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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think Britain is getting more racist ?

235 replies

JifNtGif · 28/11/2025 15:29

Overt anti "foreigner" / anti non-white discussions appear to be normalised at times these days. I don't remember this in previous decades. Was it just under the surface ?

OP posts:
FellowSuffereroftheAbsurd · 29/11/2025 09:15

I think some corners are louder and prouder, and with technology things are more visible, but I'm not sure if there are more racists/things are becoming more racist or that it's shown more. I think as others said that division in general has become louder, more blatantly supported by those who benefit from it, and a focus possibly than it was decades mast.

The original post is about getting more racist since previous decades ago, so not since Brexit - that vote was a little less than a decade ago - so are we talking since the early 00s, the 90s, 80s, 70s...

I think it would be very difficult to say Britain is more racist than the 60s when the Bristol Bus Boycott happened. Even the 80s with the race riots that happened then and a lot of shite going on then, I think that's difficult to say.

Also, the OP made foreigners equivalent to not White. There are many immigrants who are White or are regularly perceived as White who experience abuse. While not what most think of when discussing racism, the legal definition includes national origin, so yes, there are many white immigrant women who have personal experience on it.

In my experience - immigrated here over 20 years ago, visibly mixed race, obvious accent - I find I have less remarks and hostility about my ethnicity, it's a rarity for me, but I am getting more remarks and at times hostility on anything where...the best way I can put it is blending in or assimilated to what someone else perceives as British. My accent at times feels like it creates a target, that the content or politeness of what I say matter far less than how the other person feels about my accent, and I've noticed a shift in the last year or so where some people get agitated, I've started to hear "That's not a local accent!" or not a British accept and people asking how long I've been in the UK and getting unhappy I still have 'such a strong accent' or then getting less happy if I do anything else they perceive as not British enough. This had led to me getting less tolerant of people discussing my accent, it instantly brings up warning thoughts in my mind and makes me very uncomfortable, like how I can't be British enough is being poked at.

However, I bitterly resent what the left have done. It’s a question of scale. Mass immigration has been used to destroy our national identity and impose a new one on us. No one asked for it and no one voted for it.

As others mentioned, the "Boris Wave" and highest rates of immigration was under the Tories. It was the Tory Chancellor George Osbourne who called the immigration of the UK as "for-profit" in Parliament and brought in the 'private partners' among other ways corporations are making more money off of there being more immigrants coming in. That why even though the Tories brought in a lot of immigration law changes, most people - British born, naturalised British, immigrant, asylum seeker - see little benefit.

That they've somehow spun this to be something the left has done, when it's actually what those looking to squeeze 99% of us without a care for anyone but themselves is a masterclass in manipulation. Yes, people on the left are louder on defending immigration, that doesn't make them the cause.

Portakalkedi · 29/11/2025 09:18

Other than the recent appalling rise in antisemitism, no. Britain is and always has been a fairly tolerant and welcoming country compared to many. I think what you mean is the recent and IMO justified ill feeling and resentment towards hordes of undocumented men forcing their way into the country, who are then being housed in hotels in various communities, at our expense. Some of them are criminals or go on to commit rape and assault. That's not racism though, not even xenophobia.

MrDobbs · 29/11/2025 09:55

My personal context: I'm an Asian man, grew up in an 80% Asian area, went to secondary school in a 90% white school and then lived and worked in a 95% white part of the country. My children are the only brown children in their classes at school.

While I have a Muslim background, I am not religious at all. I will be found having a few pints at the local pub and having a chat and a laugh with friends and talk with the same regional accent at the locals etc

This is where I have always got the chat from people "You're alright mate, it's the others....some of your lot are....." Etc. As people are generally tolerant on an individual level and very capable of separating that from their misinformed views of groups. While I may very "integrated" etc I do not deny my heritage, and have not forgotten where I grew up in an area with a lot of ethnic diversity and so will push back against people who talk like that to me but I have no idea how much they really listen to revise their views in the end.

This is 100% getting worse - both in terms of how often people are emboldened to say more and more vitriolic things about "the others" and how often they raise it. I can brush it off but these people are parents of children who go to school with my children and I am concerned that as they get older the children will start echoing what they hear from their parents, particularly as my children don't have other brown and black children around them like I did.

I listen to all the Reform and "anti immigration is not anti racist" stuff every day from people at work so I am not ignorant of what's behind it or living in a bubble. But I can see it's all very toxic and getting worse by the month.

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 29/11/2025 10:01

ThePolarEspresso · 28/11/2025 20:39

I understand rape is genocide. Have you seen the estimates of English girls? Economically and via DEI English homes and business have been burnt to the ground IMHO.

I can't post anymore atm, I am too upset.

Thank the lord.

suburburban · 29/11/2025 10:19

thepariscrimefiles · 29/11/2025 07:23

Apparently, he didn't do this in a 'hurtful' way! Just a bit of light anti-semitism between friends. Well that's what he said before changing tack to completely denial, even though there were many witnesses to his abuse of a Jewish fellow pupil.

Farage is a disgrace however other cultures here seem to be anti semitic as well or does that not count

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 29/11/2025 10:22

suburburban · 29/11/2025 10:19

Farage is a disgrace however other cultures here seem to be anti semitic as well or does that not count

Of course it counts. Antisemitism is a form of racism. All racism is wrong.

ThePolarEspresso · 29/11/2025 10:41

thepariscrimefiles · 29/11/2025 05:48

I think a lot of your posts have been borderline racist, e.g.:

-move here and claim social housing along with in-work benefits

  • move here and demand taxpayers, fund you and 4 wives with 5 kids each in separate taxper funded homes and expect the working population to fund you, whilst crying that you are not popular with everyone.

I also find it completely hypocritcal that anyone from a country with mass emigration, whose compatriots have experienced bigotry and xenophobia (e.g. the signs in the windows of homes to rent in English cities saying 'No black, no dogs, no Irish) has no sympathy with later waves of migration, often due to the UK getting involved in foreign wars such as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Linking to Dan Wooton as a reliable source on anything is laughable. He was sacked by GB News for God's sake. If you are too right wing for GB News, you are in the gutter.

My Grandparents were born in the UK (Ireland was in the UK once), which I understand is the criteria that will be used by the most hand line and less hardline people are fine if you have half English children.

What happens is even if born here you don't understand the English unless you join the family IMHO.

I should be fine and will leave if the English want me to go, without trouble.

As for no Irish, dogs and blacks.

imagine you are a woman in England who was widowed in WW2, your children have left home and you rent out rooms.

The context is that Irish men were coming here to work on building sites with the English as THEY not migrants from the 3rd world, were the ones to did the labour that built the UK.

As the women in the 1985 video from Yorkshire quite rightly pointed out the Irish were backwards compared to the English then. Plumbing for example came much later there. The Irish men came to England and were used to shitting in a corner of a field and wiping their arse with leaves and had no bathroom to wash in.

Have a think about the landlady dealing with a man with a gigantic ego ,dirty from building sites and why she wouldn't want an Irish man in her home. I don't know why they didn't want black men. Not many places rent to dog owners today.

As the guy in the video i linked earlier said, the Irish were badly behaved. My Dad was an arsehole. I am not surpriswhoif the English who had to deal with him didn't want the Irish here after meeting him. He wasn't into alcohol though.

If you are an arsehole to the English, you can't be surprised can you, that they don't want you? I have feck all to do with the prick, why should the English have to put up with him. He would be first on my list for deportation if I was in charge , he hates the English and never stopped banging on about it.

He is a racist prick towards the English, I would be doing him a favour sending him home to the land and people he prefers.

ThePolarEspresso · 29/11/2025 13:32

I read this and thought of this thread.

My observations and opinions here are that 36 year old ungrateful Meghan, lacks social skills and an inability to be humble.

Meghan probably sold herself a fantasy and got annoyed at the English for not being props in her fantasy Disney Epcot she wanted to create from their home and she views them as having the cheek to expect her to fit in with them.

People can sell themselves a fantasy of how things will be or others can. When reality hits and a sophisticated culture isn't as easy to navigate as first thought and you fail, it may be easier to blame others than admit you are limited and don't like the reality of the culture and that your fantasy wasn't a reality that will ever exist.

Megan got a message in advance of that engagement that the Queen was planning on wearing a green hat, if you know you know.

Meghan doesn't know what she doesn't know.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/article-15324109/Meghan-Markle-botched-induction-Firm-Queen.html

thepariscrimefiles · 29/11/2025 14:05

ThePolarEspresso · 29/11/2025 13:32

I read this and thought of this thread.

My observations and opinions here are that 36 year old ungrateful Meghan, lacks social skills and an inability to be humble.

Meghan probably sold herself a fantasy and got annoyed at the English for not being props in her fantasy Disney Epcot she wanted to create from their home and she views them as having the cheek to expect her to fit in with them.

People can sell themselves a fantasy of how things will be or others can. When reality hits and a sophisticated culture isn't as easy to navigate as first thought and you fail, it may be easier to blame others than admit you are limited and don't like the reality of the culture and that your fantasy wasn't a reality that will ever exist.

Megan got a message in advance of that engagement that the Queen was planning on wearing a green hat, if you know you know.

Meghan doesn't know what she doesn't know.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/article-15324109/Meghan-Markle-botched-induction-Firm-Queen.html

Edited

The irony of you saying that Meghan lacks social skills will be completely lost on you.

Whatever your personal views on Meghan's behaviour, there is no denying that she is and was subject to racism by the tabloid press while she lived in the UK and since she moved to California. There is also an article comparing tabloid headlines criticising Meghan with articles praising Catherine for doing the same thing:

https://www.boredpanda.com/uk-media-double-standarts-royal-meghan-markle-kate-middleton/

15 Headlines Show How Differently The British Press Treat Meghan Markle Vs Kate Middleton

Here are some of the things that British journalists only seemed to think were wrong once Meghan did them. Entertainment, Social Issues

https://www.boredpanda.com/uk-media-double-standarts-royal-meghan-markle-kate-middleton/

ThePolarEspresso · 29/11/2025 14:16

The reason you see these people have returned to Ireland in this 1990s situation is due to the Cathecism, they would fear they would burn in hell if they stayed in other countries making people in their homeland suffer financial hardship. They claimed unemployment benefits in their homeland.

It's the way they were brought up!

What happened in the 90s is the Irish economy had to find a solution to their problems and they did. They are currently going through an adjustment due to that solution attracting others there and will be removing those from the country who brought a culture of a caste system to Ireland and excluded the Irish (like the British did in the past) from jobs.

Any Catholic who is currently in the wrong country (if you married in you aren't in the wrong country), making the English poor and putting their abortions up to 48% of pregnancies, when 6 out of 10 say it's due to poverty, is likely going to hell for genocide IMHO.

That Catholic in the wrong country doing what I described would be viewed as the evil racist who is headed to the gutter of hell. It's the different world views people have that flips good and evil.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26716924.amp

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/edlQ_JPJIf8?si=sg04qQxR9qRrkDJ3

ThePolarEspresso · 29/11/2025 15:10

I had another thought.

The English were Catholic for about a thousand years.

During that time they will have taken on what St. Thomas Aquinas said about migrants.

I can't remember what I read exactly in the past.

AI can be unreliable and I would like to get it right.

It was something along the lines of, if people haven't integrated by the 4th generation they never will.

He had some interesting thoughts on the matter beyond that.

The atheists wanted to carry out a diverse culture experiment and ignore great minds of the past and here we are.

scatterolight · 29/11/2025 15:12

Theyreeatingthedogs · 29/11/2025 02:39

Ah, native British. What does that mean? The Iceni, Taexali, Silures?

Please define what the native British is.

It is hard to debate when we have vague, nebulous terms.

You well understand who the native British are when you're talking about them being racist.

It's basically Schrodingers native Brit - doesn't exist but is also very racist towards foreigners.

ThePolarEspresso · 29/11/2025 15:29

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15206581/Male-migrant-borrowed-female-friends-identity-work-nurse-Lucy-Letby-hospital-went-undetected-two-months-patient-raised-alarm.html

I do pray for Nigerian Christians and in the past I would have accepted them as refugees here, that's no longer the case.

I wouldn't accept them now myself and I would advice my grandchildren to say to their children that after 100 years you could try with them again and see if they have caught up, if they haven't, they will be hostile and should be left alone for another 100 years.

I am not in government and that's just my opinion, so it doesn't matter, it may just annoy someone.

The welfare of my family and the people in my country comes first and having been given a chance this is how the vulnerable in England were treated.

I shall carry on praying for these people.

Male migrant borrowed female friend's ID to work at Letby hospital

Male migrant Lucius Njoku borrowed a female friend's identity to tend to seriously ill patients in the A&E unit at the NHS hospital where killer nurse Lucy Letby worked, a court heard.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15206581/Male-migrant-borrowed-female-friends-identity-work-nurse-Lucy-Letby-hospital-went-undetected-two-months-patient-raised-alarm.html

Buzyizzy217 · 29/11/2025 15:37

There is no such thing as illegal immigration. That is a phrase invented by NF and millions of gullible fools believe him.

Buzyizzy217 · 29/11/2025 15:40

You’re not understanding the climate crisis if you think that a) India and Pakistan are going to be unaffected by the climate crisis, b) are basically saying you don’t want any refugees here at all and c) The Western World has caused this, we need to look after the population from these vulnerable countries.

Buzyizzy217 · 29/11/2025 15:44

Your comment was so unbelievably out of touch and selfish to the point of racist, I honestly thought you must not mean what you wrote. And your very reaction to my questioning your motives tells me you are a very nasty person indeed. I make no secret of being dyspraxic and on the spectrum. You have no idea of my life’s struggles with invisible disabilities (I have a few more) yet you feel you have the right to your diatribe.

Buzyizzy217 · 29/11/2025 15:47

There are going to be billions displaced and the ones who are temporarily able to assist and take them in, will I hope, do just that. The terrifying thought I repeatedly have is what is it going to take the number that are still in denial to admit this is happening?

Buzyizzy217 · 29/11/2025 15:50

UKIP were a thing back in 2010 and actually won 12% of the vote in 2015. On the back of that came, as you said, the EU Referendum, and it was all downhill from then on. 😟

Justchilling07 · 29/11/2025 15:54

Buzyizzy217 · 29/11/2025 15:37

There is no such thing as illegal immigration. That is a phrase invented by NF and millions of gullible fools believe him.

It’s not legal immigration, so what is it? They are not fleeing from a war torn country, the reason is economical.I didn’t vote to leave the E.U and l don’t agree with NF what he stands for.So no, just because someone has a view, on illegal immigration doesn’t make them gullible, racist.

Crunchingleaf · 29/11/2025 16:43

Buzyizzy217 · 29/11/2025 15:47

There are going to be billions displaced and the ones who are temporarily able to assist and take them in, will I hope, do just that. The terrifying thought I repeatedly have is what is it going to take the number that are still in denial to admit this is happening?

Honestly your posts are coming off as completely naive regarding human nature.
Racism pops up in every part of world. Of course in every culture there are those who are not but every society has racists.
Tolerance for ‘others’ only exists when things are going well. If as predicted the climate goes to shit this will cause competition for resources. You really think people will tolerate sharing limited resources with people from other side of the world. No they absolutely won’t and they won’t be guilt tripped into it either.

suburburban · 29/11/2025 16:59

Buzyizzy217 · 29/11/2025 15:40

You’re not understanding the climate crisis if you think that a) India and Pakistan are going to be unaffected by the climate crisis, b) are basically saying you don’t want any refugees here at all and c) The Western World has caused this, we need to look after the population from these vulnerable countries.

Might have known it would be the UKs fault.

KilliMonjaro · 29/11/2025 17:01

Namenamchange · 28/11/2025 15:32

I think Britain is a fairly mixed tolerant country.

I think there is a huge rise in antisemitism which was just below the surface and now isn’t.

It’s not just antisemitism!!

Ambridgefan · 29/11/2025 17:02

Sadly I think you are right. It started with Brexit when racists felt they had been given permission to outwardly express racist views and it has just hit worse, fueled by Farage and his friends. And sadly the people who vote for his party don't care

ThePolarEspresso · 29/11/2025 17:42

Name calling isn't working, sob stories aren't working anymore either and tolerance isn't a Catholic virtue.

You will have to have a chat with your own peoples about problems as people you will have, and come up with a plan for floods to ease your anxiety. All the best now with it and use what you learned in the West, I hope it helps.

We have our own problems to fix after almost destroying ourselves in the West, by being way too kind IMHO.

Anyway I will let you go, I wouldn't want to distract you from the urgent flood plans.

Sartre · 29/11/2025 17:56

When I was younger it was Eastern Europeans. It was so bad, a Polish shop near my school blocked school kids from entering because they’d regularly dish out racist abuse. When my mum was young in the 70s/80s it was Asians, particularly Pakistanis. When my Gran was young in the 50s/60s it was black and Irish people.

It just isn’t anything new sadly and if you are an ethnic minority, you will know it never went away. It feels worse right now because, well, Farage but far right outliers like him have always existed. It was Nick Griffin in the 00s, Enoch Powell in the 70s.

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