Concerns about racism

[PandoraSocks]

Hi there Mumsnet HQ

Many of us are concerned about the uptick of hatred, xenophobia and racism on the site over the past couple of weeks. Most of the bigotry is focused on asylum seekers. MNHQ will of course delete racism etc. if reported, but this has gone way beyond a few hateful posts.

Links below to three examples of threads which have descended into real nastiness.

Cheers.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/in_the_news/5385273-civil-unrest-whats-really-going-on?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5385914-do-you-believe-there-will-be-a-civil-war?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5386073-to-be-so-fed-up-amd-disheartened-with-all-the-xenophobia?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

We don’t have clear enough stats, but we do know there have been dozens of rapes and even some murders which have been allowed to happen on account of our asylum policy. The stats in Sweden suggest asylum seekers are very disproportionately more likely to commit sex crimes, and Cologne as an isolated event was so horrendous it’s hard to come to any other conclusion. I don’t believe the emerging pattern in the UK, Sweden and Germany is a coincidence.

Not a single person has said ‘no male immigrants ever’. I have not once seen that as a remark on here. So that’s a straw man.

But like I said, this absolute refusal to entertain the concerns of women are anything other than bigoted is exactly why Rotherham (and the dozens of other sites around the UK) festered unchecked for so long. I have no doubt the same posters would’ve called people ‘bigoted’ for being concerned about that, had it not already been thankfully exposed.

From another thread, and in the spirit of the Disability Board - anyone thinking about tea? I have a sudden craving for fish and chips?

Or it can mean they are being racist. Now it could be accidental…but I generally manage not to accidentally say racist things because I’m not racist. Therefore I tend to think someone who says a racist thing, especially if they won’t retract when challenged, is probably a racist.

But they never clarify exactly what is racist. They just say ‘racist’. Perhaps that’s the issue - a lack of clarity around what racism actually means. Many people seem to think it’s anything other than saying the British are appalling bigoted people and everyone else are hardworking, upstanding, law abiding people (seriously).

Sounds nice! Pasta for me.

I wouldn't be surprised if the posters I've reported today and a couple of days ago have been talked to by MNHQ. I obviously wouldn't know, but interestingly I haven't seen the latter since she was reported and deleted. I think a lot probably goes on behind the scenes that we aren't told after we've reported someone if there appears to be a pattern to their posting behaviour.

See, I find your language problematic there. Rapes and murders ‘allowed to happen’? Rape is pretty much allowed these days whoever does it if you look at the prosecutions stats. And nobody is facilitating immigration for the purpose of letting people commit crime.
In a discussion it’s important to make your language clear - yours makes you sound as though you think there’s some conspiracy involved to undermine the country or to put women and girls in danger. If that’s not what you believe, think about how it sounds. I suspect people may be reacting to that rather than your point of discussion itself.

I’m going out for cocktails and dinner <fancy>

Please I am asking you to stop.

Let us have this thread. You have aired all this and myriad of your other views on asylum seekers over and over on the other threads.

Are you getting dressed up?

Jacket potatoes but now I want (soggy batter) fish and chips.

Moderately. I’m not a dressing up kinda gal.
Trousers and a nice top I expect. Bit of jewellery (big rings are my speciality).

Ugh. Give me crispy with lashings of scraps...

@BeckyAMumsnet, I have another question about the threads which @PandoraSocks linked to in her OP.

Your moderators are clearly aware of the threads in question as they have zapped some of the posts. Do they not look at the wider content of those threads and think "this is not in the spirit of the site, we need to take the whole thread down"?

I honestly don't understand it. You say that racism is unacceptable, and I do believe that you genuinely think that, and yet some threads with post after post of racist bile are left to stand, perhaps with the odd post being deleted here and there to suggest a token effort. Why can't you just take them down when the whole thread descends into hate speech?

We allow it via our immigration policy. In the same way we allowed female prisoners to be attacked via our policies to put transwomen in their prisons. And the way we allow attacks when we release dangerous offenders early. An active policy decision has been taken to expose women and girls to unnecessary risk.

I don’t think it’s for the purpose of them committing the crimes, I just think they’re negligent as to whether they do or not, because they’ve decided, once again, that the needs of men come before the safety of women. It’s additional risk that should not be gambled.

We don’t allow it. People arrive as asylum seekers. Some of them are criminals. It’s not about the needs of men over the needs of women. Not at all.
Anyway as @PandoraSocks has asked that you not derail, I won’t be helping you by responding again.

We are passively allowing it if we know it’s likely to happen and decide to give them the green light anyway.

Pandora is doing an excellent job of derailing by talking about food (just as the debate going gets tough and the figures come out).

Oops, I seem to have missed the memo that everyone has moved on to talk about tea.

I'm having risotto this evening.

It is fine to continue the discussion with @BeckyAMumsnet ! That is the purpose of the thread!

I'm not really sure I understand the relevance of that post to anything I've said. As a statistician I'm always interested in the break down of figures. Yes, there are more men than women, for what I would assume would be very obvious reasons. They have often put themselves at risk and endured extremely uncomfortable conditions. Around one fifth are women or children and the fact that the rest are men does not mean that it's ok to dehumanise them.

PLEASE start a new thread to discuss small boats. This is a thread on site stuff to discuss racism on MN.

Stop derailing.

Fucking hell. The IRONY of it is killing me.

@JamesMacGill Pandora is doing an excellent job of derailing by talking about food (just as the debate going gets tough and the figures come out).

I did that. And for good reason. It is more productive than engaging with someone who is hell bent on making this thread into something it is not.

Irony of what? That’s fine; I’ll stop posting.

At this rate the only thing I will be having for my tea is a bottle of gin.