AIBU to think that racism is getting a lot worse of late.

[AliceMaforethought]

Just read this awful story in the Guardian. Awful and makes me feel so angry and so unsafe as a half Black woman.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/20/family-in-fear-after-tommy-robinson-shares-video-of-black-man-with-white-granddaughters

Yes I said it does nobody any good. I also don’t think calling it an invasion does any side of the argument any favours. Nothing has happened to the U.K. on this scale before.

Since the Normans have been mentioned, it's worth remembering (or learning for some) how they have managed to hang on to all that land they nicked conquered nigh on 1,000 years ago.

(If anyone was curious why English public schools are de rigueur with foreign oligarchs, it's because they know this is the secret to hanging onto your lucre)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/17/high-house-prices-inequality-normans

Take house prices. According to the author Kevin Cahill, the main driver behind the absurd expense of owning land and property in Britain is that so much of the nation's land is locked up by a tiny elite. Just 0.3% of the population – 160,000 families – own two thirds of the country. Less than 1% of the population owns 70% of the land, running Britain a close second to Brazil for the title of the country with the most unequal land distribution on Earth.

Much of this can be traced back to 1066. The first act of William the Conqueror, in 1067, was to declare that every acre of land in England now belonged to the monarch. This was unprecedented: Anglo-Saxon England had been a mosaic of landowners. Now there was just one. William then proceeded to parcel much of that land out to those who had fought with him at Hastings. This was the beginning of feudalism; it was also the beginning of the landowning culture that has plagued England – and Britain – ever since.

The dukes and earls who still own so much of the nation's land, and who feature every year on the breathless rich lists, are the beneficiaries of this astonishing land grab. William's 22nd great-granddaughter, who today sits on the throne, is still the legal owner of the whole of England. Even your house, if you've been able to afford one, is technically hers. You're a tenant, and the price of your tenancy is your loyalty to the crown. When the current monarch dies, her son will inherit the crown (another Norman innovation, incidentally, since Anglo-Saxon kings were elected). As Duke of Cornwall, he is the inheritor of land that William gave to Brian of Brittany in 1068, for helping to defeat the English at Hastings.

30 years ago there was freedom of movement within the EU which meant people would come and go, incl people from the UK.

Something happened in 2016 that changed that.

Now immigrants are more likely to settle in the UK with their families.

Remember who was at the forefront of that change?

.

Guardian opinions 👏I love it.

Remember this classic on Thomas the tank engine being racist, sexiest and authoritarian:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/22/thomas-the-tank-engine-children-parents

@ThatWaryOchreQuoter I must admit that did give me a much needed chuckle. I like the guardian, I read the online version everyday, but I'm not so arrogant to admit some of their commentary is daft. It's when posters comment that all the ' knuckle draggers ' form their opinions from reading the daily mail, totally missing the irony that us on the left are equally influenced by our own papers of choice and the rhetoric they push. It'd be hypocritical to think otherwise. Talking to people with opposing views, opening our eyes to what's going on around us and employing critical thinking to challenge our own inherent bias is the way to a true open mind. I absolutely loathe sneers and insults and talking down to people; no ones any better than anyone else. I'll never be part of an echo chamber posse either, to what point does it serve. Use your own brain people; just because someone may hold Some of the same views as you, does not make them right on every occasion.

There isn't one. It's just that obsessing about skin colour does tend to make one look a bit racist. Whiteness isn't a proxy for cultural or intellectual superiority.

The data around land ownership are not opinion, they're fact. How you use that in an opinion piece doesn't change that.

https://x.com/5Pillarsuk/status/1958479610783412577

This poor Asian chap who works for the NHS receives a barrage of racist nonsense from a woman in Bath.

There isn't one

I’m pleased to see you write that. There is hope for us all

Hope for us all, regarding what?

And I thought Bath was a nice city. That’s horrific.

Apologising for being in favour of white British people being a minority in Britain. It’s not often you get that these days.

BIossomtoes
"And I thought Bath was a nice city. That’s horrific."

Yes it's terrible. Racists have become so emboldened.

If you thought that was an apology on my part, you need to work on your reading comprehension.

But let me be very clear: I don't care what colour people are and what skin colour is the majority of a population. Because I am not a racist. If you do care about that and see whiteness as superior, then perhaps you should check if the shoe fits.

Who is in favour of white British being in a minority?

I don't think anyone is. There seem to be two categories of people: the minority who froth and fret about skin colour, and the majority who couldn't care less because they know it doesn't matter.

Fucking hell!😱

@pointythings seems to fluctuate between being in favour of the huge demographic change and not. One thing is for certain, she is definitely not a racist. It’s got a bit confusing tbh.

There's another category and they think that an 'elite' is trying to change the demographics of the country. Some think it's a worldwide Muslim cabal ( similar to antisemitic tropes), some think it's a left wing conspiracy and there are others for example, Putin.

I'm interested in what you think.

And? That's maths, not an explanation. What went off the tracks?

Net migration fell massively in the last year, and most migrants don't come in boats nor are they seeking asylum. Most come to work, or study. The 2023 figure was vastly anomalous, but I'm sure you didn't chose it for that reason.

But I'm still struggling with this "going off the tracks" and what that means. Feel free to enlighten me. You'd like people not to come here to work, or to bring money in as students (you'll probably get that one as overseas numbers are falling, so higher education institutions are going bust)?

migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/long-term-international-migration-flows-to-and-from-the-uk/

I think it’s just a country addicted to cheap labour and short term thinking. Always kicking the can down the road.

So you stop to have a racist rant in your works van. And they say racists aren't stupid.

You think the governments of the UK are trying make white British a minority because they're addicted to cheap labour?