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

Let’s be fair now - every country and culture has done things and have a legacy they should be ashamed of. That includes non white cultures who have not been under British or ‘white rule’. The record on women’s rights and ethnic minorities even now in most of the world is shameful, even in countries where flags are proudly flown. Britain wasn’t the only country invading and colonising and frankly is better integrated and more tolerant than most of our home countries. I don’t actually know where in the world non-white people would be safer and more free to practice their culture and speak freely about how much they dislike the indigenous population.

So you're telling me my father wasn't born in Ireland?

Check your history at the time of St George's birth Greece wasn't a nation state it was just part of the Roman empire so if you want to nitpick he was born in the Roman Empire.

Agree, the irony!

Exactly . Imagine the shoe was on the other foot …
🙄

You sound pretty racist towards white English/British people, including making sweeping generalisations about their knowledge of their history.

Aren't you proud of all the things England/Britain has given the world?

Why have you assumed that the first few posters are white, OP? There's nothing to indicate this.

No need to apologise! The Union Flag is layered elements of patron saint flags - my patron saint's flag is a black background with a yellow cross on it, no red in it. So nope, Wales definitely isn't included, because at the time it was designed Wales was considered part of the 'Kingdom of England'.

I think it's fine. It's the flag for their country!

I usually assume there’s a football match or other sporting event on.

I'm an immigrant. It's Britain, what's wrong with the flags? If you go to Turkey, flags are everywhere, should they now be ashamed either?

You were really hoping to hear from
anyone who
agreed with you. No one does, regardless of skin colour.

Because of the very phrase being used ‘taking our country back’. Back from whom?

Which is what a poster upthread said. And what does any of this have to do with your father being born in Ireland ? If it was recognised as Ireland at the time he was born, then surely he was born there ?

The St Gs flag is not British.

I’m British Indian. I don’t consider the flag to be racist. Rather the opposite actually, as when in England celebrate what is English. The fact that people are putting up English flags now does probably come at a time where they are doing it for political reasons. They are also standing up for themselves. Does that alone make them racist? No. If I was racially abused walking on a street full of these flags, then yes I would tie racism with the flag, fairly or unfairly. I support the right to celebrate who you are, just don’t harass innocent people. I know many who are decent English people just putting up the flag to lift spirits. Good for them. Non British or non English aren’t meek victims to be protected and many of us feel secure in ourselves.

I'm of east Asian heritage and I don't see anything wrong with people flying the flags or with being proud to be British.

I don't see flags being flown where I live very often but when they're put up for specific events like the world cup, I think it's quite nice and brings a feeling of community to the area.

If you feel so weary, can’t understand ‘what the uk wants to take pride in’.Why are you living in the uk?
Because the way you’re describing it sounds awful and actually it’s your comment, that is coming across as racist.

I think it depends on the context. They've been attached to lamp posts down Epping high street following all of the recent protests regarding the asylum seekers being housed in the Bell Hotel. It feels like a deliberate attempt to intimidate the people staying there. I wouldn't blame any other non white people in the town if they felt intimdated too. Tbh, they way some of the protestors have behaved, it's a bit intimidating to the white locals as well

It was a question. If they had put the Union Jack out I wonder if they would have been taken down or is it just the England flag?

I’m an Irish person in the North of Ireland where British flags are used to intimidate and cite hatred and even I think you’re talking nonsense! It is not racist to fly English flags in England!

I hate to see them where I live but when in England surely it’s expected 🤷‍♀️

Racism is now sadly a one way street.

Towns in European countries are smothered in their national flags. No one complains about that!

There used to be nothing racist about the UJ or the St George cross, unless you want there to be. OK a tiny minority of people who use them might be racist but the flags are not.

This is precisely the paranoid mindset which causes people to get defensive of what they perceive as their culture. Flags in themselves are fine.

We shouldn’t allow racists to commandeer the national flag(s).

They should be a symbol of unity - don’t let them have it their way.

Flying the country flag shouldn't be classed as racism.
Granted some far right groups may use the flag.
I'd be horrified if flying our national flag was seen as a racist act.

Unfortunately, the St George flag has been flown at so many far right, ultra nationalist, and violent sporting events that it’s now associated more commonly with groups with racist and anti-social intentions than any innocent country church celebration.

I would go as far to say that actually the same has happened with the US flag and the Union Jack. Often when I see either of them I think here we go, some MAGA or Reform shit’s about to go down.