Across the Pond.....

[Minimalist]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/01/wh...ding-them/

Whites in England feel like ‘second class citizens’ compared to ethnic minorities ‘surrounding’ them

[Nine]

I think this part is telling:

The town centre features pawn shops, pound shops, betting shops and charity stores, a reflection of the borough's above average unemployment rate, which has helped fuel resentment of more recent arrivals.

Its easy to use 'outsiders' as scapegoats when everyone's struggling to get by. The whole "They took our jobs" deal. People fail to realize that the problems they have are nothing to do with immigration but just years of poor decisions by the government finally catching up with the UK. Local councils certainly don't help much either. Its far too common to see large housing projects fall through because it might get in the way of somebodies view.. Then people wonder why there are no affordable homes or employment opportunities.

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All the UKIP signs in my town were spray painted with the words "Fuck you racists" on them

[RobbyPants]

Its easy to use 'outsiders' as scapegoats when everyone's struggling to get by. The whole "They took our jobs" deal. People fail to realize that the problems they have are nothing to do with immigration but just years of poor decisions by the government finally catching up with the UK. Local councils certainly don't help much either. Its far too common to see large housing projects fall through because it might get in the way of somebodies view.. Then people wonder why there are no affordable homes or employment opportunities.

Yeah, America has a pretty good history of that, too. For centuries, all of our jobs have been taken by the Irish the Eastern Europeans the Chinese the Mexicans illegal immigrants.

[Jaysyn]

It's just basic math. Anyone who thinks that any nation can have 100% employment as well as constant growth when all the while we are barreling towards more & more automation just simply isn't grounded in reality. The real question we need to be considering is what kind of future we want to have when everything is automated. Right now we are heading towards the unfortunate distopia as described in Manna.

[Napoléon]

I'm sorry, but anyone who hasn't visited Birmingham city centre cannot tell me there isn't a problem with immigration in this country. I can fully understand the sentiments of the 66 year old man quoted in the article, and I know many people in my own family and who are friends who feel the same way. There are even people who are part of these 'ethnic minorities' who would agree (I couldn't believe it when I saw this black dude on Question Time saying he voted UKIP). Immigration is a problem over here, a real problem. But everyone who says so are just branded closet racists and told that they are simply intolerant assholes.

I agree with insanity to an extent, many of the problems in run down areas in the UK are due to local councils and poor government. I've never bought into the whole 'they took our jobs' bullshit (although when you have companies paying attention to racial quotas with these 'equal opportunities forms' then something stinks). But people are voting UKIP for a reason. They're sick of seeing so many foreigners in this country, and so many people who are at odds with their own cultures. I go back to Birmingham as an example (as I live here). In this city, in so many areas, white British people are a minority. There is nothing inherently wrong with that (and anyone who suggests I am saying so can get fucked). But when you enter an 'ethnic' area, you fucking know about it. You are genuinely scared to walk in these places. They're like ghettos. They are shitholes, nobody cares for their homes or their streets. Everyone is brown and wearing clothing you'd associate with muslims. There are burkhas everywhere you look. You get the feeling that you are the outsider. You couple that with the fact there there are islamic book stores around every corner which have had terrorists plotting their attacks in there, more faith schools than you can shake a stick at that have recently been involved with Islamic community members obstructing education in favour of Islamic teachings, Mosques protruding the skyline... it's all just too much for people to comprehend, things have changed so rapidly. I'm only 21 but I can seriously notice a massive difference from when I was a young kid to now. There's over 200 mosques in this city for fuck sake and I bet at least 100 of them must of been built since I was born if not more.

So yeah, I think this is a problem. A cultural one, not necessarily a racial one. The links between ethnic minorities and poor standards of living, high unemployment rates etc. may or may not have something to do with one another. I genuinely don't know, all I can do is speak from first hand experience, living in areas that I have seen a very rapid and unnerving change in. The more these areas get run down, the more foreign influence you see. Correlation doesn't equal causation, I know that. But it's usually an indicator of something.

And before people jump in saying I'm one of the ones blaming foreigners for all of Britain's woes. I'm not. I'm genuinely not. I can see it coming though. I'm just trying to give perspective on what people who actually live here are thinking, and what we see on a day to day basis.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I'll be succinct as this is the topic of my PhD and also Nap (above) has covered some great points already.

1. Lack of town planning at demographic and physical structural level - 'White flight' in the 60s created de facto ghettos of poverty among minority ethnic communities which was increased by the lack of cultural and social integration at a nationwide level by successive governments.

2. Social and cultural divergence as a result of the above - Competing systems of 'how to do things' are beginning to see cracks in social cohesion (riots in cities, lines of segregation being drawn, sometimes literally).

3. Widening gaps between rich & poor - Amplifies the above 10x regardless of community and further degrades any hope of having integration. And this in fact happens to both 'white' and 'non-white' communities. I actually live in Birmingham that Nap mentions above, but in a comparatively wealthy area where integration is seemless. Go 5 minutes down the road though and you see white and non-white 'communities' and the lines that divide them. They are generally poor, financially, educationally, health (etc), and it shows. As Nap says, you can physically see the degradation.

4. (finally) Massive failure of multicultural policies over the past 3 or so decades. And I don't mean the physical fact of multiculturalism, I mean the norms, implemented by convention and law. This was exemplified by the phrase 'a community of communities', to which the egalitarian in me dies a little every time I hear someone trot it out. If there's one thing seeking to work against community cohesion as much as it says it's working to foster it, it's the notion that every community should get its own rights enshrined in a law or legal exemption (eg. not banning halal or kosher foods when, had it not been a 'religious right', it would have been banned immediately and people prosecuted through, for example. the Slaughter houses act).

But nothing represents this more insidiously than FGM, and the fact it's gone unabated for decades because politicians and police have been too scared (or inept) top confront it. Indeed, I can add the same argument to Male circumcision, but as that is not illegal and FGM is, the fact that the élite have turned a blind eye to it when they know it goes on and they know who does it pisses me off no end. And I, too, have been labelled a racist when I confronted a Muslim guy in a research seminar debate during my research on this topic with my thoughts above. Arguing against cultural or religious barbarism is NOT an act of racism, but all too often it is viewed as such by the powers that be.

Little things like this build to big things like disenchantment with the entire political system in the eyes of the average person.

[Minimalist]

"Multi-culturalism" seems to have gone off the track. What started out as the idea that you don't kill people because they are different seems to have morphed into the absurd idea that you cannot tell them that they are backwards primitives and they should join the 21st century.

Hence....

A young Arab asks his father "What is this weird hat that we are wearing?"


"Why, it's a 'chechia' because in the desert it protects our heads from the sun," says the father.


Then asks the son "And what is this type of clothing that we are wearing?"


The father is Obliged to reply: "It's a 'djbellah' because in the desert it is very hot and it protects your body!"

The boy gets even more curious: "And what are these ugly shoes that we have on our feet?"

Again the father lovingly explains: "These are 'babouches,' which keep us from burning our feet when in the desert!"

Finally the son says, "Tell me Abba?"

"Yes my son?"

"Why the fuck are we living in Detroit and still wearing all this shit?"