Racism against south Asians in the UK

[ArtfulKoala]

This is a very hard thread for me to begin. I’ve been intending to do it for months but felt unable to do so. I was born in the UK but I am of south Asian origin. My parents and grandparents emigrated here. We are five generations British and counting.

I feel that racism and racial suspicion towards brown skinned people has absolutely gone off the scale since Reform gained a foothold in mainstream politics.

At first it was the little things - being subjected to an extended bag check when entering a museum when white visitors walked straight in or were casually asked to just open the large section which wasn’t really checked. This is especially the case at places like Kensington Palace and the Imperial War Museum. For reference, I am talking about a small handbag 15cm by 25cm probably smaller than their own guidelines state. At Kensington Palace, it actually got to the ridiculous stage where the checker was asking me to open more and more zipped sections down to a 5cm one until there was literally nothing left to open and she was effectively asking me to open non existent ones!
There is an incident every time we are out ( me and my teenagers). People loudly talking about us standing right next to us talking about how we are entitled just because we have been directed to the front of the queue by staff as one of us is disabled.
Yesterday, we got on a damned train with cold, vegan salads from m&s and it started immediately. A white couple complaining loudly about “the smell” when there was none because they judged us by how we look and decided our food was smelly upon that basis. Then, when the ticket inspector came round and we showed the disabled railcard, a running commentary on how we must have gamed the system to obtain that.
It is really wearing. I don’t feel like we can belong here anymore despite being educated and fully integrated here. I fully pay for private housing, healthcare and education and yet I may as well have just stepped off a small boat yesterday as far as they are concerned. I cannot fight random bigots daily when we are just trying to live our lives having low key, relaxing private family time.
It is simply fogging to get worse isn’t it? I honestly believe that Farage will be the next PM ( I am politically literate enough to gauge this for myself rather than buying into tabloid scaremongering. Zayn Malik referred to similar experiences in the song he released last week. We have similar colourings to him and never experienced racism ever before this. Perhaps they think we are Middle Eastern and are directing a particular type of hatred towards us. Perhaps it is a new racism because there were not many Middle Eastern people in the UK until recently.

I know that it is not everyone everywhere but it is now frequent enough for us to come to expect it every time we leave the house. Is this the equivalent of the Weimar Republic for the UK? Since there is no such thing as “stopping the boats” then the headlines will continue and the hatred towards brown-skinned fully fledged Brits too.

If I don’t come back to this thread immediately, it is because it is a massive thing for me to write this down and I will be reading and considering the responses.

So if some brown people commit terrorist acts, all brown people deserve racial abuse? Since most violent crime is committed by men, would it be ok to abuse any men I see? After all. it's only logical.

@MixedMetals “It’s not in the same league as being subjected to racism every time you leave the house is it?”

Hold on, are we just going to accept that not allowing kids to have white friends isn’t so bad? It’s completely disgraceful. How are we supposed to have any hope of this thing working if we handwave away attitudes like that.

The poll bears what you say out. 35% think it's unreasonable to say you have experienced racism. Says it all, doesn't it.
I'm not in the UK so I can't comment on the particular situation there, but racism is everywhere. Yet 35% of people are apparently saying it doesn't exist. 🤡

I grew up in an area that had quite a National Front presence in the late 60s/early 70s.

Later in the 70s/early 80s, I got involved in anti-racist activities, Rock Against Racism etc. By the 90s, I really felt that we had reached the point where racism was only a thing in a small and unthinking section of society and that everyone outside of that wasn't racist at all.

It breaks my heart to hear that some people now feel it is acceptable to openly espouse the sort of racist views that would have been widely condemned 30 years ago.

We seem to be going backwards.

If its ok for black or brown person to be racist due to some experiences with white people, its also ok for white people to be be racist due to their experiences with black or brown people. Or it isn't, and racism is simply unacceptable regardless of the purported experiences of the racist person.

Well that's what people seem to be saying?
OP: I experience racism whenever I leave the house.
Posters: Well my dd isn't invited on a playdate.

What are the point of those posts if they aren't trying to excuse racism? Did any of them even say I'm sorry for what you are experiencing OP, that must be awful or did they just leap straight into well I'm a victim too?

Exactly this. When a young child's early experiences of children of a different race is that their family will not welcome them, they are not seen as good enough to associate with.... That does not encourage good feelings about racial differences does it?
And the worst bit is it comes from the parents not the child. My daughters Asian friend told her she wanted to invite her to her house for her birthday celebration. No invitation appeared

You are excusing racism. Have another read of your previous post on this thread

The person I was replying to seemed to be insinuated if people just mixed better and invited people to playdates then maybe they wouldn't be so racist. I'm saying if that is an excuse for racism then surely you have to excuse people not wanting to invite racists over for tea.

Or are we just expecting the brown people to kowtow first and earn people not being racist towards them?

Did you even read the first sentence of my post?

And no these families dont avoid inviting white children round because they think those children are racist it's because they do not want their child associating with a white child!!!
Its racism and racism is racism.

I’m really sorry you’re experiencing find this. My mixed heritage (white and Middle Eastern) 8 year old has experienced three incidents of racist name-calling in the last year.

I know it's easier said than done but I tend to ignore twats. Fuck em all

What do you mean by this? What sort of human rights?

With regards to immigration, Sweden has introduced far tougher measures than the UK in recent months, thought to be driven by rising crime rates. https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/63757/sweden-government-moves-forward-on-tougher-migration-measures

I think there's a perception by some in the UK, and on Mumsnet, that all the Scandinavian countries are way nicer to immigrants than people in the UK are, but I think the tide is turning. Denmark banned the burqa back in 2018 to 'promote social integration'. If anyone dares to suggest that in the UK they get pilloried as Reform voters.

If parents are teaching their children that they shouldn't be friends with white kids and certainly shouldn't marry them, they're installing a sense of racial and religious supremacy into the next generation and doing so quite deliberately. That's racism and bigotry, deliberately perpetuated, and its being rightly called out.

How do you know which Asians are not letting their kids play with white people before abusing them?
What tosh. The only way is zero tolerance for racial abuse, not all this justification.

That we know of. I’m sure more scandals across the globe will come out, I would put money on it

When my kids were in primary there were a few Muslim parents who wouldn't let their kids go to the house of non-muslims.

I can assure you they have plenty of similar issues. They also have something like the most bomb attacks and shootings in the EU 🙃 They also have a big problem at the moment with gangs recruiting children to murder people on their behalf so that no one goes to jail for it.

So that means if you see an Asian on the train eating a salad, you make snide comments? Make it make sense.

Oh no. Of course not. I'm British Hindu. I was just saying what we experienced

Do British people in their British garb with their English language get treated well in south Asian countries when they move there?

The thread is about racism. I have no idea why parents who don't mingle have been brought into it. Two wrongs don't make a right.

I'm shocked and saddened by what you describe and how you feel OP. I live in London (suburbs admittedly) and don't see this, but it's made me think maybe I'm just not seeing what's in front of me.
I hope if I witnessed such behavior I would speak up, as I hope all right-minded people would, or we really will get the society we deserve.
People these days feel far too entitled to express their opinions, including objectionable racist ones.

I absolutely have to agree with you. OP. I am a south Asian Muslim woman, a visible Muslim as I wear hijab. I have noticed an increase in racism and it is depressing.

Just to comment and point out one interaction that has happened to me earlier this week. I was watching my toddlers (4yrs and 3yrs) playing outside with their neighbourhood friend, all on their scooters. Two white boys we have never met before came riding into our cul de sac. The boys were aged 7 and 8 years. They were nice and chatty and played amongst the kids.

I had my side gate open which leads into my garden, and my kids and their neighbourhood friends were in and out of my garden playing. The two new boys noticed I have a massive outdoor play set and asked if they can have a look. I didn't mind and let them in as the other kids were playing in and out. I followed the boys in after a few minutes and noticed they were eyeing up my shed, looking inside. They asked to look inside the shed and although a bit odd, I relented as it is an old shed with nothing of value inside.
After a few minutes of being nosey one of the boys pointed at my old telescope and actually asked, "what's that, is it a bomb?" I do wonder if they would have asked the same question if I wasn't a Muslim wearing hijabi.

The thread is about racism, yes. Other examples of racism are being discussed within a thread about racism, what are you struggling with here?