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

@anyolddinosaur if you read back on this thread you will see that it's not a question of left or right but of racism or not racism. Making sweeping judgements about "the left" is basically using similar characteristics to racism, lumping all people who look, speak, or vote in one way together and condemning them.

It would be interesting to understand what proportion of the mods are current regulars on MN (in a private capacity) and what sort of diversity exists on the current mod team. (Not just racial diversity, I’m thinking across all the protected characteristics)

I posted near enough the same on another thread last night that was complaining a job advert was "racist" because they were asking for applicants who are either black /Asian - that I think it's a good thing as it shows representation, and that I hope MN mods have a range too, across protected characteristics) as it would mean they've got more experience of picking up things say me as a white straight woman would as it's not my lived experience.

This is a very balanced and knowledgeable post and essentially wraps up the answer to the initial post.

I agree. Gender critical women are often labelled ‘far right’ in the same nonsensical manner. Most of us aren’t.

@anyolddinosaur Being against or challenging racism isn't a left v right thing.
For one, it implies that everyone who may be right leaning is racist. Which is ridiculous.

I thought this article was interesting and touches on some of the issues raised in this thread. I might turn my phone off fir thecrestvof the day!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/06/digital-democracy-crisis-politics-technological-change

Well, quite. Look at the investigation into Corbyn’s Labour.

No, because you still have to clarify and qualify. Otherwise you're doing the classic 'tarring everyone with the same brush'.

‘Some British men’ would be fine then? (No poor female behaviour springs to mind).

The key is in “variety”. I was born with the “big” tripos - minority, female, WC. My life experience will be “typical” in some respects but not in others. My DC grew up in relative affluence, their economic life experience is very different from mine but common in some aspects of race (not all because you can’t entirely separate race, class and sex).

What really matters is the mix. Recruiting to ensure you have a wide variety of backgrounds and categories in the mix does make for better performing teams overall in most industries. A board which defines diversity as photos of different races where all members are still male,, public school and Oxbridge will not be much more diverse than the same board where all the faces are white.
At an individual level no one person is the spokesperson for all of their $CATEGORY and shouldn’t be but if you have enough overall variation and not just a couple of representatives for ticking boxes you end up with better and more imaginative teams.

I wouldn't even go that far, but that's because my DD went to Spain last year with friends and was appalled at the behaviour of multiple all female British hen groups. So 'some Brits' without qualifying by sex works for me.

I agree that affirmative action is not racist.

‘Some British people’?

Fair. Also some German people (have seen some awful behaviour there) and some Dutch people (ditto). Tourists can be incredibly rude and entitled.

Interesting, just had a read myself now.
It's true the amount of misinformation out there is worrying, and not sure what can really be done about it.
As for turning off phones and getting out and about more in the "real world" so to speak, I've been making a conscious effort to do more of this lately.
It's so lovely and calming when you do - for me either a walk round a nature reserve, or a sit in a cafe just staring off into space people watching 🙂

@anyolddinosaur

It's possible some of the posts you object to are actually created by people like the OP who want to shut down debate. As I said in the first paragraph the left has lost credibility.

Where, anywhere, on this thread is the OP looking to shut down debate?

And what does politics have to do with it? As has been said many times, racism exists across all political spectra.

Fair comment! Apologies all

I touched on this yesterday upthread - excessive focus on individual identity pretty alien to the left and I’d say probably alien to the centre right. It's often anti-materialist and distraction from economic class politics.

If individual identity fits on an axis it fits on libertarian/authoritarian rather than left right. Its not an accident that the authoritarian left and right both have equally unhelpful approaches to race and sex (and I’ve experienced both from authoritarians on both economic wings).

In that case I can’t think of any comments that fall foul as I think everyone acknowledges that they are only critiquing a minority of a certain group and that not everyone within that group behaves badly.

I think if people have trouble understanding they should just think of the siege women are under for being gender critical. Accusations of bigotry, relentless demands for evidence, asserting that they are hysterical/dramatic.

Can we not try and turn it into yet another trans thread, this is about RACISM. I hope no-one engages

There were definitely comments on the threads linked to above that were generalising entire countries and religions and inciting hate. Most have been deleted.
Being subjected to such generalisations is genuinely lack a slap in the face (at least). I can never forget the shock I experienced a decade ago when a colleague genuinely said in the staff room ‘not all Catholics are terrorists, but all terrorists are Catholic’ (yes, I know the 70s and 80s were calling him asking for his bigotry back).
If you look back through the threads there were genuinely people saying that babies didn’t deserve health care because they were Palestinian and therefore a security threat. Babies.

The parallels are too strong for it not to arise now and then when making comparisons. Many women were called bigots when they raised concerns - luckily logic prevailed and now I would say the majority of posters on here see that concerns around gender ideology are not rooted in simple hatred.

See, I've never been a gin fan. It's got a weird taste 😁 I was always more of a vodka girl. Not anymore though as I'm old and can't neck it anymore 😂😭

Well, I’m Catholic, but I don’t think that’s comparable to this. Nobody has said ‘all terrorists are Muslim’ (for example). But some groups are higher risk for certain crimes or activities and it is not racist to worry about that. As PP said, in light of the fact we have 40,000 people under surveillance for terrorism reasons, is it really just bigoted to say you’re concerned about unvetted immigration from Islamic countries?

Actually I disagree with you. I’ve had a truly awful time on the FWR board and no longer go there. This was a shame as there were a significant number of GCs there that I do respect and have had great conversations with. One of them called out a prominent GC for associating with Tommy Robinson and the pile on was awful. There are a number of accounts (hopefully bots) who seem to revel in hatred and bigotry. We see this in posts about racism, SEN, benefits all over. This was a site I joined for support whilst trying to conceive and it is increasingly full of goady hate posting.