Taking time off due to riots

[Sometimetomaself]

Hi, Black and Asian mumsnetters! How are you feeling? Is anyone else taking annual leave or sick leave this week?

I started feeling a certain dread over the last few days mainly starting last night and today I woke up feeling paralysed by fear, I’ve only just managed to force myself to clean the house because someone is due round later and I’d be too embarrassed to have the house looking grubby. I decided to call in sick and will be going for a nice shower next then doing some food shopping later to get out the house. Hoping my area is safe/OK. I’ll just be out briefly anyway.

A few years back if this had happened I’d have given myself a pep talk about being strong, but now I’m at the stage where I’m like no, I’ll do what’s best for me. Why push myself?

And quiet honesty at this time a part of resents working right now knowing me along with other taxpayers will pay for all these riots. While the rich agitators who have their money in tax havens will get off Scot free.

Btw, if you’re not a POC but are sympathetic feel free to comment but if you lack empathy and want to tell me to keep a stiff upper lip and carry on as normal, please don’t, people’s lives, safety and healthy are at risks. We are witnessing race riots.

sorry in advance for typos. I’m very tired 🥱

I have had a churning panicky feeling in my stomach since this all started, just feeling ashamed that we share our country with these vile yobs.

Yeah I think this has triggered a lot of anxiety in people 😔 @Derbee

And I was just thinking it can’t be pleasant for people who are against it but have family going out to riot. I can imagine there are various kids/ adults who are horrified at what their Dad /son/sister etc was filmed doing - although of course some are being egged on by family.

I was just reading another thread on here about a white non- English woman who was spat on and racially abused after a bunch of kids heard her accent.

It almost doesn’t feel real to me, I’ve felt quite disassociated and numb at times this week , so I’m doing a lot of breath work and stretching and trying to stay present.

Definitely feeling much better today than when I started this thread though.

Hopefully this weekend will be a peaceful one for us all 🙏🏾

It just occurred to me how strange it is that they don’t teach children in school much about that period of British history with the NF and the uprisings that happened in areas like Brixton and Toxteth. Will they hide this as well in 30 years time?

They don't teach children in school that there was a African Abbott in the 600s AD, why some very old churches in England have stain glass windows with black people on them, and that black and brown people from countries that were colonies of the British Empire fought in the World Wars - so no they won't teach that.

Very interesting @Reugny I didn’t know that about the African Abbott . I’m a bit of a history geek so I’ll look forward to reading up on that later.

So true about the World Wars. The other day on social media this guy was calling people “woke” for “making it up” that POC fought in the wars and people posted links proving they did and he just went silent 😂

So true about the World Wars. The other day on social media this guy was calling people “woke” for “making it up” that POC fought in the wars and people posted links proving they did and he just went silent

On one of the now deleted threads - because it showed the true quality of MN moderation on race issues - lots of posters were unaware what the purpose of an Empire was and why citizens/subjects of an Empire had the right to move around it.

The quality of the mods, when it comes to race on here, is woeful. I would be very interested to know if they have a diverse staff. I highly doubt it somehow.

Haha we know that they absolutely do not. No need to wonder at all!

This is very interesting. I was in a meeting on Monday with an all white gallery and the riots were not discussed at all. I raised the violence as an AOB item. Exactly the same thing happened after the murder of George Floyd. It just wasn't on the radar of the non diverse staff.

That just shows a complete disregard for the wellbeing of POC in their employment@Jobsharenightmare . What if members of staff were frightened to come into work, as was happening? Employers have a degree of duty of care towards their employees. How on earth could they have such a blindspot!

Just checking in to say hope everyone's doing OK.

I don’t think we’ll see riots again any time soon so things are much calmer, but think we will see the wider effects of it for a while in terms of an uptick in “casual” everyday racism due to racists being emboldened.
So the hyper vigilance is still there to an extent.

That said, I’m doing well overall had a lovely coffee catch up with a friend over the weekend and made some progress with two creative projects i’m working on.

Hope @PerkingFaintly and everyone else is doing well too 😄

Glad to read this thread. I’ve found the past couple of weeks so hard as a Black woman. I was in the office last Wednesday when there were riots planned later that night. I was worried about getting home or bumping into people heading to the riots on the train. Meanwhile the white peopple at work were just chatting about what they were making for dinner and going for after work drinks like normal. I felt really resentful that they weren’t impacted, or didn’t think about how other colleagues were feeling. My Asian colleague in another city got some abuse when driving home.

it’s been tough and brought up a lot of bad memories of how things were when I was growing up. People seem very quick to move on as thought it didn’t happen

We got an email from our white department head telling us to be careful of what we liked on social media etc and not make any statements of position. I thought, be careful in which direction because no one is telling white people not to post in support of Ukraine?

It's been very much taken seriously by and for people of colour. But not a single white member of staff has mentioned it to me at all.

I know what you mean about feeling resentful@PompomDahlia . It is almost like the majority of the people who are implementing the racism that impacts us on the daily, are living without the consequences of their actions, on the whole. They may tut, and make the odd noise, but they have no idea of the fear that this has wakened/ awakened in many POC. I have felt an unease since all of this started, that I did not have before. The real sense that I could actually be harmed physically because of my skin. It is a dreadful thing, to feel that way. Unsafe.

Sorry. I'm a bit late to the party. How are you feeling now, op? A lot better, I hope.

Feeling a lot better now thanks @Sunisshiningweatherissweet2 it’s still at the back of my mind sometimes and I wonder what this bodes for the next few years and is going to happen again, but just taking each day at a time really.

Hope everyone else is doing well too.