Walking over London Bridge yesterday, on my way to get the clipper to Greenwich, I accidentally bumped shoulders with someone coming in the other direction. I was looking at the building where I worked in the olden days (March) and they were looking at their phone. We accidentally bumped shoulders. Their immediate response was to say i should apologise. I said that neither of us looking where we were going so maybe it both our fault. To which their response was "Fuck you, you white c*nt"...Still processing that...
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To get the Thames clipper you must have been walking southbound and presumably were looking at your old office on the south side.
One London Bridge?
The office complex by the Golden Hind?
London Bridge Hospital? -
No - 20 Fenchurch on the north side...but I'd turned back to face the direction of travel just before the incident...and as anyone on here who knows me will know that I'm the A in BAME...Comment
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He was telling you that you've been spending too much time indoors and need to catch more sun.Comment
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There’s no actual indication that this person was male, though.
Or indeed not also white.Comment
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Take it as a commentary on institutionalised white privilege and let it slide as a personal affront.Comment
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Are you sure they didn't say "wide"?Comment
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Or ‘Count’?Comment
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They were neither.Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
I can cope with the idea that I maybe wider than most, and indeed I maybe a c*nt, but really? Yeah, I guess you're right G-Man...chalk it up as a life experience and move on ...I supposeComment
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Sorry to hear this happened gt3
i imagine he ( and it sounds like a he) was so determined not to speak the “ black” or whatever other racist term his brain produced that he said “white” instead.
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If it helps at all, someone once shouted "stupid c*nt" out of a van window at me. My crime? Attempting to cross a road with my three-week-old daughter's pushchair. Really shook me up, but I did eventually realise it had nothing to do with me.
Sorry to hear this happened to you.
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It was a BAME woman, probably in her twenties...<shrugs>>Originally posted by Nefertiti2 View Post
thanks Nef...as I've said above, I can deal with the c*nt thing...it's that she used my colour...and just made the presumption that I was white...I suppose it says alot about how BAME people have lived and been abused...but not sure two wrongs make a right... especially when your wrong is that wrong...Comment
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Unfortunately, the flipside of being colour-blind is acceptance that BAME individuals can be as gratuitously prejudiced as their white counterparts.Originally posted by gt3 View PostLast edited by Diable Rouge; 10-08-2020, 14:06.Comment
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Woaaah there, you need to have power in order to be racist, otherwise you are just being rude and abusive.Originally posted by Diable Rouge View Post
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I agree with TG here. Racism = prejudice + power. (That's power in an institutional / structural sense, rather than individual.)Comment
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A fair point, and duly amended.Comment
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That's interesting. I thought that one of the racist things that white people attributed to BAME people is that they couldn't be racist. When I have heard Black people of more recent African descent calling Black people of Afro-Caribbean descent "lazy" or thisOriginally posted by Tactical Genius View Post
I have thought of it as racist. I can see your point about the power imbalance but aren't these acts of racism? Genuine question, I am not being arch or anything. I am a pale stale male so have no conception.
As a lighter - I think - aside, my mixed race son was coming down the stairs saying to a mate on the phone, "I am. I fucking am. Hold on, ask my Dad"
Bored Jr (holding phone to me): Dad, aren't I black?
Me: Well, son, it's a bit more complic....
Bored Jr: Dad, don't go on. Tell him I'm black
Me: Err, ok, he's black.
Bored Jr (back to phone): See? Told you.
That is a good demonstration of my white liberal analysis of race.Comment
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Ah, hold on, this may have answered me (although I will keep up the original post).Originally posted by Jimski View Post
So, does this mean that, for instance, Idi Amin expelling the Asians from Uganda was a racist act as he had the power to do it but, if he were an everyday Ugandan citizen calling an Asian Ugandan an epithet based their Indian descent, it isn't racist?Comment
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I would think it's akin to UKIP or National Rally supporters in Europe, as by normalising such prejudice in society, they can exhort their political leaders to racist actions. Of course, a more complicated issue still in that regard is black-on-black prejudice, as happened in Zimbabwe and South Africa.Originally posted by Bordeaux Education View PostComment
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What happened to "Hey, be careful!" There's so much ill-expressed anger and hatred these days. I'm starting to long for the days of etiquette. Elitist they might have been but at bottom those small gestures were acts of generosity.Originally posted by gt3 View PostComment
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I get the power argument but I'm not entirely sure I agree with it. If you're the kind of person to be abusive to another and you bring their race into it, I'd say that makes you a racist. Or at the very least an arseholeComment
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I was going to say that your example was different as UKIP supporters would be white but, of course, Sergi Singh was a UKIP candidate and, I suppose, it would be a sort of racism to presume the BAME people weren't supporters or voters of anti-immigration parties. I suppose that this is where xenophobia becomes a useful distinctive difference. If a BAME UKIP supporter is saying that, for instance, Albanian refugees should go back to their own country, they are not being racist against white people but being xenophobic against a nationality.Originally posted by Diable Rouge View PostComment
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Not to speak for gt3 but regardless of the source of the insult, or its inaccuracy re his racial orientation, I sense his pain at what is a repeated injury based on race. If this were me, I'd be mildly distressed at the altercation but not in the least affected by the "white" epithet. I have never had to put up with racism, simple as that. gt3 has. And even when it's misplaced, it still hurts greatly. This isn't to pit black women of colour against, in this instance, a man of colour. It's about the hurt of reference to race.Comment
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here is a real world story that has occupied my summer.
i am dealing with a complex and tricky grievance at work.
one of the teams i manage is a legal team. they do the in house stuff for us.
the head of the team has built the team from scratch. making all the appointments.
she is southern european from a poor working class background and her parents speak only some English.
her two managers are experienced white male lawyers.
there are 5 non manager lawyers
2 black african
3 asian
one is male
there are 5 para legals
1 black
3 asian
1 white
4 are women
3 of the solicitors have raised grievances about their pay. they are on about 50k.
2 of the 3 have raised a grievance about the appointment of one of the white managers.
they have stated that
he had no experience
he was a mate of the head of service who appointed him.
that hes paid 60k
these assertions have been spread around the wider department and are now quoted as fact.
1 of the 3 lawyers has gone on to make a wide ranging assertion that the Head of service is systematically discriminating against BAME staff. she is from a fairly wealthy background.
she has made this a formal grievance and is now off sick with the stress of the situation.
i have
investigated the appointments
interviewed every team member
reviewed the salaries
as close to fact as i can get -
appointments of managers were not discriminatory. more could probably have been done to get a better spread of BAME candidates.
2 of the solicitors have completely lost faith in the company and believe they and others are being discriminated against.
the relationship between the head of service and one of the solicitors has completely disintegrated.
the solicitors were probably underpaid by about 3 or 4 k. im awarding that payrise.
the rest of the team are quite happy and see it as a diverse and inclusive workplace.
im a trying to move this situation to a successful conclusion.
if you ask ill answer
then you can suggest way forward.
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I'd go back to Malaysia. What's the point in wasting what's left of your life in such irrelevant politics.Comment
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