to be thinking wtf when it's difficult to walk down a street in town these days?

[LolaTheShowgirl]

The town I used to live in and grew up in is very multicultural. Some areas of the town are majority populated by the Asian community. Now the other day myself and 2 friends were walking through a particular area trying to find somewhere. None of us had ever been in this area before, but as it was a nice day people where out and about and we did not see one non-Asian person at all. The majority of our walk was on a main road and all the people in the cars were even Asian. This itself was not a problem. The problem was the hostile stares we recieved. People looked really angry that we had dared to be white and go in their area.

One of the people who was with us looks Pakistani (although is Iranian) and apparantely one of his friends saw us and said "it's lucky those white fuckers where with you, otherwise they'd have had a good beating by someone or other"

But the OP is basically saying "My God, white people can't walk down the street safely in their own country anymore", implying that the Asian people who live there are dangerous. That is racist imo.

I thought this thread was going to be about those charity muggers.

Yeah, funny enough I experienced a similar thing in Marseille
but the twist is that I am not exactly white!

Just being a stranger is enough to receive a hostile reception in some places.

Callisto - an article in the ST by some lazy arse journo who hasn't left K&C in the last 5 years isn't evidence. I live in inner London in an area which has a large ethnic population and I've always lived in those sorts of areas. Never felt unwelcome.

There are very few areas anyway where white people are in a minority - interestingly people think they are in a majority non white area when the white population is around the 50% mark.

Can't speak for outside London but any OP which says that one of the friends they were with was 'apparently' told they were lucky (by who? when?) fills me with so much , I can't be arsed to type them all.

And such an OP the day after the BNP has been elected to the European parliament. Inflamatory timing anyone? I thought you were alright Lola but I was obviously wrong.

I don't believe that what the OP described actually happened. It's an inflamatory post intended to get a reaction.

Lola - if you wanted to generate support for the BNP you should have posted before the election - not that you would have found much support here.

I don't think it's racist at all.

I have had this happen to me and infact one of my best friends lives in an area where his car has been vandalised several times because he is white! This is in Glasgow BTW, and is widely known that the area has a gang of known racist Indians.

My friend and his girlfriend have a 9MO little boy and one of them spat at her whilst we were out walking and she had the baby in a sling, called her a white slag and apparently I am a wannabe n* because I have an fat ample arse , having never met either of us before!

The police have been called several times by a lot of people in the area as it's not just confined to my friend apparently but it has been said that they do it because they feel intimidated being in minority and all!

Racism works both ways, whilst I do not agree with the sweeping generalisation that all indians/asians/iranians etc are out to get us I do believe some of them are and they seem to get away with it a lot lighter than if it were a white person doing it!

And at the risk of being flamed if you don't like living in a mainly white country (by which I mean western) as I assume is the problem with some, then leave simple as!

I have no problem with different cultures and races living together infact I think the world is a better place for it I just wish that the ones who feel the need to intimidate people because of their colour would piss off and that goes for either race!

Don't you live in Manchester Lola? It must be one of the South Manchester areas you are referring to as I live in North Manchester near Cheetham Hill (where I sometimes work) and I have never come across any hostility there at all.

There are though some areas where racial tension has racheted up to such a degree that any outsiders face hostility. Luton is particularly bad.
Simply denying it and calling anyone who points it out a rascist will not help.
We need to address why there are some members of our society that feel so excluded by it. We need to ask why certain sections of the population are represented in almost every measurement of deprivation.
Once we dot hat we might start being able to dissipate the situation ..if not we will find ourselves spilling over into sectarian violence.

I didn't cite the Times article as evidence, and I think it was a little more than lazy journalism otherwise I probably would have dismissed it myself. Or is anything reported in any paper other than the Guardian bullshit on MN?

I have lived in many multicultural areas and only had a problem when I was a student about 15 years ago when I used to be spat at quite regularly while walking to the tude station.

I think these sorts of no go areas are thankfully not all that common in this country, and they are there for certain groups eg I used to live next door to moss side and hulme and would walk around no problems but obviously those areas have gang problems. Some areas are no -go areas for people of different backgrounds/cultures including areas where non whites are threatened, to say otherwise is to ignore something that does exist. However I don't believe that there are many areas around like this.

Are you kidding me? Perhaps they picked up on the fact that you were a zenophobe?

People are people. There are hostile people from all races and ethnic groups. People react to how you treat them. If you were walking down the street staring in a hostile way at them then I am sure they stare back that way. But I find it hard to believe that everyone was hostile towards you.

For what it is worth, I live in a very immigrant neighbood and whenever there is hostility it is the white BRITISH people coming out of the pub blind drunk, throwing up, or throwing punches. The immigrant Asian people in our neighbourhood are just trying to get along and run their small businesses (which sell the lovely spices and other food stuffs that provide such a welcome variation from that usual boring fare at the local supermarket).

Muslim men behaving inappropriately towards western women (in this country) is a big problem - a few of us mentioned that on a previous thread. That certainly exists.

But a whole town staring at you in a threatening way is a bit hard to believe.

I would MUCH rather walk through any Asian area you care to name than past out local Wetherspoons at 8.30 on a summer evening.

Sorry Callisto but unless you link to it I have no idea if it's lazy journalism or not but that's how it sounded from the way you described it. And I would have said the same if it had been the Guardian too

litchick - there are some places where I would feel uncomfortable, sure. But as lovelytinofspam said, I suspect all outsiders would feel that way. I've felt much more intimidated in small villages in remote backwaters than I ever have in the city. It's not necessarily about race. And while I do think it's worth exploring some of the issues around division along ethnic lines, the OP is worded in such an inflammatory way, I am not prepared to engage with it.

Which part of Glasgow is that Mamadiva?

Lola, you are a very strange poster You tend to post something, normally quite ridiculous, and then sit back and watch the responses. Case in point, all the baby name threads...

Did anyone hear the man on Radio 5 yesterday seriously saying he voted BNP because someone had told him he wasn't allowed to wear a Robinson's gollywog badge on his hat? Colin, I think he was called. From Bradford. There, I've named and shamed him.

Thunderduck It is in the Govan/Ibrox area.

Don't want to be too specific obviously but I'm sure you get the drift.

Is thsi the same Lola that started the thread about poor folks not being allowed to eat meat unless it's free range?

Thankyou. Just curious as I worked in the Southside for years.

As a Lutonian, albeit one who now lives in the next town, I can honestly say hand on heart that I have never experienced any hostility by the Asians in Luton.

I have regularly been to Bury Park(the major Asian Community) and never felt that I shouldn't be there.

The school I went to was an all girls school that had a major percentage of Asian girls , but never encountered any racism of any kind, by either Asian or Whites.

Luton now, is a town of many cultures, Indian, Pakistani, Iranian, Polish, etc etc.

Sadly, since there is a large Asian/Muslim community and the London Bombers met here to bomb London, and then all the disgusting behaviour by the Muslim Extremists with the returning soldiers Luton is seen as the scum of Britain.

Finally it seems Lutonians, esp non extreme muslims seem to have had enough with all being tarred with the same brush and are showing not only Luton but the whole country that we wont put up with being portrayed as racist and all in our segregated little communities all over town.

There are a great deal of people here from all cultures who live in harmony, and sadly a few who don't and bring the whole place down.

I visited an area last week and it was 80% Asian. I saw white as well as black people walking around doing their business and guess what, there were no hostile stares.

I suspect the OP was miffed because nobody paid her any attention.

"can I just turn this round and ask if anyone would accuse a black/Asian person of racism if they started a thread about feeling intimidated walking through a predominantly white area?"

Probably not - but that will be mainly because:

unlike Whites, in most parts of the country, Blacks and Asians actually ARE a minority rather than feeling a minority

the OP is not about FEELING intimidated - she claims she WAS intimidated, ie she claims to have used some Mystic Meg third eye to know for a fact that the stares were hostile and the people were angry at white people

I feel threatened every day walking in Brixton where I work. Brixton is a very black area of London. But I don't feel threatened because it is a very black area - I feel threatened because there are a lot of mad mad bastards (of all colours) here and because it is between a prison and a locally famous mental hospital. These are very unstable people, which I find threatening, but their colour doesn't come into it. When I lived in Peckham and Hackney, which are also very black areas (and very violent too) I didn't feel the same threat at all because the majority of people, black and white, were sane and the violence was targeted at other gang members, not me.

I'm sure there are no-go areas in the country for all sorts of reasons, including, very occasionally, colour or race. But until the OP names the one she's talking about and we get some third-party consensus on here, I refuse to believe that she's in one of them.

I think the OP is a wind up but when my son was one of only 2 non-Bangladeshi Muslims at a Nursery school (and almost all the other mums wore the full Niqab, thus makign recognising them almost impossible), yes, I felt unwelcome.