To think MN has a race problem and it’s getting worse

[MovingOutofZone2]

Posters say incredibly offensive, often outright racist things and MN lets them stand as it’s a ‘difference of opinion’ and that’s fine. Other posters complain about this and MN deletes said complaints as they are ‘personal attacks’ and that isn’t fine.

Then we have mods wandering in and going ‘let’s have peace and love’, as though ‘both sides’ need to calm down. No, we need to stop placating racists.

I’m not going to give examples as this will get taken down as a TAAT, but I cannot be the only person to be fed up with all this. MN needs to do something about the racism, race baiting and general cultural ignorance. Unless the site is ONLY meant to cater to white people and, even then, I firmly believe that most posters of any race don’t want to see all that ugliness.

It’s getting to the stage where, as a Black person, I’m steeling myself before I log on. And knowing that half the time I report a comment, I won’t even get a token acknowledgement. This isn’t right. It wasn’t always like this.

I agree with you. I have had a two year break from MN and just recently rejoined with a different user name.

I have been shocked by the blatant racism shown by some posters. It's outrageous. Apologists and others, arguing the toss about racism, claiming that certain things are not racist when they clearly are.

I am sorry you're distressed and angered by this, OP. I'm white and I read some posts on here and just cringe with shame.

No I disagree. I think MN moderators take a swift and sometimes (too) strict an approach in what gets removed.
The reality is, people have opinions that differ to us and sometimes things get heated but if they are still within the lines, then they are within the lines.

The fact they had to create a new, separate board due to racism will never not be be damning

I agree, I have to take a deep breath before reading certain threads.

Quite frankly ever since Mumsnet decided to become a safe haven for transphobes general bigotry of all types has been seeping out across the site as a whole. A group of people dedicated to hating a small subset of the population tend to not be exclusive in their hate and have low opinions of several minority groups.

There has been a massive rise in homophobic attitudes along with more racism and disability bashing over the last few years.

I'm shocked by some of the racist attitudes on here, which people just display without seemingly any embarrassment. Ageism and sexism are also rife on here. What worries me is how few people push back against these things and if anything try and shame the people who try to push back as being OTT, virtue signallers or woke. It's depressing. In some ways it's good to be aware these attitudes still exist but on the other hand we don't want to enable or validate them.

I have been on MN for years and it is full of bullies if you let them bully you so Don’t .
Stand up for what you believe in and hold your head high, this is what I tell my 12 year old .

You are right.

I'm white, I agree.

I think MN struggles with allowing free speech, some of which is bloody awful, and trying to be a good place. The fact is it's not the moderating that's the issue, it's the racists.

I think it's very difficult for a white, middle- class run website to do this properly (mostly due to ignorance). I have no idea how diverse the mods are or even how many there are.

But even to not be a fan of Meghan markle, you get branded racist. Come on, where do you draw a line?

It was ever thus.

11 years ago it was threads about not wanting their child to be the only white child in a school where all of the other children were from a specific African country (if I remember correctly it was often a ‘well known W African country’). Then all or the majority of posters agreed the OP wasn’t being unreasonable and they wouldn’t want their child to be the only white child. If anyone can point me to a school were all of the children are from a single African country in the UK, I would be interested.

At the similar time there was a post about not wanting their child to be the only non-white child in the school (more realistic) and posters fell over themselves to say that person was unreasonable etc…

I agree OP. It’s shit. There’s a few posters that I can predict will turn up on a thread and say the same racist shit. A lot of others too but name changing is probably a great feature for them.

I’d like to say I find it shocking but I don’t, it’s common in real life too. I’d like for mumsnet to deal with it.

I agree Op.

The only thing which has me in rwo minds is deleting racist posts.
Hear me out.
I've been here a while and MNHQ used to be shit hot on deleting racist posts and threads.
When other posters, quite rightly, used to point out there are racist MNers, without fail the usual posters who rock up and demand proof of racism.
When you point out the posts have been deleted, inevitably these posters would say "you have no proof therefore there's no racism ner ner ner....."

With Megan though people are nasty. I mean why would you want to grind a person down like that? Fair enough if you don't like her but she isn't going to leave her bloody husband.

It's tiring.

I agree. The race thing is a separate issue.

YABU

I’m so sorry you’re being affected by vile comments. I don’t challenge people because I don’t have the strength to do so due to being very unwell. But I see it.

There've been some threads recently that have really shocked me. Basically where posters who have been sharing their experience of racism have been told they are exaggerating or are over sensitive. I don't know the best way to deal with the racist posts - do we stamp them out, or do we challenge them and try to change attitudes?

At the end of the day, I guess there is an onus on people like me to challenge and report every time we see racist posts. And also to listen when other posters share their experiences, in order to educate ourselves on the less obvious forms of racism. I haven't been challenging these posts enough, but will do better.

As a white English woman I am sick to the back teeth of the constant divide between black and white individuals. There is nothing, NOTHING in the world that comes close to the deep rifts between those two races. We don't hear much of Polish v white, Asian v white, Danish or Austrian v white or even Mexican or Brazilian v white.
If we want equality, we must see the person not the colour, however, it's like a disease with no cure. There appears to be no answer and it's been a tit for tat war. We have a right to expect people living in Britain to keep to our rules and laws but able to keep their own customs within certain boundaries as we expect to comply with the laws of any country we Brits visit.
Either we try harder to get along, there are good and bad in all communities, or this race hate will taint many more generations to come, probably for as long as the planet exists. 🕊️

"Racism: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized."

Sounds one way to me.

No. You can't equate these two things. Mumsnet is a haven for what the majority of the population believe to be true - that trans rights activism has gone too far, and is actually ruining the good work that LGB activism has done, both for gay rights and women's rights.

Oh Lord, it’s turning into a binfire already.

I agree with you completely OP. The only thing I can say is that hopefully these people, who in RL are presumably surrounded by people who endorse and shore up these views, are at least exposed to some challenge.

For what it’s worth on the MM debacle, I suspect she’s a bit of a nightmare. But I believe the way she was treated by the media was racist. Both things can be true.