African neighbour voted Reform

[WhatShoes4me]

I was talking to one of my neighbours over the garden fence today. I wasn't sure if they had voted as didn't know their rights and I don't know how long they've been in the country. They've lived there over a year. They're African.
I said I was glad our local councillor had kept their seat. Labour. They do a lot for us. I've had a fair bit of contact and they do what they say.
Neighbour said they'd voted Reform. They're from an African country and are black. I was so shocked I couldn't hide it. I hadn't asked they just said. I thought they were joking at first but no.
Dh said why was I surprised? I thought that was obvious?

Do you really think Nigel Farage is hot?

I'd be more disappointed in you for supporting Labour, tbh.

No.

However, what my Latino friends in the US tell me is that's the lens other people see them through, irrespective of how and why they're in the US. And, that is has increased since Trump and the war on immigration.

Plus within group discrimination has ramped up considerably with Latinos of darker skin being targeted more than their fairer counterparts.

I feel I'm derailing the thread a bit with an adjacent context, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend rhetoric only lasts whilst you are useful. You then become the enemy again.

Also illegal migration affects legal migrants disproportionately. When anti immigration rhetoric and racism rise, all non-white people are affected, even those who were born here or are second/third/fourth generation.

It frustrates me so much. I am African Caribbean and it drives me wild that my grandmother who arrived in windrush votes Tory. Makes me sick tbh

I think this is very typical to be honest. They may have found it really hard to come here/succeed here and now they think other people who are coming in are having an easier time and being handed stuff that thjs family worked hard for (I don’t think that but that is the reform line)

We’ve seen this happen in the US as well partly because Hispanics felt that when Trump was talking about immigration, he wasn’t talking about them: but he was of course.

Racism isn't exclusively a white male domain. Some of the worst racists I've known have been Asians against Africans. Different races have different attitudes towards integration, etc.

Sounds very much like his family came here for a better life worked hard and contributed unlike all the illegals that we have arriving here every day that we simply do not want to pay for & the taxpayers cannot afford.

People tend to be happy about being part of a change but dislike change happening to them. Also a lot of othering.

It's fine for my parents to move here and change the area they moved too but year later they don't like seeing the impact of it changing again by others. Most people are happy to pull up the drawbridge if it benefits them.

The “Latinos” who are getting deported …. Can’t vote for president in USA. “Latinos” are a very diverse group of individuals - crazy that you think they would all vote similarly. Not sure why they would want more illegals entering US illegally.

Latinos who are Actual American citizens also think immigration should be controlled, gang members & crims deported. They are Americans.

www.usa.gov/who-can-vote

Yes but now that it has happened, it is affecting these Americans. People are being deported in error, without due process which is not what many wanted and the people being deported are people they are married to or others in their community. That’s why trumps approval rating with Hispanic voters has dropped so much.

Yes exactly @Odras and they’re being strangely heavy handed and incompetent about it all.

There was the case of that (white) British woman who was leaving the U.S. but had been on the wrong visa. She apparently didn’t know she should have been on a work visa while doing home stays but instead of just deporting her immediately, they detained her for a number of days which culminated in them doing a cavity/body search. And something similar happened to a Canadian. The British woman was literally on her way out, why detain her? They could even have banned her from future visits but let her get on the plane out of there - to detain her didn’t make sense.

My Latino friends over there are worried despite being American. They’ve been hassled at airports even before all
this and know it could get worse for them.

I didn’t have an issue when I went in March,but although I usually go every 6 months now I’m thinking I might pause my US visits for the meantime.

So all Africans have to think the same, I find that offensive in itself never mind anything else

I find it interesting that people assume non white people are automatically liberal. Many are actually very conservative. Black and brown people aren’t obliged to vote a particular way because of their skin colour. This comes up frequently, as a brown person I wish people would would get over the idea that we must in perpetuity vote on the basis of our ethnicity. It’s racist, reductive and insulting. These are the very same people who will say “oh brown and black people are just as british as the rest of us”…. Right up until the point one doesn’t vote Labour and then all of a sudden they aren’t as British as anyone else are they? No now their skin colour becomes really really fucking important.

I work in an immigration and asylum sector, and this is very common, even among those who've entered 'illegally'.

Pulling up the drawbridge once you're safely in, whether an immigrant with a professional background, or a refugee working on minimum wage, is very real. It's an element of my work that I struggle with a little.

I vote Labour and I agree with you.

There’s a real racism (and Sexism) problem in the left. We know it exists in the right as they can be very blatant about it - but the left disguise it more and it usually manifests as patronising and paternalistic behaviour towards non-whites.

Sure. 🙄🙄🙄

The admin staff at an exclusively Eastern European owned Veterinary practice near me voted leave at Brexit. The owners were devastated. They were literally blindsided by it. So bizarre.

hmm but in this case isn’t it just surprising because Nigel Farage is an open racist, so you wouldn’t necessarily expect someone who is a target of his racism to vote for him? (I accept that many people who are not targeted either do not care or worse support it).

I got the sense the OP just was interested in understanding that perspective.

Reform is more than conservative, it is populist right wing. Most reform voters believe that multiculturalism is a bad thing, that there is one way to be British and it’s likely that if they were in charge that life would be harder for black and brown people.

People can vote for who they like. But the OP is surprised someone would vote for a party that would ultimately make life harder for them.

The OP is likely to be suprised as the neighbour will be voting for someone who is likely going to remove him from the country, not because she thinks he is liberal, I imagine.

Unfortunately a lot of people living in the UK have a tendency to 'pull up the drawbridge', close and lock the door behind them, take advantage of their own country men and other immigrants living here (rents etc). It's no secret.

That's one thing, but if he's inly been here a year, he won't have settlement status yet. It's like a Turkey voting for xmas.

Sure they did, OP.

The vast majority of posters in this thread are text book examples of the Dunning Kruger effect.