to be getting a bit shocked at how much the BNP seem to have moved up?

[tweetymum]

... in this election? Am watching the results, and am currently feeling quite shocked that the last 2 results have seen the BNP up a fair bit.

AIBU to be feeling a bit ?

Was an immigrant to the UK BTW, have left now as I was finding the whole in your face immigrant hate too much to take. Still have my citizenship (well, I paid a lot of money and worked my ass off for it).

Isn't it just Completely agree with your post by the way

"How can I be racist when my own father is of afro carribean descent???"

Nobody said you were racist against afro-carribeans. You do seem to have a problem with Asians and Africans though.

Tweetymum - stereotypical white british people could move to some villages in this country and still be an outsider after 4 years.

I think that in some areas the lack of integration and development of areas where a particular ethnic minority dominate can lead to fear and a feeling of being overwhelmed in those that don't belong to that ethnic minority. I suspect this is particularly difficult for people who have lived in an area for a long time where the mix of the population has changed around them.

I agree with MSmouse

if we keep brushing the issue under the carpet, and accusing people who have concerns as @racist@ the BNP will exist. If the parties accept that there are issues in SOME areas, I doubt the BNP will exist

as always, its not black and white (excuse the pun!)

I'm in one of the biggest multicultural areas in London and have never felt intimidated, because I mix with everyone. That's the secret. As far as schools go, a lot of my son's friends know just enough English to get by, and it's those boys who are the politest, most respectful, never get into trouble at school etc. No sense of entitlement that some of their English friends have had round my house. Look at the positives, there are plenty

I think London is different junglist (I love that name, so aliG!). London is NOT deprived in the same way as the North. I am born and bred in London and have always felt prood of the multicultural vibe here, I find it weird when I go to the all-white-shires.

BUT I do see how some areas outside of London are massively deprived, and I can imagine how frustration arises and how its handled badly. I lived in Manchester before the urban spending and it was a bloody shocker, London council estates are like bloody Weybridge compared to some up North

Yes, more than half of the kids at my DD's nursery have parents who are not native English speakers..and these kids are the loveliest and most understanding by far towards my DD, who has SN.

(and am in Scotland and not London - DD's nursery IS in a fairly deprived area)

When I was pg (each time) it was nearly always non-British men who offered me a seat. British men hid behind their papers. Incidentally, women of any ethnicity offered their seat.

You know the old saying 'Walk a mile in their shoes'?
I'm a liberal, tree-hugger, green-voting teacher with a sn child.
I worked in London when I first started, moved to Oldham and did ten years. Lived in Derker, poor white ghetto. taught in Glodwick, poor Asian ghetto
Yes I remember the riots, and the street fighting, white on Asian, Bengali on Pakistani and the times when the Travellers and the Asian lads kicked off. The drug dealing that went across all cultural boundaries.And that Alexandra park was a no-go area after 6pm,because of the gangs.
Third generation unemployment, fear and hostility in many communities against other communities. Yorkshire St on Friday or a Saturday night was a terrifying gauntlet.
I saw lot of good stuff, caring and community action in practice, saw a lot of children make it against the odds. I really loved teaching in that situation, stripped of all the shibboleths and down to basic core values and priorities.
But God, I'm glad my children are being raised and educated in a lovely multicultural city in the South with very few of the disadvantages that most Oldhamers have to face.

Goblinchild I grew up on Derker.

It was a whole new world for us!
Like the Wild West with knives instead of six-shooters.

That's a really good point goblinchild.

I grew up near Leicester, and there's areas of the city where you will not hear much English spoken, where all the women are in saris and cardigans, and there's a big Bank of India in the high street. It is lovely and makes me feel so at home, because I grew up with it - but, more to the point, because it's a fairly prosperous area! There are other bits of Leicester not so well off and plenty of people I went to school with are now really irritated that their parents think the BNP have a point: there are too many Somali immigrants who don't integrate into the local culture.

The local culture, and the parents, being of Asian extraction!

Btw thumbwitch - you know what you said about us hearing only the rhythms of a foreign language, not the meaning? With little babies in the womb, that is all they hear of their parents' language. So it is incredibly fundamental to us to find one language rhythm familiar and homely, and another strange.

May I just add, having read mainly the first half of the thread, that our town intimidates me for some of those reasons and hardly anyone here is black, asian, anything but white.

Our jobcentre is a pit, I won't walk past it unless I am called in for an interview and it makes me feel depressed and fearful.

The market is awful, nothing to do with the handful of Asians who work there - it's the white people who have always made it crap, since I was a child.

This stuff is evident in every city, every town...and the thing is, it isn't because of the immigrants or other races or cultures.

It's because some people are shitheads, and that's always been the case.

You/we need to stop blaming the other cultures. Seriously.

Goblinchild were u in 'posh' derker or the whetstone hill part??

bet ya can guess what part I was in.......

ShriekingHarpy, I misphrased that sentence.
What I meant was that it has been run mainly by white people since I was a child, and it has always been crap and horrible.

The input of a few Asian people in recent years has done nothing to worsen the state it was already in, iyswim...and when I was a kid, there were literally about 2 black families in our city - seriously, it is so white round here you wouldn't believe it.

Not so much now, though, which imo is a good thing.

People need to be able to talk about their experiences of immigration without immediately being called racist.

WRT the Easter vigil, for the benefit of those that don't know, traditionally part of the service is conducted outside the church (see here for more info) so quite easy for passers-by with no respect for the beliefs of other to hurl abuse or worse...

TSC, I don't think you read NicksChick's post properly (that or you're intent on viewing it through your own prejudices, regardless of what NC actually said...)

Her son can't go to church on his own because the church is in an Asian area - I would imagine by this she means that if her son is 'seen' in the area, regardless of where he's actually headed, he'd get picked on. A territorial thing. They don't need to know where he's going and if you weren't so keen on labelling her a racist or a xenophobe, you might realise this.

I'm not sure why you're so dismissive of her experiences and so quick to call her a DM reader with an 'agenda' - there does seem to be a very pc-er-than-thou element on MN these days...

I'm not surprised she's upset. Poor show.

Thanks betsyboo and lovecat, the thing I was trying to explain with those examples was that even though I am familiar with that area (I used to live there when my sons were very small) still my own children cannot walk through there alone,as a 'white' child going to church it leaves him wide open to abuse and physical confrontation - the asians that came up to the park where we live all congregate near the church- so if its like that for me -how much worse can it be for someone unfamiliar?

The Easter vigil,a large part of the first bit of the vigil is outside with a huge fire going at which we pray and then use that fire to light the candle in church and all susequent candles - we do sing and I expect for someone who isnt familiar with the service it could be a but 'odd' the priest sings then the Altar servers follow dressed in red and white robes (my own ds is an altar boy)whilst we were outside some Asian boys (they were Asian its not me being racist)threw empty pop cans over the fence and then started to play asian pop music very loudly from their cars.

On the night I speak of when the boys came up to the park the police came and within a short time theyd found a group of about 28 of them ,the policeman rang me to say it was 'safe' now and it was very fortunate that no-one had been injured-the reason the police rang me back was because threats had been made that we could expect their return later that night,