To ask those who are not white brittish how they feel about the flags?

[PicaK]

Birmingham and Tower Hamlets are having St George England flags put up by privately funded groups.
I'm horrified by the implicit racism. I've seen a lot of white people applauding this and "time we took back the country" comments.
I haven't seen many non white people commenting. My feel is that they are too intimidated to do so. Am I right? Or is it indifference or is it that you're dealing with racism on a daily level and this is just one more thing.
Please don't post if you're white.whatever you feel about the flags. I want to hear on white viewd

How is putting up a St George flag ‘implicit racism’?

It’s really bizarre that the country’s flag, or flying it, is seen as being a racist act tbh.

I don't watch much news so not heard about this, what is the reason for the flags being put up?

What's your thought on the St Andrews flag being used up here in Scotland in the same way? Wee Nic-nock and her 'gies back poor land' diatribe?
My dh and dc speak with English accent, I'm Scottish, so if like the SNP use it as a 'get out of country' its wrong, if it's flown like other places do as a flag. That's OK.

I am Scottish and our flag doesn't have racist connotations. But if the English flag genuinely is considered to be racist by the majority of the population, then obviously it needs to be changed. You can't have a national flag which people/companies/councils cannot display without accusations of racism. Is it the case that this flag is widely perceived to be racist, or not? If not, it's obviously fine to keep it as England's national flag, and it's fine for it to be flown.

I think it's wonderful . I don't really understand the narrative that we should be embarrassed or ashamed of our national flag when other people are more than proud to display their own national flags at various sporting events etc. There does seem a political drive to make us all feel ashamed of the British flag and convince us that it's racist to be patriotic and proud of our own national flag.

It's British by the way.

I think it's about time that British people took more pride in being British, and flew the flag like other countries do for their flags.

If Palestinian, Pride and Ukrainian flags are widely flown, why shouldn't the Union Flag or St George /St Andrew / St David flags be flown?

The fact that it is seen as a racist act and has been for a long time is ridiculous.

People from other countries that live here came to live in the UK, and the UK has a British flag. Absolutely nothing unusual about that.

I think over time it's been hijacked by white nationalists who are too thick to realise that St George was actually Turkish.

The flag is not considered to be racist by the majority of the population.

Possibly a flush of patriotic pride that England won the Euros.
It could be that the rugby world cup starts this Friday and the red roses are the world's number one team.
Or it could just be that its the countries flag and we should be allowed some pride in being English.

I can assure you its not the majority of the population.

By me, in Birmingham, they've been putting up St George flags. They're English.

I was really hoping to hear non-white views.
There's a group who have decided to put up flags on lampposts without permission. They state this is to celebrate being English and for VJ Day. But in interviews they can't but help lapse into the "getting the country back" diatribe and it shows they are abusing the flag. They certainly werent rushing to put them up for VE Day. There's nothing wrong with the flag itself. But the way it's being used is disturbing. It's every lamppost on long lines of streets. It's heavily reminiscent of nazi flags.

This article is good ”24% of people consider it racist”

the article explains the issues

https://theweek.com/94358/why-is-the-st-george-s-flag-controversial-and-is-it-legal-to-fly-it

Sure. I was responding to the op who has written brittish.

Sometimes I do side eye someone's house if they have the St George's flag and assume they may be racist. As someone who has been racially attacked I'd rather assume someone is racist and be pleasantly surprised than assume I am safe and be proven wrong. However for some reason the British flag doesn't evoke the same emotions in me. Whenever there's a major sporting event though I don't think twice when people have flags outside.

OP I think you are right. As a non-white British person I do instinctively think of it as belonging to the far right. That may well not be fair of me but that is the feeling I get.

I saw them up by hoggs Lane northfield they looked amazing

I'm white, and I feel my flag is being hijacked. I love seeing the flag of St George fluttering from church towers on 23 April. But I hate it being used in this way.

I thought it was for VJ day? We were on holiday for a week and came back to union flags and the occasional St Georges, Scotish, Welsh and N Ireland flags. I have to admit, in the sunshine yesterday they looked very cheerful.

What is the reason for them being put up?

Whenever I see a racist protest, I see people waving the Cross of St George around. I would love for us the wrestle the flag back from the Nationlist, we did manage it for a time .. but sadly no more.
I would happily fly a flag, if the “country back” brigade would stop using it.

Oooo, a fellow Northfield mumsnetter!

Birmingham and tower hamlets are in England, and Great Britain. If you are a British citizen or English then it is your flag. If you are non British then it is the flag of the country where you live. You may feel pride in the flag of your nation of citizenship.

Billy Bragg wrote about why the left have not tried to reclaim the flag of England when it was being used by ski heads and racists in the 1970s and 80s. The flag of the country that brought the Great Reform act, words for women, no property qualification in make votes, that granted independence to coloured, that has free democratic elections, that welcomes those from oppression ( yes, we are not machine gunning asylum seekers - there is a process ,- it could and should be better).

Do you think its heavily reminiscent of nazi flags when its done in Norway, Denmark, the US etc where flying the national flag is a source of great pride and very widespread?

The St George flag is 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 English, the Saltire/St Andrew flag is 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scottish, the Union flag is 🇬🇧 British.

@PicaK My black friend, who was born here and has ancestors going back generations here has no issue with the flags.