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"

I can sort of understand where Lola is coming from. There is an area near where we live (tooting if anyone knows it) that has a really high Asian population.

I am usually pretty fearless about where I will walk but there have been occasions that I have been there and felt a little threatened. A few weeks ago when I was passing through there was a lovely piece of graffiti on the wall saying "f* the Jews". It made me feel really nervous.

However, I don't see the problem with the area being because of the Asian population. The problem is that it is a rough area and attracts a particular type of person who is probably not very nice.

I am just sick to death of threads like this mayorQ. They're as yawnsome as white men complaining that they're discriminated against in the workplace. And by the same token I do think it is completely different if you experience racism as part of of the majority race than if you are an ethnic minority. Show me all the companies where black people run the show. Show me all the white boys who have been murdered for being white. Show me all the times white people are excluded from areas, ignored by their neighbours and get accused of smelling funny and then I might think you have a point. But until then, no, sorry I don't really care that much about white people feeling uncomfortable in areas where they believe the majority of the population is of a different shade.

And like I said earlier, the day after a BNP MP has been elected? No coincidence and leaves a very nasty taste.

"Well MayorQuimby, the OP was claiming that the entire population of a certain area was being racist towards her. I doubt that. Just as I would doubt an Asian person saying that the ENTIRE white population of an area was racist towards them."

well no i said in my firs post that i thought the OP was a troll because the set-up of a whole area giving her racist looks was too contrived.
i was simply adressing what i honestly thought would be the difference in reactions if the OP had told the story from the point of an ethnic minority, and simply that i think a lot of people questioning the scenario presented would not do so if the racist comment was made by a white person. that's it.

AliGrylls - You're right that it is because Tooting is a rough area rather than the colour of the people's skin. You couldn't pay me to live there and I am Asian .

Mayorquimby

Maybe I'm being racist myself now, but I honestly can't imagine a black or Asian person bothering to post a thread called "AIBU to be thinking wtf when it's difficult to walk down a street in town these days?"

I wonder if on Indian mumsnet there is someone right now saying, "I remember the good old days when you could walk through Mumbai and not see a single white face? AND you could leave your front door open. But now ... (pursed lips icon)" Somehow I doubt it.

It is always good to find someone who agrees with me. Thank you Megapixels

"F* the Jews" - let's not forget that, centuries before the Asians came, the proud, white Anglo-Saxons of York were starving Jewish men, women and children to death in Clifton Tower in one of the first acts of mass anti-Semitism in Europe.

Lola, no-one here believes you, including me. A lie is still a lie, whether its online or spoken.

Spice Monster take a look at this

It does bloody happen to white people too!

No it should'nt happen to any race but don't dare sit there and say oh well 'I don't care what happens to them because they are not in the minority' so bloody what you are now being racist and you know it!!!

Nooen deserves to be picked on certainly not for something they have no control over!

People like you make my blood boil but heyho nice to know that racism is a live and well in your home!

Mamadiva

I quote from the source you give - "The criminal gang who kidnapped him" ...

Of course it happens to whites too, of course that's wrong, of course the perpetrators should be punsihed - but this is a small gang of clearly deranged men. The OP is talking about every single person in the area hating her and her friends. Not the same thing at all.

I note also, from the same source,

"The British National Party were accused by Scotland's First Minister and Labour Party MSP Jack McConnell among others of seeking to exploit the case for political advantage, and an open letter signed by some prominent individuals, including MSPs, trades unionists, and community leaders condemned the BNP's plans to stage a visit to Pollokshields. The group did hold a rally in the area, leading to accusations that it was fuelling racial tension and exploiting a tragic death for political capital."

To be fair Miflaw, I doubt very much that there is an area of Mumbai where Indian people are in the minority.

It's not the OP I was talking too it was spice monster in reply to this...

"And by the same token I do think it is completely different if you experience racism as part of of the majority race than if you are an ethnic minority. Show me all the companies where black people run the show. Show me all the white boys who have been murdered for being white."

The violence is still going in the area a few years back his mum got a memorial bench for Kriss in the local park, it was vandalised within a few days.

Mainly spray painted saying "white scum" and "free Baldy" who was the main instigator of the whole thing. He had apparently gotten into a fight with someone and decided he just wanted to "mess up" a white boy.

What does the BNP thing have to do with it?

I lived close by when this happened I saw what it did, Kriss was only 2 years younger than me I knew nothing about the BNP and I don't think it was them that caused trouble...

Not read it all yet and not sure that it's genuine, but I had to laugh at this post.

"It is racist to assume that people are singling you out because they are a different race from you."

Err you mean all racist complaints by black people are also racist then? I think you may be a bit confused there.

No, true enough. But there are whole swathes of India where, for well over a hundred years, a white minority held the majority of power, the same as in the majority of countries the British "civilised".

Also, as another poster points out, there are very few areas of Britain where whites are in the minority. Is the OP from one of them? We'll never know as she has yet to name it.

What I and a lot of the posters here have already confirmed, though, is that, even in the ones that do exist, we do not feel threatened on the basis of our white skins.

Dear Lord I must live in a happy little bubble. Have been all over the world, quite regularly spend time in more interesting neighbourhoods and have yet to experience anything actually unpleasant.

Must be me, I am just so nice that everyone is automatically nice to me .

A bit off-topic but I have to stand up for Tooting here. I lived there for 15 years and loved it. I would happily live there again. I don't see it as a 'rough area' at all.

MIF could you please explain the bit about the BNP which you feel makes this case any better?

I don't see how a rally could provoke anymore violence than what those beasts did in teh first place.

Yes I see that the BNP did jump on the bandwagon and try to use Kriss' murder as some sort of example as to why we should'nt have people like them here but in all fairness at the time I don't think the community needed any help in that think their minds were already made up!

Mamadiva

You were asked by spicemonster to show you "all the companies where black people run the show. Show me all the white boys who have been murdered for being white." You've mentioned no companies, and one murder which was clearly a planned killing by nut jobs.

The BNP are relevant because they did exactly what you would expect them to do and turn this one killing - by nut jobs - into political capital and evidence of the evil inherent in all non-whites.

They did this because they are vermin with no respect for human life or suffering, white, black or any colour in between.

Oh dear I think lola's achieved her objective.

Thirty years ago my family moved to a small village in Lancashire. Very insular community - 90% of the population had one of three surnames (seriously this is true! )

They decided to visit the local pub for a relaxing drink. As they walked through the door the hubbub of talking and laughing abruptly stopped, there was total silence and EVERY person in that (fairly packed) pub turned and stared at them! Not a word was said as they sidled self-consciously up to the bar. After one drink they left and, as they walked out of the door, heard the talking and laughing strike up once more.

Every person in that village was white, my family is white.

What i am trying to say is that it is more being a stranger in a very insular community that leads to the hostility, not your colour.

"I don't see how a rally could provoke anymore violence than what those beasts did in teh first place."

Right, this shouldn't take long ...

If a rally takes place and even one person gets hurt, it has by definition provoked more violence than the initial incident, which has passed and so cannot be undone.

Unless, of course, you were actually talking about some tit-for-tat war in which, far from being appalled themselves by the acts of these loons, just like their white neighbours, the entire Asian community are the natural enemies of the white community?

This, of course, is exactly what the BNP want us to believe, and that is why they are relevant to this debate.

LOL That's villages for ya!