This happened to me at the weekend and I feel ashamed I did nothing - Racism

[Changedusernameforthis2]

I was at a car boot sale at the weekend and there was a large stall there- that was a man and wife- selling 'fill a bag' type stuff - they were a house clearance company avoiding paying dumping fees I think

There was a lady there who was wearing a headcovering, she kept going behind the stall and they kept shooing her out
The man said in a sort of 'I'm muttering but loud enough for everyone to hear' way - he said "They're like rats, it might help if we stop giving them everything"
I was really shocked and just walked off but I feel really ashamed I didn't tackle it

What can I say if I find myself in this position again? I do not want to stand by and let it happen- I feel embarassed of being a coward

Thank you. This thread has made me feel mental! Talk about gaslighting

As OP has said that the man had a van with the name of a clearance company on it, I assume that he had been paid for clearing houses and was now getting rid of the stuff that he couldn't sell.

I think there's two issues here - yes, he was potentially racist, but why was she continually going where she shouldn't be? Also, why does it matter why they were selling the stuff?

None of that matters.
There are not two issues.
He was racist , openly, I felt compromised and cowardly. I wanted a discussion about how to react if that situation happens again

So you think it's ok for someone to repeatedly go where they shouldn't be?
An actual discussion would take that into consideration. Also, why is it up to you to police the situation?

It doesn't need to be taken into consideration because nothing justifies racism. There's never a need to discuss when racism is OK, because it isn't ever.

I didn't say it justified anything, but it is part of what happened. Painting the woman out to be perfect isn't realistic.

I haven't painted her as perfect!!!!
I have said multiple times she was annoying

I think people are spectacularly missing the point. Whatever ONE woman did , it does not justify the comment 'They' (meaning everyone from her ethnic group) 'are like rats' (known racist trope)

Tbf, it could be either.
Especially as we now know he wasn’t selling anything, but actually giving his stuff away. That could have been what he was referring to when he referred to ‘giving them’ everything.

It's not up to you to decide what he meant, or police other's language, no matter how much you don't like it.

Good people speak up (or want to speak up) when they see racism. If this isn’t you, move along, but don’t discourage good people from speaking up.

Yeah, we should all just ignore everything. That'll help. Fingers in ears and bigotry vanishes.

We all need to be on the look out for racist behaviour.

If I saw someone being called the ‘n’ word of the ‘p’ word, I would absolutely report that racist fucker to the police if I could.

And the police would take it seriously.

OP you're getting a good glimpse into how many closet racists and racists in denial there really are...

I didn't say that, but you know that already.

I don't think any of us have the right to tell others what we need to be doing tbh.

Maybe but ‘them’ without context is very often part of a racist comment.

Or how many people don't want to risk their own safety, just to speak up for someone who was behaving in a very disrespectful way to start with.

The context is the crowd of people at his stall, surely? Those people are the ‘they’.

I’m not saying it wasn’t racist, just that his comments can be explained in the context described as being made towards the crazed crowd around his stall all trying to get their hands on free stuff, and this woman in particular who was going around the back of the table despite being told not to.

I was there and this was definitely a race based comment. Other people thought so too, as I stated in a PP

I was thinking the same thing - I’ve learned a lot on this thread about the sheer will people have to ignore racism and create alternate realities to do so. It’s quite astounding but genuinely informative what people will say with anonymity.

Where did you get the ‘crazed crowd’ from? Didn’t see OP mention that anywhere.

Good God, I hope you never need the help of passers by and they all have the same attitude as yours.

Eh?
People can help if they feel they can, nobody should be forced to do anything.