Do you find this offensive?

[Meeting]

The Theatre Royal Stratford East is putting on a show and have blocked out 2 dates as "Blackout" nights where they encourage (but I don't think plan to enforce) that only black people may attend these performances.

I saw them discussing it on Piers Morgan and neither of the guests advocating for it were able to convince me that this type of segregation was at all beneficial.

Does anybody think this is a good idea? Personally I think segregation based on skin colour has no place in society, no matter who benefits from it. But I'm interested to hear from others who might away it differently?

What about trans women using women's only spaces?

I would go to the play with my daughter's on another night. They are not segregating themselves. You sound upset about something that doesn't affect you. You won't be told you can't buy a house because the area doesn't want people of colour to live there in modern day Britain. My neighbour said to my partner if he knew we lived here he would never have bought the house and he was glad that we didn't play that music. There's racism in our police force, fire brigade, care workers and schools.

@HeartBrokenWife No, I'm really not interested in your academic qualifications, although I certainly would question them based on your posts, which tell an altogether different story.

Are you trying to deny who I am? To deny my humanity? You should believe who I say I am because I am writing from my own lived experience and no-one can deny my truth ...

This is the sort of childish, goady shite people like Laurence Fox come out with. But thankfully most folk on here don't button up the back and can see right through you.

My objection to a publicly funded play, put on in a public venue excluding anyone based on the colour of their skin still remains though.

#AllLivesMatter.

Enjoy your purity spirals everyone and I hope you all sleep smugly (sic) tonight!!

That's not the correct usage of 'sic'. I'm surprised you don't know that, what with your extensive academic qualifications.

it May be sailing close to the wind, depending on how they advertise it. If it were ‘Black only’, then that wouldn’t be acceptable. However, if it was made clear that all performances were open to:all, that would be better, but encouraging black youth groups etc on certain nights, that wouldn’t be so bad.

@HeartBrokenWife No I wasn't being insincere, I was giving the benefit of the doubt that even though you were clearly game playing earlier, and have done everything to avoid a simple answer it might just be because no one had asked the right question broken down, that a simple answer could be given to, but it was becoming increasingly unlikely.

The question about Maori people doing the same thing was a simple yes or no answer, as was the last one. My question was clear enough and your consistent evasion tactics are clear.

Trying to say it would be ok but not profitable if all those who were of those races came on different nights from each other, seriously? If you where genuine, you'd have said it was fine, because it was no longer about the idea that people defining as one color were asking people of others to consider booking a different night, as opposed to people of a group of races asking those of others races the same thing.

I was giving the possibility that your issue was with the request being based on skin color, as you keep insisting, rather than races of that color, as you claim anyone desiring to talk to each other about shared issues is fine as long as it's not color based. But you've one again gone for flimflammery and now it's about how grant money is spent.

Can you explain why a white person in an audience would make you feel less comfortable? What is it? You think they are looking at you and judging your reactions to the play? ( As some previous poster alluded to) I really dont understand this.

It's called familiarity and also the fact that I have never suffered prejudice from my own race. And let's not forget my childhood; beaten up and racially abused for just being me.

And, if you think, as an adults that these memories diminish, you are willfully ignorant.

I don't. Not everything has to be for me.

From my point of view, and thisvis just MY experience: if any white person is confused about what the 'white gaze' is. Search on YouTube #whilst black. Examples: shopping whilst black, driving whilst black, bbqing whilst black, wearing natural hair whilst black, dating whilst black, jogging whilst black.

The list goes on.

Please don't be under any illusion that the WG is staring at a person of colour for longer than needed. In my opinion, it starts with harmful stereotypes and extends as far as police brutality against 'minorities'.

I'm waiting for people to tell me I have a chip on my shoulder (classic gaslighting response). I don't. But when you ask me why you should, as a white person, be offended because I want to be around people that have never posed a threat to me, well, there is your answer.

And it works the other way around, too. Look at Brexit. People were getting uncomfortable with the thought of more immigrants on this land that didn't look like them. They didn't want them moving next door to them.

I have heard the comment, so many times, that England is becoming a Third World country.

I could argue that SA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand are now, primarily, European countries but nobody wants to have that conversation.

It goes a lot deeper than most people are willing to dig and that's excluding the historic atrocities, that were 'lawful' that my ancestors had to deal with.

So, in conclusion, we are ALL wary of anything which has made us afraid.

Eloquently put, @AAAAABBBBBCCCCC, and makes absolute sense to me.

Also, I'm not a person of colour, but I have read what people who are have said, here and elsewhere, and watched the news, and it isn't hard to understand and empathise with people who have suffered racism, nor to realise that they need different things to me. And them having those different things isn't excluding me - not that I have ever thought that I HAVE to be included in everything anyway - I know I can't and won't be included in everything, and that is fine.

What @AAAAABBBBBCCCCC says.