Common racist comments you hear in 2023?

[SleepDreamThinkHuge]

Compared to 30 years ago, how is racism different today?

For me, racism terms such as the n word p word are less used than they were 30 years ago. However, people have looked at other avenues. See comments below.

1. "You have a chip over your shoulder" every time someone mentions racism or their lived experience it goes straight to denial mode. You are blamed for your lived experiences and told to get over it and how UK is not racist.

2. "The UK abolished slavery. slavery was a long time ago." Every time someone tries to put forward a view of reparations of people who are still suffering from the effects of slavery they are shut down. "that was a long time ago we have changed and evolved."

3. "I feel like a foreigner in my own country." Which is probably one of the most stupid statements considering that over 80 percent of the population is white. I always answer if you feel like a foreigner how do minorities feel?

4. "name the racists" commonly said for Megan Markle that she should name the racists she claimed in the Royal family. But lets be honest if you did that the other person in whatever circumstance would just deny it and ultimately you will not be believed and be called someone who plays the race card and tarnishing other people's careers.

5. "Why do black people have their own spaces if white people had it we would be accused of racism" This is commonly said by the same people who are not as vocal when other groups have their own space e.g. women, LGBT groups etc.. It just seems like whenever black people have their own space people have to put them down. Take Ngozi Fulani the media made it seem she was the bad person people argued why her charity helps black people suffering from domestic abuse. Sad how she was forced out Sistah Space due to the abuse she faced but the media never mention that and the racism she had to face.

6. "Racism exists in all communities" this is another common one used and is a whataboutery technique. We have seen this with people like Kanye, KSI recently but what people forget there was a lot of criticism from the black community with their actions. So to suggest the black community or any other community does not do anything about racism is for the birds.

7. "My best friend is black" This is something you would hear from the EDL or Britain First. But you would be surprised how often you hear this by a lot of people. Just because your friend or relative is black, Muslim, Asian etc does not mean you cannot be racist. Even if you are a white mother and your child is mixed race does not mean you cannot be racist. It is baffling how a lot of people seem to forget this and think that my saying I cannot be racist because of this automatically means they cannot.

The question was obviously do the descendants of these slaves suffer discrimination in todays society due to their ethnicity having been targeted for slavery…and the answer is no. Your answer was what about the disabled descendants who suffer disability discrimination, etc which was all whataboutery.

A few Irish were actually chattel slaves though via the Arab(Barbary Slave trade). The Irish slave myth refers to the myth that the Irish taken as prisoners of war by Cromwell were enslaved, rather than convicts serving a sentence of hard labour under conditions that often was a death sentence. But the Barbary slave trade was real, although it was much much smaller than the transatlantic slave trade and the slaves taken to North Africa were ethnically diverse.

No, it refers to Irish people taken as slaves to the New World before Africans were enslaved. The Irish simply weren't slaves.

No reputable historian agrees with that kind of thing because its not true and is based on racism towards black people.

Do read the link provided with Liam Hogan's work.

Yes, I am apparently more familiar with the myth than you are. Although a few Irish rebels were convicted and transported to the Americas to the New World starting with James II, the Irish slave myth really takes off which the War of Three Kingdoms when Cromwell’s New Model Army invaded Ireland and then sent over tens of thousands of Irish prisoners to the Americas as convicted war criminals. Now many of the crimes were petty, like being Irish and refusing to move to the Gael-tags in the West Country, but there it is. They all had sentences and once served were free men or women.

The Irish were not slaves, but they also were not indentured servants as you have called them. Indentured servants were earlier in the history of the colonies and critically, were by the consent of the person agreeing to provide a certain number of years of free labour (service) in return for their passage to the colonies. The Irish were not free, it was forced labour that they did not consent to but it was that of a prisoner of war and convict not a slave, and it had an end date, it was not for life. It did not pass on to any of their children and they had rights slaves did not have.

@DownNative
The Irish simply weren't slaves.
The Barbary slave trade raided all the coasts of Europe and Scandinavia as far north as Iceland and as far south as Malta. So yes some Irish were in fact slaves the same time we west Africans were slaves. Nowhere near as many. But not zero and not never.

The Irish were not slaves in the Americas in any colonies that much is true.

You know as well as I do that nobody seriously mentions the Barbary Slavery and that is always meant is the Atlantic Slave Trade.

The racists do not use the Barbary one, but the Atlantic Slave Trade. They might do if enough people like you push it and their aim would still be to denigrate the black experience by saying "see, white Europeans were slaves too!".

No-one needs that.

I think it is important to be factual despite this being an emotive subject.

It doesn’t help us fight racism if we say things to racists that are not true like “The Irish simply weren’t slaves” or imply that forced labour of prisoners of war was by consent “indentured servitude” which is always in return for some benefit of value.

It doesn’t help to ignore and not teach about the other slave trades that were going on the same time as the transatlantic slave trade like the Barbary slave trade because then our Black babies grow up thinking they are a slave race and white babies grow up thinking the same thing.

If we say anything not true, then they will believe nothing we say no matter what. So, yes I will always push the truth.

I thought the Redlegs of Barbados were the descendants of indentured Irish labourers. I just googled it in case I was imagining it but there are loads of references. They are reckoned to be very poor, in illhealth and poorly educated, suffering illhealth and birth defects due to high levels of inter marriage and the poorest community on the island.

Yes there were also indentured servants in the American colonies who were Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and English. The Red Legs of Barbados are indeed of mostly Irish ancestry. Indentured servants were drawn from the working class for whom the price of a ticket to cross the Atlantic was beyond their means. They often were kept working class in the colonies- in poverty, barred from education, suffering ill health due to classism and in English colonies the Irish, Welsh and Scottish servants would have had some ethnic discrimination on top of the classism.

The Irish slave myth doesn’t draw from the indentured servants, no one who I’ve met that seriously believes the myth denies the existence of indentured servants. Especially since it is even taught in elementary school which Pilgrims on the Mayflower were indentured servants and which were not.

The Irish slave specifically draws from prisoners of war from the Cromwellian era that were transported to the American colonies as convicts because that’s when numbers of Irish transported went from a handful of rabble rousers to thousands (still laughably below the millions stolen from Africa). There is a really subversive faux “history” book published peddling the myth that is called “White Cargo” which I have read.

I have read Liam Hogan extensively, but I also read the books like White Cargo that he was criticising to see exactly how the myth was constructed and what they pulled from. To me, racism is learned and I had to read what these Irish Americans were reading that made them think they were descended from slaves just like many Black Americans are descended from slaves taken to the Americas. We know that is historically impossible, so what is it exactly that they are being told? “White Cargo” was an eye opening read in more ways than one.

Oops should say The Irish Slave myth specifically draws from …stuck in an airport and knackered.

I just read in the U.S. media that a Black woman went to a restaurant in Pennsylvania to pick up an order she’d placed.
She said when she walked in the place went silent - she was used to that, she said.
At some point, she saw on the receipt, while everything else was printed in black, in red it said, “n-word chik.”
She was appalled. She debated a bit with herself, but then posted the experience and receipt to Facebook - there was immediate backlash to the restaurant.
In response, the owner was apologetic, but angry that the woman had posted the experience to Facebook - saying she didn’t have to do that, adding that this was the only time this had ever happened.
The employee who wrote the slur was “disciplined,” but not fired. The employee said he could use the n-word because he had “Black friends.” And - he thought it was funny. And - he wrote it “intentionally.”

Angry that a Black customer had posted on Facebook that a white employee of her restaurant had written n*** on someone’s receipt. And then laughed.

https://www.rawstory.com/racial-slur-receipt/

You know as terrible as that is, I’m not shocked. You hear it here in U.K., but I suppose only in the US would they write it on a receipt and GIVE it to you as written proof. Your link does say the employee has now been fired/sacked. It says the owner told the employee not to write it and thinks it was “terrible” -but I think he was saying it and laughing along and has thrown the employee under the bus now he’s been outed as the racist he is.

Nothing surprises me anymore. I hope that the local black people are aware of what happened, and the owners response to it, and take their business elsewhere.

Typical weapons of choice from the armoury of racists - 'the joke', 'I have black friends' and enablers. I actually think that enablers are worse than racists. They stop racists from being held to account.

What an awful experience for that woman, but sadly we all seem unsurprised. Once again the victim of racism is being criticised for how they dealt with it. Like what happens on this forum, there's always a discussion on how you should have dealt with this disgusting racism better.

I actually think that enablers are worse than racists. They stop racists from being held to account. I know how you feel, I agree

This. And as we are all too aware, when we do try and pushback against the racism we see/ experience, we are told we are too sensitive, easily offended, etc.. I could go on forever. As I said in my previous post, I hope that the local black population does not give that establishment another dollar from them.

Absolutely this!!! I don't know if you saw that video recently which went viral in which a white woman was trying to take one of those 'rent a bike' from a Black boy who had already 'checked out' the bike. She cried, pleaded... the whole ww works but nothing worked. If you notice the bystanders they're asking her what's wrong and telling the young man to 'just let her have the bike', yes because why not let this random white woman go off with a bike rented in your name?!?! All I can say is smartphones are one of the best inventions of our lifetimes.

And closer to home, just read this article this morning. Featured on MSN and linking in to an article in the Guardian online. It relates to the Sub Postmaster scandal. No such thing as structural or institutional racism...

"Lawyers investigating post office operators in the Horizon computer scandal used a racist term to categorise Black workers, according to documents released to campaigners.
Investigators were asked to group suspects based on racial features, the results of a freedom of information request found.
The document, which was published between 2008 and 2011, included the term “negroid types”, along with “Chinese/Japanese types” and “dark skinned European types”". Guardian Newspaper Online

Story by Harry Taylor • Yesterday 09:53 I forgot to credit the Author. Freedom on information request was made by Eleanor Shaikh, a campaigner on the issue

There is a thread running on the Feminists Chat about this. We have been politely reminded by MN we should not discuss it further because threads about a thread are not allowed. This thread was not created to discuss that thread but some of us did share our experiences of being on that thread, here. If any of that makes sense.

I'm confused, in the post I was replying to you said, "The Irish were not slaves, but they also were not indentured servants as you have called them" and now you say "Yes there were also indentured servants in the American colonies who were Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and English" I think the issue with the ancestors of the Redlegs is that they don't seem to have chosen to go, many of them died on the journey on during their period of being indentured, let's face it their master had no interest in if they outlived their indentured period so they were probably treated very badly.

If you are comparing numbers from Africa and Ireland maybe you should reference population as well? Just to give it context.

The Redlegs are still suffering discrimination, poor life expectancy due to their ancestry. I don't see why it needs to be a competition but from the documentary I saw about it, many years ago, it seemed that they are the poorest community on the island although some did OK.

@Socrateswasrightaboutvoting So I see! Apologies, the thread has sort of gone on so many different tangents!

Because the post you replied to was a post replying to a post by DownNative saying that the Irish of the Irish slave myth were indentured servants that racists were conflating with slaves to invalidate the slavery of Black Africans. DownNative then went on to say that the Irish simply were not slaves and I had pointed out that during the same time period in question, a few Irish were slaves via the Barbary slave trade.

Many of the Red Legs are descended from both convicts and indentured servants, so me had choice and some did not. Though the choice was often one of desperation.

She specifically said they weren't indentured servants and they were indentured servants. Both things can't be true can they.

" they also were not indentured servants as you have called them"

"Yes there were also indentured servants in the American colonies who were Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and English"