Feel like a stranger in my home city

[Summer70]

So I moved from Birmingham years ago. Visited the centre today & felt shocked. It’s always been vibrant & multicultural, but today it felt really poor, scruffy & run down. As a white person, I felt in the significant minority & it seemed that white, British culture had disappeared. Islamic culture was overwhelmingly the majority. Now before anyone accuses me of racism, I absolutely am not racist. But I am shocked that the UKs second city is so far away from being culturally British. Will this change continue & if so, will white British culture be welcome here at all?

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What does “white British culture” look like to you, OP?

Reported.

For what?

People should be allowed to discuss the changing demographic of the country. It is not rascist to express concern about change. Cultures can and do change over time and it would be strange to not wonder what it means for you within that situation.
Seeing everything as an attack is exactly why we cannot discuss anything and plays into the hands of those who love to keep us divided.

What is white culture?

The trend probably will continue due to a mixture of immigration and people from ethnic minorities having a higher birth rate. Also there will be cases of "white flight" - I'm assuming you yourself are an example of this.

Why?

OP didn't say anything racist?

You are absolutely being racist. Are you going to tell us all the churches are now mosques next? Absolute ragebait thread.

How about tomorrow, go into that nice big Waterstones and treat yourself to a cuppa.

This is happening in many large cities including Bristol. Bristol has always been multicultural but mainly Jamaicans and Pakistanis, however, I was quite surprised when I last went there to find quite a different mix of people. Nothing wrong with that, just very different to the old Bristol I grew up in. People find change hatd especially whwn they have no connection to these new communities. Hopefully with time and effort on all sides, we can make connections and friendships that negate our cultural differences.

And for anyone questioning British or white culture, there is such a thing. It's like saying ' I don't see colour'. Cultures exist and we won't get better at dealing with these things until we stop pretending they don't.

I’ve moved from Birmingham to another large city. The change in my new city has been far less stark & feels more integrated.
White British culture means exactly that to me - our traditions & history - surely I’m not awful to feel sad that those things no longer feel prominent in such a historically important industrial city?

Britain has a proud tradition of multiculturalism.

I think you're listening too much to the Reform voice who want to tell you that it doesn't.

Embracing other cultures is part of what makes us British.

@BestMugPleaseno absolutely not, I have no intention of saying that. All I’m saying is that it’s changed beyond recognition. The history & culture I grew up with felt like it had gone & I felt a bit sad about it. I apologise if me pointing out and questioning such a rapid change offends you.

But you moved away (white flight) so surely you are contributing to this perceived "problem"?

Why didn't you stay there, have five children and then raise them with your "white" values to balance things out?

I live in a predominantly “white British” city and it’s equally as depressing as Birmingham, in fact my sister lives in Birmingham and I much prefer it. At least places with a lot of cultures mixing tend to have a bit of a buzz to them.

What are you on about 'white flight', she may have moved away for work or family. She also didn't say anything racist, she mentioned culture and religion. These things make a bigger difference than skin colour as they are a set of beliefs and practices that people don't always share. They can create barriers and prevent people from mixing.

There wasn't much embracing of other cultures during a certain Villa match.

There's some great curry houses, as we used to call them back in the day. One of the homes of curry is Birmingham.

Rings of Robert Jenrick when he said he "didn't see another white face" in Birmingham.

I didn't accuse her of being racist. There is nothing wrong with her original post and her discussing a change of demographics. She does however specifically mention skin colour though - she says "as a white person" and refers to "white British culture" (not just british culture) so race is clearly relevant here and important to her as well as religion and culture.

I mentioned "white flight" because it is very real phenomena and that's literally what she personally contributed to. Do you know what it is? (The clue is in the name) Her reasons for moving are irrelevant and she is obviously well within her rights to do so. However, it is is ironic that she chose to leave as a white person and then has the audacity to complain that there are fewer white people there. It's baffling to me that that isn't blindingly obvious to anyone.

It's very easy to look back at it with rose tinted glasses and nostalgia. I grew up in the city and always remember it to be very multicultural. I've been recently and it's feels different but then it's changed a lot in the 30 years since I was a kid. I wouldn't know my way round now as one instance.

I remember the old indoor market at the Bull Ring. My mum used to make our clothes so we visited a lot of fabric stands and these were generally owned by people of Asian heritage. I remember all of the colours and I'd stand and watch men converse in their home language with men on other stands. I was always totally captivated by the mix of cultures in one space.

I do know what white flight is but she may just have left for work, no other reason. She didn't contribute to the change in demographics by leaving, she just left. In the past you could leave a city for several years and the demographic wouldn't alter that much. Missing how something used to be isn't a crime. I left Bristol years ago, when I came back I felt no connection to it at all. So much had changed and so had I.

What do you mean by British Culture? British culture is always changing. Society is always changing and will continue to do so. Some of that will be due to different people arriving but some of it will be just because things change.
Bloody Romans invading our country in 43CE. Coming over here with their foreign ways.
Bloody Christians coming over here and telling us our pagan ways and ancient traditions and gods were wrong.
Bloody Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Coming over here in the 8th century with their foreign ways.
Bloody Vikings coming over here with their new fangled legal system.
Bloody Normans coming over here in 1066.
200 years ago bear baiting and cock fighting were legal forms of entertainment. Thankfully that aspect of British 'culture' has died out.
I could go on (for quite a long time actually 😂)

You left, you came back, you noticed things were different. Culture is not static and neither is the population of this country; it never has been.

I grew up in Birmingham and was visiting today after a number of years. I wasn't as profoundly affected as the OP appears to have been.

Why would it feel not culturally British simply because there are a lot of black and Brown people there?

And to be clear white Brummies are still the largest group in Birmingham.

I go back to Brum regularly. The poor areas are far more run down as are some parts of the city centre with boarded up shop fronts. But it still feels unmistakenly British even where my mom lives where most of her neighbours are of South Asian descent.