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

"It might help if we stopped giving them everything"
Does not that give it away a bit?
Are car boot stall holders usually in the habit of "giving everything" away?!
None of the ones I have been to over the years do that
Who's "they?"
It's the lumping together of a minority as "they" into a negative that always happens with some.
Playing into the "foreigners/immigrants get everything for free" trope too, nice 🙄
not saying she was either of those, just pointing out how some think when they see someone not white, it's disgusting
Nice bit of dehumanising as well.
Rats.
😡
Same old minimising and dismissing on here as usual though. 🙄

op - you can’t police other people’s speech. Try to be more tolerant
I never want to be tolerant of racism.
I hope others aren't too.

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

Of course nobody should be forced to intervene, but you claim you don’t think anyone has the right to do so. If someone sees you being attacked in any way they have ‘no right’ to intervene to stop the attacker.

It's a well known dehumanising trope definitely applied to race.
What's your take on "we need to stop giving them everything?"
Which plays into the "immigrants gets everything for free" trope.
Unless your local car boots usually give their stuff away instead of selling them?!
😁

I didn't claim nobody had the right to intervene, I said there are reasons why it's not always a good idea.

Your words are literally there for anyone to read.

This is waht I mean about the gaslighting!!

It's not gaslighting to suggest it's nothing to do with you though, it's factual.🫣

Would be interesting if @Koalafan could try answering what their take on that is instead of just laugh reacting under all my posts.

I have, further up thread.

All boot sale crowds are crazed! 😂
And if he was giving stuff away, I can imagine it would have been even worse than usual.

.

She did this to me. I posted saying ‘As a Muslim, it just makes me avoid people and stick with my own kind as much as I can.’, and she reacted with a laughing emoji

Not sure what good that laugh reaction addition to MN gives, it just seems to be another level of being a nasty fucker for some.

I'm not sure why you're being purposely obtuse. There's no question of the rudeness of the woman's behaviour.

The issue is the blatantly racist comment made by the stall holder. He was directly commenting on her perceived ethnicity.

Nothing excuses that level of racist statement.

So, from your imagination then. Which is fine, but isn’t necessarily the case at that time or place.

Me also, although not in response to something so personal. If any small comfort, I think it’s a deflection to posters she doesn’t agree with rather than anything related to the post.

Thank you @FreezeDriedStrawberries and @Whatevernext9 🌹🌹🌹

I laughed at the 'my own kind'. Surely you understand that's an inflammatory choice of language?

It was her use of 'my own kind', which would be pulled out as something-ist if anyone else said it.

You can laugh at anything you want, and others can interpret your laughing however they want. It’s not for you to police how people use terms like ‘my own kind’, is it?

No, of course not, however seeing as there was discussion around my response I decided to explain my response. 🫣

It’s a thread where people have implied Muslim victims of racism are not deserving of sympathy, where people have said the Muslim woman was likely racist to the market stall holder, and where people have said it’s racist to see anything racist about the stall holder saying ‘they’re like rats’.

Why is none of that inflammatory but my feeling (to want to withdraw into my own community with my own kind i.e. British Muslims) is inflammatory?

Can you explain the double standard?

Did OP say the lady was muslim?
I'm really not sure what you mean by 'own kind' tbh but lots of people have been accused of racism or phobias when using that term. Perhaps 'own community' would be better? We're all the one kind, human, AFAIK.