racism in the UK

[Divisive Cotton]

I'm a Brown Guy With Attitude

Doesn't quite have the same ring, does it

 

[FabricLiveBaby!]

Great formula. Will you call a black person a 'nigger' then.

Is that a can of worms I hear opening? I think it might be!

 

[warszawa]

Is that a can of worms I hear opening?

It's just not soley about what one group feels comfortable when referring to themselves, is it? Can't be bothered with the can of worms. Just a passing point on that post.

 

[Rainingstairs]

whats the difference between that and 'african american' 'chinese american' 'polish american' etc?

it just seems that here, nobody really makes the effort to distinguish between polish american...and just plain american

 

[Rainingstairs]

Trying to be polite and not lob everyone who is not aryan white into the same one size fits all 'brown' may be more to do with good etiquette than being PC.

I don't lob everyone into one catagory. for example, we have the american indians with the feather and the indian americans with the dot. that's how I desipher them, along with a lil humor...and that always gets a laugh. Nobody thinks I'm being racist when i joke about it..cause hey, it's true!

 

[Rainingstairs]

Based on what experience?

it just seems that regardless of what region an englander is from, or what they do for a living, there is that underlying sense of duty to distinguish races.

what experience? my experience. and I'm just curious if it's true and whyy

 

[Rainingstairs]

I don't think there is a consensus about this. Are you basing this observation on comments by british posters on internet forums by any chance?

It's probably worth pointing out that 'terminology' and labels often varies from country to country - for example 'asian' (when referring to people) typically means something different in the UK and the US.

Just to add my two cents worth: separate and distinct "races" don't even exist.

i totally agree. seperate races are a creation of man. so why such emphasis? in order to be civilized? that's an overrated idea as well. Nah, I lived in the UK for a bit, my dad's british, so I've been around a lot of british all my life. regardless, I'm not british, nor have the british mentality so, regardless of my personal observances, I could still be wrong

 

[TeeJay]

it just seems that regardless of what region an englander is from, or what they do for a living, there is that underlying sense of duty to distinguish races.

what experience? my experience. and I'm just curious if it's true and whyy

No its not true.

...edit... (have just read your previous post)

 

[Rainingstairs]

No its not true.

Where have you got your experience of "englanders" from? Have you ever been to the UK or is this just based on talking to people on internet forums?

no, this is actually my first run on internet forums since my uni days, this is entirely based on my (in the skin) observation of your culture.

 

[TeeJay]

no, this is actually my first run on internet forums since my uni days, this is entirely based on my (in the skin) observation of your culture.

"Your" culture?

I am a dual US/UK citrizen so you should maybe say "our" culture.

Assumptions and labels eh?

You use very odd terms: 'englanders', 'a lot of british' instead of 'english' and 'a lot of british people'.

There is probably less emphasis on so-called "race" in the UK than in the US.

"Britain has the highest level of mixed-race relationships in the developed world. According to the 2001 Census of England and Wales, there were 219,000 marriages between people from different ethnic backgrounds - a figure that obviously massively understates the extent of romantic and sexual relationships between people of different races. A study by the Policy Studies Institute estimated that in 1997 half of black men and one-third of black women in relationships had a white partner... The number of mixed-race people grew by more than 75% during the 1990s to around 415,000, 10% of the total ethnic minority population ... "In Britain a great deal of mixed-race relationships are between working-class people," says sociologist Professor Richard Berthoud of the Institute of Social and Economic Research at Essex University. "It's very different in America, where prosperous black men might have white wives, but such relationships are rare."

Very different indeed. Britain is not the United States, where the last anti-miscegenation law was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court only in 1967, and where continuing social discomfort over mixed-race relationships has been expressed in films such as Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (about the difficulties an African-American man and an Italian-American woman face when they start a relationship) ...

Berthoud tells the story of a British couple, a black woman and a white man, checking into an American hotel. "They were given separate rooms because the woman was assumed to be a singer and the man her manager. There was no other explanation why they would be together," he says.

link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story...540708,00.html

Having said that, there is still a long way to go and there is still a deeply entrenched concept of the existence of separate so-called "races", something that sadly seems almost as prevalent amongst self-proclaimed liberal/left people as amongst right-wing racists.

 

[danny la rouge]

it just seems that regardless of what region an englander is from, or what they do for a living, there is that underlying sense of duty to distinguish races.

Since I'm not an Englander I suppose I can't really say whether that's true or not, but it doesn't sound true; it sounds like arrant nonsense.

 

[DUMBO.66]

"big up Vancouver!!" visited it once and it was very nice, exept for chinatown at night

 

[ViolentPanda]

By the way, you're all fucking racists on account of being middle class and white.

I'm not because I'm a gay, disabled asylum-cheat.

I've told you before, Kenny.

Being a cunt doesn't make you gay, disabled or an asylum-cheat, it just makes you a cunt.

 

[Rainingstairs]

"Your" culture?

I am a dual US/UK citrizen so you should maybe say "our" culture.

Assumptions and labels eh?

You use very odd terms: 'englanders', 'a lot of british' instead of 'english' and 'a lot of british people'.

There is probably less emphasis on so-called "race" in the UK than in the US.

link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story...540708,00.html

Having said that, there is still a long way to go and there is still a deeply entrenched concept of the existence of separate so-called "races", something that sadly seems almost as prevalent amongst self-proclaimed liberal/left people as amongst right-wing racists.

you're right, don't see many inter-racial couples in the states. it's a shame, it's a shame.

maybe in another 100 years or so...the history is still so fresh. i guess what i saw was an almost relenquishing of "other" identity when people move to the states. as if it's secondary to their "american-ness" (pardon the fuckin term)

do you see that kind of relenquishing in the UK? I have not. is there even a desire for it?

 

[TeeJay]

...i guess what i saw was an almost relenquishing of "other" identity when people move to the states. as if it's secondary to their "american-ness" (pardon the fuckin term)

do you see that kind of relenquishing in the UK? I have not. is there even a desire for it?

Maybe not so much with first generation, but their children (second generation) will tend to become 'generic british youth'... at least either whatever their local/regional culture is, or to some extent buying more into a "british-asian" or "british-african-caribbean" 'subculture', or any one of a number of various 'sub cultures' (eg music, sport, fashion) depending on taste or interest - or a combination of these.

There isn't really any one single 'british culture' to buy into and everyone has their own experiences, affiliations and preferences. In other words there are groups or communities that have their own thing going on, but it is fairly easy for people to move in and out of these or to be part of several different 'groups' in different parts of their life.

Don't know if I am explaining it very well.

The impression I get of america is that there are two contradictory trends: a public identity which is very 'american' (far more than any single formal 'british' identity) but that privately - ie family, relationships etc - some groups have always stayed within their 'own' tribe:

I remember travelling through Montana and meeting some people who described themselves as "German" - on the basis that their great-grandparents' generation had arrived back then and there hadn't been much 'mixing' since then apparently. I wouldn't have had a clue unless they had told me as they appeared and sounded very 'american'.

So maybe the UK has more 'public' divisions (no overarching emphasis on one single culture) but in day to day life there is more lot of contact, friendships and relationships/marriages etc.

Not sure if I have got this 100% right - am interested in what other people think.

 

[derf]

A name is a name.
If the person finds it offensive in any way then it's bad manners to use it if nothing else.