How am I a racist?!?

[Cinderella1]

Still a bit shaken after an exchange with someone on Nextdoor site that called me a racist. Post might be long but don't want to be accused of drip-feeding, so here it is: Original post was about the tragic fire that took the life of four young kids. A neighbour posted this:
"After the tragedy of 4 little boys died in a house fire, I will ask for any single parent which need a help with their kids for a babysitting during Xmas , I am happy to help.
I am not child minder and not insured but I am mum with two grown up boys.

Pls pls do not leave your kids alone". This person then starts asking if she's had a DBS check, etc, so my response is here: "so you think people leaving their very young kids alone for hours is less of a risk than leaving them with a neighbour? This site is not Twitter. What's next - needed a food hygiene certificate and chefs qualifications when helping in a soup kitchen? The whole world will be a better place if we got to know our neighbours better and could ask for help when needed!" , Then him: "not sure what you think your post is about? Please vent some where else where they can understand you. Me: "it's written in British English - apologies for the confusion for those who need to revisit their comprehension skills."Then this from him: "oh sorry being
Welsh I am sorry I’ve offended all you Anglo Saxons as you’ve just offended me" "Racist", "going to apologise for your racism Dora?? Or are you just an Anglo Saxon bigot???" Me: "clearly your geography is as bad as your comprehension. Wales is still part of Great Britain and English is the official language!" Him: "reported to site as clear racism. No we don’t identify ourselves as Great Britain, we obviously have our own Synedd or do you deny that??". AIBU here or is this simply insane? I am not even Anglo-Saxon btw

@MaskingForIt

Bet he’s wanking off over winding you up. With people like that the best course of approach is simply to ignore them, and if you have to say anything, just say someone nice to the person offering.

Sorry, OP. No advice unfortunately except for maybe you could have replaced the word "British" with "Plain" as in, "Plain English". But otherwise, no you have done nothing wrong and as pp suggested, tell him to go and beat himself off to feel better and stop projecting his insecurities onto you. Wanker.... literally! 😂😂

@EmpressCixi

You started a bun fight that then got ugly: Him: asking if she's had a DBS check?

You should have let it be. This was a question for OP. It’s relevant info and DBS checks are very common. I had to have one just to chaperone on school field trips. But no, you start a bun fight by replying:

You: "so you think people leaving their very young kids alone for hours is less of a risk than leaving them with a neighbour? This site is not Twitter. What's next - needed a food hygiene certificate and chefs qualifications when helping in a soup kitchen? The whole world will be a better place if we got to know our neighbours better and could ask for help when needed!"

Very judgmental. Merely asking if OP has a DBS check doesn’t mean he thinks children home alone is safer than with a neighbour. Then you get very sarcastic and cutting about it by ranting about soup kitchens etc.

Him: "not sure what you think your post is about? Please vent some where else where they can understand you.

Valid response to your aggressive rant imho.

Me: "it's written in British English - apologies for the confusion for those who need to revisit their comprehension skills."

You engage in a personal attack, saying his English must not be very good...which imho is a racist attack because it implies you think he isn’t English and that’s why he’s did not “understand” when really we all know that’s a polite euphemism for “why are you being so mean”?

him: "oh sorry being Welsh I am sorry I’ve offended all you Anglo Saxons as you’ve just offended me" "Racist", "going to apologise for your racism Dora?? Or are you just an Anglo Saxon bigot???"

English is descended from Aenglish, the language of the Anglo Saxons....so he’s got a point about 1) you did a racist attack on his “English” and ooops, he does happen to be ethnic Welsh, not English, so yes you were racist. Whether you intended to or not with your insult about his English, unfortunately for you, the recipient was not ethnic English.

Me: "clearly your geography is as bad as your comprehension. Wales is still part of Great Britain and English is the official language!"

And that’s you digging a hole....

Him: "reported to site as clear racism. No we don’t identify ourselves as Great Britain, we obviously have our own Synedd or do you deny that??"

He got you. I think you owe an apology. You started a bun fight and then proceeded to cover yourself in shit.

You what? 🤣

you rose to it and kept replying- that's when you mute a thread/ turn off notifications. Once you realise people are just looking for an argument etc

@maddening

She did not do racist attacks Empress ! Don't be daft. The British English was mentioned prior to the man taking offence due to his being Welsh. And British English is also spoken in Wales alongside welsh, he was being deliberately offended. I am married to a Welsh man, from a city that borders with Wales, it is one of my favourite places, no beef with Wales at all etc, the guy was looking for a fight.

I am not daft, thank you very much.

Posting to an unknown person online
it's written in British English - apologies for the confusion for those who need to revisit their comprehension skills.

Racism question aside. It is clearly a deliberate insult to the persons reading comprehension. So I don’t agree feeling offended by it would be “deliberately being offended” or taking offence at nothing. It was a personal attack and insult.

Now to why is it also racist. Is a racist type of insult because it

1. Implies the unknown person may not be British, and therefore
2. Implies that English is not their native language Hence the assertion they have a lack of “comprehension skills” in “British English”

It doesn’t matter whether the unknown person is English or not, the angle is still an ethnically based attack, as it is also say the obverse, that any native “British English” reader would have clearly comprehended the post referred to and not questioned what the OP meant by it.

Unfortunately for OP, the unknown person then revealed that they are not English but Welsh...which is recognised in law as a different ethnicity and thus can be victims of racism. So the racist insult having been done to a person of a nonEnglish ethnicity, thereby became a completed racist attack.

@maddening
Now to walk you through the second racist attack

To then respond to a Welsh person after mocking their “British English” “comprehension skills” who has called that out rightly as a racist attack, with not an apology but the following:

clearly your geography is as bad as your comprehension. Wales is still part of Great Britain and English is the official language!

So, first OP is telling a Welsh person they don’t know where Wales is. Informing them that Wales is part of Great Britain, a lovely reminder of their status as a conquered nation by the English, followed up by as a subjugated nation, English is the official language. Which is actually incorrect because the Welsh have regained the right to speak their language, teach in it and have gotten it recognised as an official language. This insult is an Imperialist boot to the bum type of racist attack.

Imagine the same exchange between say a Nigerian and an English poster. This is not so different.

rightly as a racist attack

Xenophobic.

Umm I think this is a defo a upcoming facist

@GatoradeMeBitch

No, not xenophobic. Welsh are a legally recognised minority nationality and ethnicity and as such, any discriminatory attacks fall under the Equality Act 2010 as racism per the Acts definition of race:
“1)Race includes—

(a)colour;

(b)nationality;

(c)ethnic or national origins.”

I am a foreigner and I can see exactly see what you meant.
He just run out of arguments and didn't know what to say so pulled this ridiculous accusation of his a...

As mentioned by a previous poster British English is a term widely used by language teachers and ESOL learners to distinguish from US English and various other forms. OP has already said that English is not their first language, hence their use of the term.
It absolutely is not racist and it's only people who are unfamiliar with languages who would suggest it is. However, once informed, they have no excuse to continue with that line of attack.

Yes, OP attacked with sarcasm which always draws out the worst of social media trolls. No, they were not racist.

@EmpressCixi you’re my hero, loving your responses.

Not the point I know but you actually do need a food hygiene certification if you want to work in a soup kitchen. I volunteered one Christmas and needed to do a course online before I could start.

You started a petty argument and lost.

I don't think, based on the evidence, you're a racist. You are a twit for engaging on Nextdoor with a dick. Lie down with dogs and get fleas OP.

English isn't actually my own first language so I am genuinely trying to understand how can those words (sarcastic as they were) being construed as racism

Instead of, "apologies for the confusion for those who need to revisit their comprehension skills," you should have simply written, "apologies, this isn't my native language."

He was being very rude about your language skills; your English is excellent and easily comprehensible. However, "comprehension" is more typically used to suggest an insult. (Additionally, Wales is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland but English is an official language not the official language. A subtle but important difference.)

FWIW, I do not think you were being racist. Your English skills are excellent. However, languages are quite complex and it is easy to be caught out by unintended interpretations. As you speak 7 languages, you must be aware that many words/phrases do not translate literally between languages. I can assure you that - superficially - all English language variants (UK, Aus, USA, etc) are readily understood in context. It is mostly just spelling and some nouns that are different eg colour/color, rawlplug/anchor, flipflop/thong.

I hope this makes you feel better and eases your concern. x

NextDoor is a hotbed of loons. Well, ours is anyway - you should have seen the posts when the council gave us smaller waste bins to encourage more recycling (complete with the ability to have a larger one if you could prove you needed it), you’d have thought the council were removing everyone’s first-borns. And as for the time someone complained that a wide footpath through farmland had an electric fence down one side (“Won’t someone think of the kiddies that could get hurt?” “Well, keep the blighters away from the fence then!”), well…the most charitable thing that could be said about that bun fight was that it was highly entertaining.

Ignore them, OP!

@oviraptor21
As mentioned by a previous poster British English is a term widely used by language teachers and ESOL learners to distinguish from US English and various other forms.

That’s not the context the OP used it in though. Let’s review the context:

Him to that OP: Do you have a DBS check? (Substantially)

Our OP: so you think people leaving their very young kids alone for hours is less of a risk than leaving them with a neighbour? This site is not Twitter. What's next - needed a food hygiene certificate and chefs qualifications when helping in a soup kitchen? The whole world will be a better place if we got to know our neighbours better and could ask for help when needed!"

His response: not sure what you think your post is about? Please vent some where else where they can understand you.

Our OP: it's written in British English - apologies for the confusion for those who need to revisit their comprehension skills."

So, firstly, the “it” she is referring to that is written in British English doesn’t actually use any unique British words or construction. In fact, it actually has the Americanism of “kids” used to refer to children, so could argue it’s written in US English moreso than British English.

Secondly, OPs intent is clear she’s not genuinely sorry for any confusion for “British English” because it’s not actually written in a particularly British way. There is no confusion like you have with sayings have opposite meanings, ie to table an issue in British English means to put it on the table to address now, whereas in American English to table an issue means to set it aside to address later. None of that in her post. Her intent was obviously to be insulting back to the person who objected to her aggressive rant in response to his DBS question that wasn’t even directed to her in the first place.

But of course, people who think the OP is reasonable to use insulting comments in discourse, are likely to also engage in using insults on those who disagree with them too. As you so handily demonstrated by saying myself and those who agree with me are essentially ignorant/uneducated:
it's only people who are unfamiliar with languages who would suggest it is (racist)

You started a fight so you could virtue signal as much as the op and now you want to be mad that he reacted. Yabu

I believe there was a court case in which it was decided that Wales and being Welsh did not meet that definition and he was being ridiculous.

Telling people off for their comprehension skills is pretty rude

Kids as an informal term for children isn't an Americanism. It's existed in English in this sense since the 16th century. www.etymonline.com/word/kid#etymonline_v_1843

Rude, sarcastic, patronising - yes

Racist/xenophobic - a bit more open to interpretation, I say no, but I don't disagree with those saying yes

Correct for stating it is safer that a random, unDBS-ed, internet-posting person look after a child - hell no

@EmpressCixi I think everyone here got your opinion - you don't need to keep ramming it down people's throats again and again, so just give it a rest! If you want to feel insulted and offended by anyone who doesn't agree with you (Such as @oviraptor21) you will be. I've already said that he made other comments to other people (too long for here) before I made my first. My use of "British English" was clearly unfortunate - should've used "Plain English" instead but was in no way meant to be racist, FGS, just plain sarcastic! The original lady who offered help posted just a couple of hours after the incident. Was her offer genuine, if a bit misguided? Most of us, who aren't jaded cynics seem to think so. Emotions where running very high in our local community. Her first response to the tragedy is "Hope there is something I can do to help prevent something like this from happening again!" His -"Do you have a DBS check?????" My own somewhat apparently limited comprehension skills, lead me to believe that there is quite a difference between someone saying - "Kind offer but it might be good to still have a check run" and someone asking in the way he did - context! Was I intentionally sarcastic and possibly insulting - yes, insult me back - sure, I can take it. I guess him calling me an "Anglo-Saxon bigot" isn't racist either in your book? But to call someone racist in their own community and even report them over something like this is just plain bonkers to me!

But that's the salient point OP. You thought one thing, he thinks another. As DM says "opinions are like arseholes, we all have one but we don't all need to hear them".

Poking at someone for not understanding "British English" when you don't know them and have no idea of their ethnicity or background does sound pretty racist, yeah. Maybe stop picking arguments with people on social media in future?