Scared of your own country? [public]

[annifa]

I'm feeling a bit scared of living in this country at the moment. I was just reading an article about the racist violence in Belfast and that word "indigenous" popped up again. Why are people, it seems suddenly, getting hung up on indigenous and non-indigenous people in this country? I understand it in terms of colonialism and the bad things that

Comments

[drunkenchipmunk]

(I always feel the need to defend myself when I discuss racism. "I'm not racist, but..." obviously won't do so I'll admit that I am slightly disgruntled with the whole EU situation, but I most certainly do not confuse this with race and colour issues. I am after all half-Polish, half-Lithuanian in blood.)

I think the problem stems from the thousands of Polish workers that came, worked and worked and worked, and then when the economy collapsed, left. The average person doesn't understand EU policy and its benefits and so the average person jumped to the conclusion that foreign workers are at fault for the financial crisis. Ergo, they do not like foreign workers. It only takes one BNP preaching idiot to rear his head and start making a fuss and a thousand ignorant, average people become unjustified racists.

[drunkenchipmunk]

Note how I say his. Woman aren't daft enough to join the BNP.

[annifa]

http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/the-real-bnp/BNP-councillors.php

At least 14 women BNP councillors in this country.
In spite of one of their councillor's convictions that, "There is no such thing as rape. Women enjoy chocolate. Women enjoy rape. You can't forcefeed a woman chocolate, therefore there is no such thing as rape." Women are active members in the BNP and believe their policies.

I don't really understand the problem with the Polish workers coming and then leaving. They were paying taxes, why shouldn't they leave? Surely more jobs for all these poor British people whose jobs have been taken?

Don't forget that more British people LEAVE this country for wherever else than come in from other places. If we chucked out all the "immigrants" and had our British people back, we'd have problems galore.

[drunkenchipmunk]

I don't have a problem with them leaving, or 'helping', but I do have a problem with Britain opening its doors quite so readily. I'm all for refugee campaigns and lending a general hand, but as you know mainy cities, Bristol included was over-run! I couldn't get a job for the life of me and neither could a lot of my friends. My mate in Stratford was working in a restaurant and being spoken to in Polish because every other worker was Polish and they didn't see why they should speak to her in English.

The next step, the leap to racism, isn't logical, but unfortunately it's what's happened.

[juggzy]

It makes no sense it terms of the British peoples, either, who have largely been built by wave after wave of migration. I found out the other day that there was a substantial inwards migration of people with dark skins in the middle ages, for example. There are no indigenous British people, at all.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/black_britons_04.shtml

By 'substantial' I mean 'enough for a party', of course.

[annifa]

I really dislike how these far-right/racist/fascist parties have appropriated this word and made it mean "white, English for x generations" where it is actually completely irrelevant. And the worst thing is that people believe it! We had to do a HUGE survey of half the people of Bristol and there was ethnicity monitoring on it. And someone had written "indigenous British" on it, as if White British wasn't good enough for them or something. Bad times, bad times.

[annifa]

Interesting link.
Paul Stephenson, a local black hero, was actually born in London in 1930. But hey, lets not take their "swamped by immigrants" theory away from them.

The party sounds amazing! More people need to know about this stuff.

[oddnumbereven]

See, I'm a foriegner, (...coming here, stealing your jobs, speaking funny) from a country that is engaged in a constant open discussion about indigenous people's rights, white privilege, and institutional racism. It's by no means getting anywhere healthy, but I think it's pushed me to try and have a vocab about this stuff. And I come here, and I know full well that it's damn difficult to know a country you're from, let alone a new one, and it's best to assume the best. But. The amount of really obvious racism I encounter has shocked me here. I do think it is more obvious when you're coming from another culture - it's not as ubiqutous, it's more visible simply because everything strange in a new culture is visible

[oddnumbereven]

I hope it is clear through my keymash fury that I mean dick off, people who call themselves indigenous whiteys.

It's also really, really naff. It reminds me of the Scot-ophile relatives back home who bang on about their (our) proud Scot ancestry, and there's a little voice in my head going, mmm very well, but there is a little element to this which is 'pride in whiteness', innit? There's this inescapable po-faced smugness to the business.

I am getting very depressed at the rape quote. Sweet Jeebus. Who said that, and how can I piss on their porridge?

[annifa]

I think it's this guy, Eriksen. They really are a bunch of backward oiks.

[annifa]

I hope it is clear through my keymash fury that I mean dick off, people who call themselves indigenous whiteys. Yes, no worries.

It's interesting to hear your point of view. And sometimes, when I stop and think the racism I hear about just takes my breathe away. I used to have an Irish colleague and one of the guys she shares an office with (who we all know is racist) used to make comments about her being Irish! I mean, my god! That is OLD SCHOOL racism. And it's 2009! I think that's what I can't get over, really. It's 2009 and we're *still* at this point, in spite of god knows how many years of history.

The question of being 'indigenous' - I mean, dick off. You're indigenous to a quote-unquote 'race' which has taken pride and profit in disrespecting other indigenous people.
Absolutely. And to me, this constant harking back to the "good old days" when we were all white and spoke the same language (which as juggzy pointed out never existed anyway), seems rather like a desire to return to those good old days of colonialism, slave and

[anotherusedpage]

Yes. It is a bit, isn't it? :S

It will pass, I hope. And I hope it won't be as bad as last time it was this bad, IFYSIM (Brixton... Broadwater Farm....) But... yes. And especially after the next general election.

[katiechainsaw]

I'm very scared, I live in a BNP stronghold and it's a bit terrifying when they started on their campaign trail as there are a lot of minority communities living in and around the area. I avoided walking to the post office for the last two months because a BNP supporter followed me back home, yelling obscenities at me because he didn't like the colour of my skin (I'm mixed race, naturally tanned due to Italian/French/Asian blood). It scared the bejeebus out of me, I hadn't been treated like that since I was in High school!
Isn't it strange how the Union Jack has become a symbol in itself of racism to some extent? When I see a flag flying around here, I think BNP. The muslim/indian communities have taken to plastering the Union Jack on their taxis & takeaway menus, there's even a kebab shop that has opened called UK Fast Food which is owned by an Indian family and has Polish & Greeks working in it.