Does the UK have a racism problem?

[JolllyBee]

In just the last 24 hours alone we've had in the news:

Prince William’s godmother quits palace over comments to black charity boss

Meghan Markle had several 'disgusting' and credible threats to her life, Met cop reveals

Various people's census rants going viral and getting a scary amount of support

James McAvoy shocked by hometown racism in Glasgow after castmates abused on street

and a few days prior:

London Fire Brigade houses a toxic culture of bullying, racism and misogyny, inquiry finds

Yep, like Travellers. But according to someone on this thread, they don't count.

Yes I think we do have a problem in the UK.

Whether it's overt racism where people feel emboldened by an increasingly right wing government and Home Secretary(ies), casual racism (mentioning someone's race or nationality when it's not relevant), or unconscious bias, it exists in the UK without a doubt.

The fact that there are more racist countries out there doesn't make ours not racist.

Er, yes schools do…

When did it become part of the national curriculum? When I was at secondary school 1999-2004 (england) we weren’t taught about colonialism at all (or partition).

@Squeezita · Today 09:11
WeDontTalkAboutBrunoNoNoNo · Today 09:06
I have grey hair now and do not like it when people assume (wrongly) I don't have my full faculties and talk to my son or daughter instead of me. Isn't that a form of racism also?
I'm sorry, what?
Missed that gem 😂
Reminds me of a racist on TV saying it’s ok to be racist because he is being discriminated against by shops who don’t stock his size.
The sub text is minorities have to solve every white person’s grievance first before we can ever tackle racism against black people.

Missed it eh but ignored the rest of my post !
You might not think it but your aggressive posting on here reads just..like.. racism.. to me

@ReformedWaywardTeen · Today 06:38
It depends on what you consider racism.
Nigel Farage is of course a massive and unashamed racist. As is anyone to do with or supportive of far right groups.
However, the Lady Hussey thing really doesn't sit comfortably with me as racism.
Here are two women, at the palace. One an older lady who comes from another era and a class system that many of us don't really understand the workings of.
The other, a woman who considers herself British, as she was born here so is quite correct to do so, but whose parents were immigrants to the country. She had already made quite inflammatory comments on the Royals regards Meghan (suggesting Meghan was the victim of Domestic violence by her in-laws).
Lady Hussey's generation speak very differently to us. I believe that when she said about where her people come from, to her "people" means family in general. Sadly people of that generation are most likely to unintentionally cause offence. Why did the woman not just say "I was born here but my parents are originally from x".
Looking at the way she handled it was to almost push the conversation into something she could complain about.
I also don't get the run to Twitter angle. Why not just raise it with the palace. And why, if you had already said of your belief that the Royal Family are guilty of domestic violence would you even accept an invite to attend the palace?
I've seen some nastier people use this to suggest she went with an axe to grind and went looking for trouble. If anything, she will probably experience far worse now because of the way she has brought this to the public attention, especially when some are already suggesting she is racist by only extending her domestic abuse charity to women from one specific community.
I think it's about language and some older folk of the same class as Lady Hussey speak very differently to the rest of our younger generations.
I also don't think that it helps that every day seems to bring another accusation of some sort. That filters the real cases down and means people are more likely to pass off genuine abuse as another snowflake engaging in cancel culture.
So yes, we do have racism. Yes there are some proper scumbags out there aided by Boris and co. Yes the football will probably see a rise in incidents.
But not everything is racist. Not every white person is secretly engaging in far right activities. Not everyone with an England flag up for the football is a card carrying far right supporter. Most of us are truly embarrassed about Farage, Hopkins and Robinson.

Good post

Nor about the Sultanates and Empires that went before, who stole resources and riches from each other and elsewhere.

Thank you

From the script of the conversation, she was pretty rude and condescending. Why resign, though? Why not just apologise?

Yes it does, the 3 footballers who missed the penalties in Euros? Police force? I could go on.

This conversation is so interesting because the thread is about ‘is the UK racist’ and yet there is a narrative, which comes from America, that the word racism must only be used to refer to racism against black people. So many posters here are getting angry about the suggestion that racism in the UK may be relevant to people with white skin. But no one said this thread has to be about white v black racism as often discussed in America. This thread is quite specifically about racism in the UK.

In the UK we have different history and different communities to those in America and as @ReformedWaywardTeen points out the white traveller community experiences horrific racism.

If you’re telling UK victims of racism to get off the thread because their skin isn’t the same colour as yours then that’s a pretty racist position to take 👀

I dunno but my London state secondary school in mid-1990s taught a lot of stuff about the Empire, slavery etc. I remember all the graphic illustrations in the book. Schools do have some discretion as to which topics they choose, perhaps your school did a different topic 🤷‍♀️

Even the language you use is so condescending to this woman, Reformed

You say ‘ITV has probably let her go off to the BBC’ as if Ms Fulani is just a puppet, made to move by white people’s hands.

If you really can’t see how harmful your words and you as a a person are then I feel sorry for you.

If you’re referring to me, you can use my name, I’m not Voldemort or Candyman.

Can you quote where I said travellers don’t count? Or are you referring to someone else?

I can’t get over you thinking you conflating ageism with racism.

So I can’t take any of your posts seriously I’m afraid.

And likewise

Out of interest, would it be racist to notice that Ngozi Fulani appears to be wearing Pan-African colours (happy to be corrected) in her headband in this BBC article? I know Ngozi Fulani wasn't wearing the headband at the Palace, but it seems a little incongruous to make a statement about your heritage in your attire, whilst at the same time objecting that someone has asked about your heritage (for this particular news article at least);

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63810468

I was thinking along the same lines. At the palace I think Ngoni was wearing what could be classed as an outfit relative to her culture. So she is clearly proud and aware of her origins. The questioning was clumsy and outdated and I understand why she was upset.

Do you really not see the problem though?

Heritage and nationality are not the same.

First of all, let's think about intent - historically this kind of line of questioning wasn't in good faith, especially not from a traditionally racist institution like the British monarchy.

Then we have the issue of refusing to accept that someone is British, from Britain, but black. This is offensive, ignorant, and stupid.

Elon Musk is an African-American. But if someone asked him where he's from and he said America, no one would say "but where are you really from"? . But they would ask a black person the same question.

Come on we can do a bit better surely.

She was wearing a dress with a bolero at the event. You seem to be suggesting she was asking for it.

Miajk
Do you really not see the problem though?

I can see why Ngozi Fulani was offended, but at the same time she is clearly making a statement about her heritage in her attire.

Elon Musk is an African-American. But if someone asked him where he's from and he said America, no one would say "but where are you really from"?

Joe Biden famously said 'I'm Irish' of course.

Every country has racism - oh and some of the racist people I’ve known are not white.

In this country the media latches onto any hint of not being leftist much more than other countries.

Racism is inevitable - as humans form groups and consider others outsiders, these groups can be races, religions, gangs, villages etc.

When I was a kid gangs of boys from our town (of all race, colour and religion) would gang up and go to fight the boys from neighbouring towns (who were also of all races/religion etc.). Us vs them.

The only way to mitigate is for people to fully integrate and not form their own little communities that stand out such as china-town : we need that big brown melting pot to be more mixed and ban all relgious schools.

Squeezita
She was wearing a dress with a bolero at the event. You seem to be suggesting she was asking for it.

Did you actually read my post at 11:20?

I meant in the sense they had to let her go off to other interviews and other TV stations. They don't own her or manage her PR.

But yes, let's find more falsehoods to point out that don't exist to score a point.

Vanessa Feltz is Jewish, so her "whiteness" is conditional depending on who you ask and I imagine she's experienced lots of racism.