike in some way, rather than individuals.

@purpleboy

I'd agree with most of what been said already but I also think that it's very generalised 'white people do this' 'White people do that' it then becomes personal because you're including all the non racist white people in the discussion about the negative things racist White people do and they don't feel they deserve to be lumped in with them, I can no more control a group of people I don't even know than I can my ancestors.

No.

Only if one says ALL white people are they including all white people.

Eye roll

[quote EmbarrassedUser]@Questionspandemic Is that you PatricksRum or whatever you’re called?[/quote]