RE: Ask an Ex-racist
April 11, 2018 at 6:43 am
(This post was last modified: April 11, 2018 at 6:46 am by Edwardo Piet.)
(April 10, 2018 at 7:46 pm)Whateverist Wrote: I had it easier in that both my parents were vocal in their anti-racism.
Same. I was born in Wolverhampton in the UK, which is actually often informally known as "Black country". On our street the majority of British people living there were actually black. There were the people who were very anti-racist like my parents, and then there were the black people, and then there were the few people who would have been racist I guess...
But I never really noticed any racism. But as soon as I move up to the north of England (I went where my mom went)... like 99% of people are white here, and on the occasion that you do see a black person, you notice racism. I find it disgusting to be honest. I remember volunteering years ago when I was like 23 or something, at a charity shop. A new guy joined who was this white guy who seemed a bit of a douche.... then one day we get a donation via a van and a big black guy is helping out.... this douchey new white guy asks to me in a half-laughing voice as if he assumes I'm going to agree with him "Why is there a n****r helping?" I was shocked and just responded with nothing but silence. Takes a lot for me to ignore someone but I never spoke to him again. When the assistant manager took me aside and asked why I was ignoring him, I told her. Next day the guy didn't come back.
Another thing that I find extremely odd is, I started working at another charity shop years later.... and we got onto a conversation about something or other I can't remember why. But I referred to a black person as black and I got told that that was racist and I should say "colored" LOL. I was like "It's very much the other way around." And everyone was saying it isn't. And I've heard people say "colored" around here too, it's disgusting. It's like people don't even know what is and isn't a slur around here.
In my experience cosmopolitanism is very healthy. As soon as I move up to an area where it's 99% white people they all seem very racist towards the 1% non-white. But mixtures of different races living in the same area seems to lead to less racism. At least that's my take on it.
