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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think my normally sane DH is in danger of looking like a racist prick?

385 replies

FlamingoCrimbo · 21/12/2009 13:40

DH just forwarded me an email that has been forwarded to him and to other people at his work by one of his colleagues.

I'm hoping he's not forwarded it to anyone except me - it doesn't look like he has.

It's one of those ones called 'border law'. Just found a US version here - swap the US references to UK ones.

DH is just misguided, IMO, sending this on - he ought to know I'd find it offensive. But it's made me wonder if IABU to find it offensive and to think it's probably been written by someone in the US equivalent of the BNP or at least widely distributed by BNP supporters.

So - AIBU and, if IANBU, how would you tackle it with him? He's very lovely, kind, and, sometimes, misguided so I don't want to upset him. I had to stop myself replying with 'you know this email makes you look like a racist prick, don't you' but that's not really very nice, or helpful!

OP posts:
Pikelit · 21/12/2009 15:54

So, to follow your logic...since immigration (allegedly) cannot be discussed openly, it is better to send hatefully sly messages about the issue instead?

thesecondcoming · 21/12/2009 15:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Pikelit · 21/12/2009 15:55

PS. I didn't think racists wore hats. White pillowcases being the headgear of choice.

wannaBe · 21/12/2009 15:58

Pikelit but the two issues are separate. The email is just a load of shite, as are all emails which have "send this on" printed at the bottom. They're not actually designed to bring home a message - they're designed to clog up servers and inboxes and to generally be an annoyance, and anyone who forwards any of them on (be they genuinely nasty ones to the "send this on and for each person you send it to microsoft will give a goat to a starving african" ones to the "don't send this on and bad luck will befall you" to "send this on to your 100 closest friends and the more replies you get back, the more you are loved" ones) is gullable and on the whole doesn't even think of the message the email contains.

But the fact does remain that it is not seen as acceptable to discuss imigration in this country in any way shape or form because by doing so you are automatically branded a racist. But it is an issue that needs addressing, and people ought to be able to discuss it without being labelled bigots for doing so.

fairycake123 · 21/12/2009 16:01

It's fucking moronic. Since when does every single illegal immigrant to the US automatically get a job and a driver's licence?

And in my view, it is racist: it paints the other countries as barbarous and uncivilised. It also - paradoxically - seems to be implying that those countries have got the right idea and that the US should be shooting/detaining/working to death/"disappearing" illegail immigrants. It's beyond stupid.

daftpunk · 21/12/2009 16:04

Pikelit;

Do you think anyone concerned about immigration is a member of the KKK...?

daftpunk · 21/12/2009 16:05

Email is not racist.

duchesse · 21/12/2009 16:13

It's xenophobic, not racist. Would be hard to pin any anti-discrimination legislation onto it imo.

cornysxmasmuffmusic · 21/12/2009 16:14

It is racist.

skihorse · 21/12/2009 16:19

Pikelet - I'm sorry you've felt you had to label me. The email is not racist. Immigration needs to be discussed. The two are different issues.

KissingUnderTheMittsletoe · 21/12/2009 16:20

Sorry, I think it is the kind of thing Ian Hislop would say, it is not aimed at the immigrants, it is aimed at the Government dealing with rasists. And if anything it is having as much a pop at the US/UK Systems of Government as the somewhat more extreme ones.

But then I laugh at Quentin Tarentino films but don't go round shooting people. It made me laugh, it does not reflect my political bias. It does not reflect my thoughts on immigration, or feminism, or children with SN, or racism sexism, ageism, weightism, whateverism.

Nor will it sway my opinion and make me go OOhhhhh, how misguided and naive I have been.

I don't read the DM, or Hello, or watch Soap operas,

It just made me smile.

daftpunk · 21/12/2009 16:22

Don't waste your time skihorse, I know from personal experience it's impossible to discuss immigration on MN.

HerBeatitude · 21/12/2009 16:23

It's not racist but it's ignorant and offensive and if someone sent me it I'd think he was a prick.

pooexplosionsonthedustyroad · 21/12/2009 16:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

seeker · 21/12/2009 16:25

Racist and offensive. I would be outraged if anyone sent this toi me thinking I would be amused or agree. I wouldn't be sending the person who sent it loving messages, I have to say - I would be telling him not to be a massive plonker and to get it off his computer before his boss finds out and disciplines him.

And, apart from anything else th's just wrong! Immigrants to this country don't get any of that stuff.

daftpunk · 21/12/2009 16:30

I thought the email was funny, seen things like that a million times though, so nothing new.

Pexplosions;

Unfortunately MN doesn't have enough politically astute posters to have a decent debate on immigration, I keep coming up against people like you.

Pikelit · 21/12/2009 16:34

"Unfortunately MN doesn't have enough politically astute posters to have a decent debate on immigration, I keep coming up against people like you."

This has to be my pick of the day. Thank you, daftpunk. I shall save your words for posterity, since they appear to have come straight out of your posterior.

edam · 21/12/2009 16:40

I don't think prejudice about immigrants is exactly the same thing as racism, although there's definitely an overlap. And this is about prejudice because the claims about the treatment of immigrants in the US (UK) are just not true.

Am all up for an honest debate about the benefits and drawbacks of mass immigration, but would rather do it on the facts, not myths sent on by people who are bored at work and not really thinking.

pooexplosionsonthedustyroad · 21/12/2009 16:40

politically astute...from the BNP voter. Classic!

Your ideas on immigration are not worth debating, indeed they are so outrageous they're pretty much illegal.

daftpunk · 21/12/2009 16:47

Pikelit;

It's a compliment that you think I'm talking crap, I would hate to think someone like you understood me.

pooexplosionsonthedustyroad · 21/12/2009 16:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

daftpunk · 21/12/2009 16:54

Pexp;

I don't know who you are/were, but you are able to give a recount of pretty much everything I've ever said on MN.

I was almost speechless on the homosexual thread. You know so much...? ?

RumourOfAHurricane · 21/12/2009 16:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

seeker · 21/12/2009 17:06

I'm happy to have a debate on immigration - so long as it's based on fact, not on the knee jerk reactions of the Daily Mail tendency. Any debate on the level of "coming over here, taking out jobs and they all get give 5 bedroom houses and cars" is a waste of time.

pooexplosionsonthedustyroad · 21/12/2009 17:09

Don't flatter yourself DP, views as obnoxious and rabid as yours tend to stand out, and are memorable for all the wrong reasons. For a while I assumed you were a particularly pernicious troll, as I didn't think any one person could have so many different sets of people they hate, but you do appear to be an actual person.

Haven't you discovered some kind of BNP wives type forum where you'd feel more superior at home? Surely mixing with the people you find on MN, even virtually, offends your sensibilites?