Is this racism?

[cooooola]

Basically I was at the pub in the pub and nobody was behind the bar.

I was first in line.

An elderly couple come and and then another man who slams his glass down.

When the bar lady asks "who is first"? I replied me.

The elderly couple say "we have been waiting ages".

And the man next says "I didn't see her".

I felt this was due to me being mixed race.
I felt quite intimidated.

I only popped in for a drink whilst OH has the kids.

I feel any shaken up as the only ethnic person in the place.
AIBU

Ah its okay folks..once a political party has people of colour as members, they couldn't possibly be racist.

The comments on this thread are exactly the same as OP's experience in that pub, that of insidious racism and when she picked up on it, she is told by a bunch of MNetters to pipe down. There are COUNTLESS forms of racism and overt name calling is only one form.

Ah, the UK isn't racist eh?

Outrageous responses.

It is not for a white person to tell a non white person what is and isn't racist.

How is that relevant? Do white poor girls somehow matter less? Do they not count?

We dont know is the answer, just as we dont know if such huge efforts would have gone into protecting working class white men if they'd be the perpetrators, under the excuse of public harmony.

White working class girls from disadvantaged backgrounds have very little power. You don't need to use sarcasm with me on that point.
However, that does not mean that Pakistani people have more power than white people at a societal level. Otherwise we would see Pakistsni males oppressing white males. You can't just remove sex based power from a situation when it suits you.

So white people have power even though the majority of white people are powerless and the elites in power are doing things the majority disagree with? And the non-white people who had and have powerful positions in government over the last few decades? They don’t count for some reason, I imagine. I think a slightest more nuanced analysis than “white supremacy” is needed at this point.

You know precisely what she meant.

White people have the luxury of not experiencing racism compared to that of their non-white peers

The 'whataboutery' on this thread shows up the insecurities of posters

Yes, to your first sentence. That's exactly it.
The majority of people have very little power.
However this lack of power does not arise from having white skin. It arises from class and wealth inequality.
Basically, it's not being white that makes you powerless, is not being rich.

Ah, the UK isn't racist eh?

Do you think it’s acceptable to smear a whole country of people as racist?

The UK is a country with racists in it, hence a racist country.

There, how is that for you?

So why are the Pakistani rape gangs not being stopped, why is it impossible to deport foreign criminals and why are the government having their power to bully and silence us from criticising Islam?

Those people aren’t rich. They have something far more important to Starmer and the Labour Party. They have very motivated voting groups. There is frequently an 80% turnout of Muslim voters at elections and in a number of areas, the local imams will decide where the votes go. Labour lost a lot of those votes to the Greens and they want to regain them. That’s the power.

But this just isn’t true. White children being abused by Pakistani grooming gangs experience racism. It’s all there in the reports. You can’t deny it (unless you cleverly redefine racism to exclude the possibility of racism against white people). This has happened on a massive scale. Why doesn’t it get considered in assessing who faces racism.

White people are less likely to go to grammar school or university and have a shorter life expectancy than non-white people. Where’s all this “privilege” we hear so much about?

So the thousands of girls racially abused while they were being raped were actually in luxury and not experiencing racism?

And the white kids who can’t get internships or jobs because of the colour of their skin are just a figment of the courts imagination? (Several cases have been won already, but it’s still happening).

The first racist comments I ever heard were from the Pakistani boys at university regaling us with the nasty racist terms they had for white girls.

Basically, it's not being white that makes you powerless, is not being rich.

Have you considered that, just possibly, it’s not being white that makes you powerful, it’s being rich?

But at least you are admitting that white people who are not rich do not have power. It’s a start.

Nope. You still sound like you are making a negative generalisation about the occupants of an entire country.

I’m sure there’s a word for that.

Absolutely. Other races and ethnic groups (black people, Jews, Muslims etc) can advocate for their own group and are listened to by those in power. Try doing that as a white person, even for white children, and you get called a racist or a Nazi. So much power 🙄

Thank you @MissBeans83

When it happened my instincts immediately sensed racism, especially when the random bloke backed them up.

10 years ago it wouldn't of crossed my mind but in this day and age in the UK people do not even attempt to hide it anymore.

The pub that I went to was in an area that I grew up in and went to school, it used to be a very posh area and it used to come up in the Top 10 places to live in the UK.
Now it's awful and run down.

I never experienced any racism at all growing up at school and had friends from diverse backgrounds from Asian, black, mixed and white.

It was only my mother's side that I really experienced racism back then in the mid 90s/ early 00.

Why would it be about your ethnicity?
You went to a shitty Wetherspoons where the riff raff of society congregate for cheap booze and food so I assume they were just rude and thoughtless. Not sure colour has anything to do with it!

Because it is normalized it is inevitable more people are calling it out. What is sad about the post ,is not whether racism was involved,but that OP feared it might be. Says a lot about our society.

@Shoopshawady The Wetherspoons where I live (25 minutes away) is really nicely decorated, the food is nice and the staff are really friendly. It is always full.

However it did only open last year.

The one I visited today was awful and half empty, and just looked like it needed a good deep clean.

Some people are self serving aholes.

Sometimes self serving aholes are white.
There’s probably a bit of overlap with racism and being a self serving ahole.

Sorry that happened to you

You are arguing that certain white led organisations have shown bias towards non white demographics? If that is so, that means only that the non white demographic was advantaged, by gift of the white people with power, not that the non white demographic had usurped power.
Where white people head up institutions, they have the power and are using it as they see fit.
If you don't like the way they use it, and feel it disadvantages other white people, your argument is with them, the powerful white people in charge.
Just as with immigration, its white people who have decided the policies. 76% of the UK are white British, and the majority vote for political parties that have not taken a strong line on immigration.
I get that it's frustrating for people with strong anti immigration views, but its not the immigrants who have the power to set the policies and have rendered you powerless to stop it.
Its successive white British dominated governments, and the white British people who've voted for them.

Exactly.

A significant group of people in this country are legally allowed to carry knives when no one else can. This privilege has been abused and cost an innocent life. It has been demonstrated as an issue for public safety yet the government won’t even consider withdrawing that special privilege for fear of upsetting those people.

Another group of people are attempting to have blasphemy laws reintroduced in the UK. There is still a teacher from Batley in hiding for fear of his life after 5 years after showing a depiction of a religious figure. He has a price on his head and cannot return to his hometown with his family.

Now imagine if it had been a Sikh boy horribly murdered and bullied by the police or a Muslim teacher hounded out of his home and will be killed if he returns. No stone would be left unturned until everyone involved was locked up forever. I can guarantee that the reaction from the authorities would be amplified 1000 fold.

But we’re the racists. 🙄

It hardly needs 'admitting', it's entirely obvious.
If you are a working class white person with little money, you will be disadvantaged. However the reason you are disadvantaged is the working class and not wealthy parts of the description, not the white part.
Being white is not a disadvantage in our society. If it were it would be a pattern reflected throughout our society from top to bottom and white people would have less power than other ethnicities at every level.

Muslims are 6% of the electorate. They clearly have nowhere near the voting power of the non Muslim population.

That doesn’t take into account the way our voting system works though.

For example in Jess Phillips’ constituency, approx 45% of the voters are Muslim. Given that they regularly achieve a turnout of up to 80% compared to approx 55% in the general population, that can have a significant impact on the result.

Replicate that in many constituencies around the country and you have some important voting power.

It would go some way to explaining Jesse Phillips watering down the rape gangs inquiry and Starmer attempting to use the police and ‘guidance’ to silence us.