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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Are you guilty of racism against chavs?

117 replies

BLEEPyouYOUbleepingBLEEP · 14/10/2009 18:27

I was listening to Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 earlier, and they were talking about how feelings are running high in some white, working class areas where people feel they're being ignored by the government (which some might say is a blessing!)

Jeremy asked, in a totally serious tone 'Should the term chav not be used because it could be considered racist?'

Unfortunately, I was laughing so hard I missed the answer he was given.

So perhaps you could give me the answer, could chavs be considered a race in themselves?

(If you're still not sure what a chav is, just put it into google images...veeery enlightening)

OP posts:
overmydeadbody · 14/10/2009 18:29

Of course they are a race in themselves.

GhoulsAreLoud · 14/10/2009 18:30

I think you can be black or Asian and be a 'chav'.

overmydeadbody · 14/10/2009 18:30

But the term 'chav' is rather vulgar really, and a derogatory nickname for a group of people which isn't very nice (regarldess of how we feel about that group of people)

overmydeadbody · 14/10/2009 18:32

That is true Ghouls, but usually they are second or thrid or more generation, so assimilating the cuture they find themselves in.

LynetteScavo · 14/10/2009 18:32

Chavs are a class of the new century, surely.

mrsruffallo · 14/10/2009 18:33

Why would it be a blessing that white working class people should be ignored by the government.
Chav has come to mean working class in general (evident in your OP too)
I think they seem to be the one group it is pc to take the piss out of- they are not an ethnic minority, just uneducated. No reason to ignore then though.
FWIW I am working class, fairly well educated and I don't consider myself a chav.

retiredgoth2 · 14/10/2009 18:33

Nonsense!!!

Some of my best friends wear grubby sportswear and shop at ASDA.

Erm.

Well.

More acquaintances than friends, really...

overmydeadbody · 14/10/2009 18:34

The reason I don;t like 'chavs' is because of their attitude though, not because of what they look like, so I don;t tihnk that is racist.

Morloth · 14/10/2009 18:34

A chavs of a single racial group? I thought is was for people who wore lots of bling and fake Burberry and for the girls with Croydon facelifts and that weird drawn on eyebrow look.

It is not very nice, but I am not it is racist.

mrsruffallo · 14/10/2009 18:34

You do sound smug,OP. I can imagine you braying loudly and spluttering your coffee all over your aga.

overmydeadbody · 14/10/2009 18:37

MrsRuffalo I don;t think chav means the same thing as working class, although all 'chavs' also belong to the working class.

I didn't tihnk the working class was ignored by the government?

Original poster
BLEEPyouYOUbleepingBLEEP · 14/10/2009 18:37

mrsruffallo - I meant that it's a blessing to not come under the scrutiny of this government, who either criminalise whole groups of people, or find some way of applying a stealth tax on them through 'fines', no slur at all on white, working class people at all

OP posts:
Miggsie · 14/10/2009 18:37

OK...define "chav"...what does it encapsulate? Not the dictionary definition...what does it mean to you?

My guess at a female chav (stands by to be flamed) is:
shops at Primark and considers this the height of sophistication
names children Tiffany or Chardonnay or names of charaters from soaps
Drags kids to school yelling "shut up" while dragging scarey looking dogs

Male chav:
drinks beer in street
scratches arse in street
yells "shut the f up" to their kids
has scarey looking dog

Because if "chav" is close to racist, then surely "snob" must be?
Because anyone using the word "chav" tends to get called a "snob".

Or are they both a sub species rather than a race?

So that's species-ist then.

overmydeadbody · 14/10/2009 18:38

retiredgoth I don't think wearing grubby sportswear and shopping at asda make you a chav, only your attitude makes you one.

phoebeophelia · 14/10/2009 18:39

CHAV

Council House and Van!

overmydeadbody · 14/10/2009 18:42

Miggsie I think it really is more about attitude.

They are usually quite ignorant, self centred, materialistic with don't give a fuck attitudes who think the world is against them and they need to give people agro all the time. they also have very specific taste in clothes and home furnishings etc. but this can be shared with perfectly respectable normal working class people.

I will leave this thread now, they always turn nasty.

mrsruffallo · 14/10/2009 18:43

FFS What's wrong with living in a council house and driving a van?
This is nonsense

Tortington · 14/10/2009 18:44

its a derogatory term like pikey

its just not nice is it?

and i bet y'al think your nice people whilst making assumptions and taking the piss

Tortington · 14/10/2009 18:44

council house and violent - never heard van before. unless they mean gippo pikey van ofcourse

imean that;s ok to say too right?

ThisPhantomPlopsPumpkins · 14/10/2009 18:45

council house and van??

What a ridiculous comment.

SomeGuy · 14/10/2009 18:46

I come from working class stock (at one remove anyway). It's wrong to look down on people for being 'council house and van', but it's equally wrong to imply that the reason people behave like scum is because they are white working class.

That to me seems to be the implication of patronising white BBC types like Jeremy Vine saying that it's racist - that they can't help their behaviour, that it's somehow ain inherent racial trait. Of course it's not!

wb · 14/10/2009 18:46

Don't like the term. Don't think it's racist.

SomeGuy · 14/10/2009 18:47

Just to clarify, my grandparents were white working class, but they didn't (and nor was it considered typical) to behave in anti-social 'chav-like manner'.

pasturesnew · 14/10/2009 18:48

I think it is a racist term, as in, literally racist, as I believe it originates from a Romany word so it started off as a nasty way to talk about gypsies, which I am not sure if is actually a racist term as well - Romani peoples, maybe?

SqueezyCheesyPumpkin · 14/10/2009 18:50

I agree with overmydeadbody. It's more than just certain clothes, it's the hanging around street corners, drinking super strength cider (for example) and causing general mayhem as well as fighting, being really loud and hassling innocent bystanders.

It's everything combined, not just one thing. I don't consider a chav (or ned in Scotland) someone who only dresses in tracksuits and loud Burberry, it's more than that.

So yes, I am chavist/nedist and I don't feel bad about it one bit. They are a scourge on society.