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

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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

What happens to people who repeatedly go behind stalls at car boot sales in Saudi Arabia?

It's been going on for longer than that but it's certainly ramped up recently.

OP, we have the same at a local market. The stall holders make racist comments about the customers, particularly the South Asian ones.

There seems to be a semi-collective belief that Muslims should be able to withstand any sort of abuse.

I predict that there will be an attempt to ethnically cleanse Muslims.

Yet none of you said anything...... I wonder why that was?

@ElsieMc how did you know the lads were Muslim? TBF I can imagine a lot of general scallies, young, old, any colour saying this, it’s ignorance not racially motivated as Muslims also fought and died in the war.

I'm astounded so many are saying this isn't racist???

'They're like rats, it might help if we stop giving them everything'. This is quite blatantly referring to media/Reform rhetoric about immigrants.

Her behaviour doesn't make this not racist. If he wanted to comment on her behaviour, he'd be muttering about people being rude.

Sounds like she was being rude, BUT that doesn't excuse racism, wtf.

Edit: if this was a white Brit, there is NO WAY on earth it would have been phrased this way. Be for real. Racism against Muslims is so normalised people don't even recognise it anymore.

Also, I'm white British. You can obviously criticise anyone's behaviour. You can criticise religion. We have freedom of speech. I'm an Atheist and vocally despise all major religions due to their historical impact on scientific development, the impact on our laws, and impact on minorities. But that's different from comparing people to rats because of the religion and colour of their skin.

How do you know they were Muslim?

it’s about racism. I’m saying to op that we face serious overt explicit racism on a daily basis. If she is so keen to stand up to racists surely she should start there rather than worrying about an ambiguous comment made by a random stranger.

of course antisemitic racism is fashionable so many people don’t like to challenge it. It’s not like disapproving of white working class men for wrong speech which is much more acceptable in certain circles

Scroungers. Rude people. They're everywhere and every culture has them.

That's what I'm asking, how I could have handled it better??

This perhaps? Don’t be so disingenuous….

stop making racist assumptions about foreign women in headscarves. Then you won’t be unnecessarily offended by throw away comments

How do you know she doesn't stand up to racism in other way?

You wanted to make it about Jewish people so just say that. Of course racism and prejudice in general is despicable but this had nothing to do with antisemitism.

This is how these threads go:

Someone posts about an obviously racist/Islamophobic/xenophobic comment or behaviour.

Other people respond downplaying it and giving examples of minorities behaving in undesirable ways by way of excusing it.

I'm depressed by the amount of bigotry on display on these boards these days. & I absolutely guarantee the venn diagram showing 'people who defend bigotry' and 'people who say racism is a problem are playing the race card' is a circle.

:-(

I agree. It was her behaviour - not her race.

If she wasn’t behaving in that way he wouldn’t have said that.

Op you are definitely being gas lit, I cannot believe the mental gymnastics on this thread. Its really very simple

stallholder to annoying person- Oi, get away from my stall- you can't come here
stallholder to mate- OMG some people, can you believe the cheek of her
=NOT RACIST
vs
stallholder to mate - these people are like rats we should stop giving them things
=RACIST

for the hard of thinking its because-
he spoke about her as a member of an ethnic group, not an individual
he used the well known racist tactic of likening an ethnic group to vermin
he referred to the racist idea that 'we' are always giving 'them' everything

really not sure what any of this has to do with Gaza/Israel

Thats quite a stretch to think its about Gary Linekars twitter.
Also a bit odd that youve seen a post about a racist comment against towards Muslims, but you think its because of 'anti semetic bigotry being so high'

Bizarre

OP, I know what you mean, I commented on someone’s overt racism (but when you see it you know it) and wish I’d done more, luckily another woman with way bigger balls than me confronted it outright and I felt a little ashamed I hadn’t done more. Sometimes it’s scary to confront these people so you’re not sure whether you might actually exacerbate the situation!

sometimes if you just raise your eyebrows it signals disapproval quite strongly

What an awful man. I hope he gets paper cuts everyday for the rest of his life, that his pillow never has a cool side again, that he is never able to use the loo again without getting caught in his zipper, that every time he drops a slice of bread it falls butter side down etc.

(I would say worse but don’t want to get banned.)

Great list of curses!

Also don’t feel guilty. Sometimes we just don’t want to escalate. When somebody has said something to me about others I have a clearly disapproving face. If aimed at me I tend to leave it. Racists are brain deficient so nothing you will say will change their mind.

It's because virtue-signalling is obnoxious and annoying. Were you expecting a round of applause?

You forgot uncontrollable diarrhoea with sneezing fits at all important events in his life 😅