To ask about your experiences with racism?

[MooseBreath]

I will preface this by saying that I am white and do not look like a minority. I am, however, Jewish. I have experienced anti-Semitism on a few occasions. Whenever I have spoken with friends about my experience, they have been surprised that this happened.

My childhood best friend (half Jamaican) was recently telling me about how she experienced racism on many occasions growing up in our predominantly white hometown . I am embarrassed to say that not once did I notice it happening.

I think it may be helpful to people who haven't witnessed or experienced acts of intolerance to hear actual stories of it happening. Even the little things.

My experiences are as follows:

My parents were teachers in our local high school. My high school was very big on "tolerence" and preached about the importance Holocaust, inviting in loads of speakers and organising trips to Auschwitz. My mom was the only Jewish teacher in the school and this was common knowledge, as she had given a few speeches in assemblies. It is also important to note that my brothers and I attended the school, so it was also common knowledge where we lived.

On one occasion, she gave a bad grade to one of her students who repeatedly didn't hand in his work. The student targeted our home for the next few months. We would receive phone calls in the middle of the night, playing traditional Jewish music. We would have crude drawings of "stereotypical" Jews in our mailbox. We had our house egged on many occasions, often with raw bacon left outside the front door. Though we weren't kosher and were very much secular, the intent was very clear. The student (who we knew was the perpetrator through other students at the school) never faced any consequences. We had no proof who was doing this to our family. But the feeling of being targeted due to our birth religion was so scary.

I now live in the East of England and while nothing has been personally targeted at me or my family, there have been many instances of graffitied swastikas on pathways and buildings. I have seen people talking about Jews being at fault for the Israel-Palestine conflict when protesting for a Free Palestine (which for the record, I am for, along with all the other Jewish people I know).

I figure if I am not even a visible minority and have experienced this, I can only begin to imagine the horrible things people of colour have learned to live with. Maybe if we talk about the incidents we have experienced, we can move forward more quickly.

Being Jewish is an ethnicity. I did 23andme and Ancestry. They can tell from my spit in a tube that I'm Jewish. It doesn't matter what my religious beliefs are.

@Stylestuck I wasn't trying to be offensive and apologise if it came across that way

have been in the UK since I was 12 and racism is an every day thing for me. even more so since brexit. it ranges from passive aggressive undertones, snide comments, being underestimated/people making assumptions to full on physical or verbal attacks....

I just shrug my shoulders and carry on. and feel sorry for the people behaving like this really because it demonstrates their ignorance more than anything

Name changed. I'm half Chinese half white and I experienced almost daily racism at secondary school. This abuse was from middle eastern boys (girls were nice). They didn't get in trouble. Racism (verbal and also vicious physical attacks) against east Asians has increased a lot since the media made out that the Chinese and other east Asians are dirty and full of disease in the wake of Covid19.

My sons girlfriend is Chinese. She is now 18 and speaks English fluently with an American accent. She has been part of our family for 3 years. I have been really shocked at the way she is treated. Example queueing for a cup of tea in a cafe, I got tea and cakes for my husband and son and asked gf what she would like. She said ‘ I will have a scone please’ to the lady behind the counter, who shouted at her ‘ you will wait your turn. Where are your family?’ At which point I said she is with me - and the lady got flustered. Then going into a tourist attraction, gf was approached and they asked to see her ticket and then said unaccompanied young people aren’t allowed. I said she is with us and they apologised and backed off - it’s the ever present assumption that we can’t possibly be together because she looks different. She was served before me in our local shop and as she left the till the assistant speaking to me was derogatory about Chinese people.

@Stylestuck
Apologies if I offend anyone but I do think that the confusion arises from the lack of clarity as to what constitutes 'ethnicity'.
Most ethnic groups are lumped together 'brown' people for example WTF does that mean? Even when you say 'South Asian' Indians and Pakistanis are nationalities, there are many different ethnic groups in each country etc etc.

In the UK Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have a separate box to tick but others are just lumped into 'other Asians'. Besides that, you can be Indian by ethnicity AND Indian by nationality. So if someone asks me 'are you Indian' I don't know what they mean?

In the same way, Jewish by ethnicity - origin of the Jewish people seems to not be well understood, but also because all 'white' people are lumped into a BIG category. Just as how the Irish, Scottish and all other white people are lumped into it too. However a big focus has been on the Jewish religion, and the discrimination faced securities at schools and Synagogues etc so people often think it's religion and not ethnicity.

I do admit that I don't know much about Judaism - I went to university with quite a few Jewish people and worked many Jewish events at London. Here in Manchester I have one friend whose father is Jewish but he isn't religious. He's conflicted as to whether or not he identifies as Jewish.

One of my list of things to do next year was to visit the Jewish Museum in Manchester to educate myself

That’s awful and people will say there’s no discrimination now in the job market despite so many studies as well as anecdotal evidence showing “black” and “ Asian” names often don’t even make it to interview stage.

Can I ask what your response was?

White English in Scotland.
Been called English c*nt ,told to go back to England,told I had no right to vote during Indyref even though I've lived here for decades.

My last two major racist experiences unfortunately involved mixed race (half black) people so perhaps more accurately described as colorism?

One outright called me a racist slur based on my skin tone and in the second situation two mixed race men were leading a discussion with white men about the apparent “undesirability” of black women and this was within an office based customer service job.

Like they are no loss to BW and they can be attracted to who they like but discussing that in a work context was making me and others extremely uncomfortable.

The white men were definitely part of it but I felt the mixed race men being involved emboldened them which is partly why there’s an argument that mixed race of black heritage should be respected as their own group linked but distinct from monoracial black people.

It was difficult in both instances for me to raise this with managers who were clearly confused since it wasn’t as simple as white on black.

@Hedjwitch was juat thinking of this reading this thread. I grew up in rural Scotland, remember a time when a lot of English people bought land, my father referred to them as white settlers. My best friend from age 12 was English and my parents were so derogatory about her family, thankfully not in front of her but it used to make my toes curl!

I think that there are people who call themselves Jewish due to ancestry.
I think that there are people who call themselves Jewish due to faith.
I think that there are people who call themselves Jewish for both of those reasons combined.

Clearly those with Jewish ancestry may also have genetic traits which are more common/only associated with that particular ancestry, than those who have a more varied ancestry but are also Jewish by faith.

There is also a gene associated with the island of Westray in Orkney, which is associated with increased risk of breast cancer - this is a similar thing in that anyone with Westray ancestry is more likely to have it regardless of where they now live, but people moving to Westray are no more likely to have it than anyone else if they don't have Westray ancestry.

Unfortunately Scotland doesn't have a great past history in terms of English settlers apparently taking over, but of course that doesn't give us the right to judge people before we even know them!

I'm sorry that happened.
Some Scots are still living in the past it seems.
I hope you have had good experiences too.

I'm Jewish and have only experienced anti Semitism a few times (lucky, I know!). I was at work and a TV was on and switched to a 24/7 news channel which was broadcasting a flare up of tensions in Gaza. A colleague turned to me and said, 'we'll send the bill for the reconstruction to your lot'. For a few seconds I couldn't work out what he meant but then I got it - oh, the Jews. Right.

On another occasion, I had to literally show my Ancestry DNA profile to a colleague who was arguing loudly that being Jewish was a religion not an ethnicity. He was stunned when he discovered it's actually in your DNA and isn't anything like being a Christian for example.

I am white British and am a teacher. Virtually all of the racism I've witnessed has been in (secondary) schools, and of course that would be the tip of the iceberg, because most incidences of racism are not witnessed by teachers and most are probably not reported. In my experience, the more diverse the schools, the less racism. We now live in fairly rural NW England. Racism is rife in my dc's very white school, mostly among boys. My son tells me about it a lot and is appalled by it.

Not so much in the school where I teach (all girls, much more racially mixed). However, a few of my students have told me about having racist abuse shouted at them by strangers on their way to school. We had a safeguarding training person in the other day, who said that one of the biggest concerns in our local area is kids being radicalised online by far right groups.

Unfortunately the English countryside is not always very welcoming to people of colour. That's why I'm only sticking to big cities... 🏙️ id never want to move from where I am living.

I used to teach in a primary school. It was very mixed in race/ethnicity. I witnessed a fair bit of racism, especially against the Roma children.

I think I’ve been relatively lucky. Grew up in a village in England with very few if and people that were not white and white local. Only a couple of instances of P**i. Since moving in various areas quite a lot of where are you really from?

Some people seem to think it’s fine to be racist about “these immigrants” and tag on the end but not you or your family of course.

There are assumptions on the helpline I work one- was congratulated on my good English- not sure what to respond - in the end I said well I was born in and gave the city.

I have autism and I wonder if some microagrresions pass me by.

People of all backgrounds and races can be the perpetrators and victims of racism. I’m Jewish but quite fair so get lots of comments about being “not really” jewish because I don’t fit a stereotype. I also hear anti semitism towards others as people think I’m “safe” and not Jewish. Eg Jews are all rich, greedy, etc.

I’m also autistic so a lot of it goes over my head. I’m quite thick skinned as a result which is not necessarily a bad thing

I have experienced many anti-semitic remarks from colleagues, but no physical violence. My brother has experienced violence on a few occasions. Where I am the worst perpetrators are unfortunately people who have migrated from middle-eastern cultures where anti-semitism is endemic. Tbh the comments don’t bother me much. It’s the violence or threats of violence (swastikas on Jewish shops etc) that fill me with dread.

Well like many people countless experiences. But in recent years it has increased and it has become more threatening, and on several occasions resulted in physical violence. It had reached the point where rather than feeling unsafe sometimes when out and about, I felt unsafe everytime I went out, even in the day during busy times when I was surrounded by lots of people. Incidents of sausages etc being left at temple increased as well, which was also funny as they’re so thick they don’t know the different between Sikhs and Muslims, they should have left some hairdressing scissors 🤣

We’ve recently left the UK, I feel very safe where we now live, I’m yet to face any racism or homophobia unless people are being extremely subtle. But I know it won’t last forever.

Where did you live in the UK and where do you live now, out of interest?

London, Stockholm.

At school we were doing an exercise about family history. I told my teacher that my dads side of the family were Jewish and she responded “oh yes, I can see it in your nose” 🙄