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annwfynThis comes from a discussion on someone else’s LJ, in which I found myself feeling quite surprised by some of the views that were being expressed about race, immigration, and cultural diversity in the UK.
I am, therefore, offering up a poll for your interest.
[Poll #974234]
One thing I've realised is that my views have changed over the last year or so, and slightly weirdly it is mostly down to LJ. A while ago I got into the habit of drifting around various LJ communities, and peering at them with a kind of fascination. Amongst those communities, I came across![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
debunkingwhite and ap_racism, which I read for a while.
When I first starting reading them I found half the entries to be absurd, and bordering on the offensive. I mean, white people weren't like that. All these people were being ridiculous, and seeing race demons where they didn't exist. Or maybe things were like that in America, but they weren't like that in the UK.
I think I may actually have started refusing to read those communities, because they annoyed me so much. To a certain extent, I do think some of the things I've read there are ridiculous. I still vehemently disagree with the lunatic who wrote that "I've come to believe that White interferance in PoC communities will never be a positive thing, and the only thing we can hope for in America is peaceful segregation". When the hell did segregation become something that the anti-racist movement should aspire towards?
Yet reading these communities and just opening my eyes did begin to make me notice things a little bit more. I noticed the woman at Cancer Research UK, who bitched about 'all these foreign doctors' who were apparently the problem with the NHS these days because 'well, dear, these people just don't understand cleanliness, do they?' and the way no one in an office of five people even tried to correct her. I noticed the number of people who said things like 'well, there are a lot of black people in my area, and I just don't feel safe walking the streets at night'. Why on earth does that have to do with the black people? Say there's a high crime rate. Say you live in a pretty poor area. Why on earth is someone predisposed to mug you due to the pigment in your skin?
These days, I do think that maybe racism is more of a problem than I think we like to admit, and I think it is also something that lurks a lot closer to home than we realise. My final awakening came when I was sitting on a bus in America. A big black guy in baggy jeans, covered in bling, got on and sat down next to me. I tensed up. God knows why, but on some level I was nervous about this guy sitting next to me.
I think I kept glancing at him nervously for about five or ten minutes before he turned to me and said "am I making you uncomfortable?"
The minute he said that, I realised what a completely unreasonable cow I was being. Why on earth was I glancing suspiciously at a random stranger who had done nothing to deserve it. I said "oh, I'm sorry...no...of course not" (which was a lie) and he (bless his kindness) said "oh! You're British" and we wound up chatting for the rest of the journey, with my ignorance apparently being forgiven as some kind of odd cultural thang. He was a lovely guy. But I'd been afraid of him for no good reason other than my own prejudice.
Since then I've done my level best to watch my own stupid thought processes, and I've tried to prod and poke others. But I do think it's there, and I think although we wrap it up in a lot of different words and phrases, we are still carrying a couple of centuries worth of prejudice and preconception around in our heads most of the time.
I am, therefore, offering up a poll for your interest.
[Poll #974234]
One thing I've realised is that my views have changed over the last year or so, and slightly weirdly it is mostly down to LJ. A while ago I got into the habit of drifting around various LJ communities, and peering at them with a kind of fascination. Amongst those communities, I came across
debunkingwhite and ap_racism, which I read for a while.When I first starting reading them I found half the entries to be absurd, and bordering on the offensive. I mean, white people weren't like that. All these people were being ridiculous, and seeing race demons where they didn't exist. Or maybe things were like that in America, but they weren't like that in the UK.
I think I may actually have started refusing to read those communities, because they annoyed me so much. To a certain extent, I do think some of the things I've read there are ridiculous. I still vehemently disagree with the lunatic who wrote that "I've come to believe that White interferance in PoC communities will never be a positive thing, and the only thing we can hope for in America is peaceful segregation". When the hell did segregation become something that the anti-racist movement should aspire towards?
Yet reading these communities and just opening my eyes did begin to make me notice things a little bit more. I noticed the woman at Cancer Research UK, who bitched about 'all these foreign doctors' who were apparently the problem with the NHS these days because 'well, dear, these people just don't understand cleanliness, do they?' and the way no one in an office of five people even tried to correct her. I noticed the number of people who said things like 'well, there are a lot of black people in my area, and I just don't feel safe walking the streets at night'. Why on earth does that have to do with the black people? Say there's a high crime rate. Say you live in a pretty poor area. Why on earth is someone predisposed to mug you due to the pigment in your skin?
These days, I do think that maybe racism is more of a problem than I think we like to admit, and I think it is also something that lurks a lot closer to home than we realise. My final awakening came when I was sitting on a bus in America. A big black guy in baggy jeans, covered in bling, got on and sat down next to me. I tensed up. God knows why, but on some level I was nervous about this guy sitting next to me.
I think I kept glancing at him nervously for about five or ten minutes before he turned to me and said "am I making you uncomfortable?"
The minute he said that, I realised what a completely unreasonable cow I was being. Why on earth was I glancing suspiciously at a random stranger who had done nothing to deserve it. I said "oh, I'm sorry...no...of course not" (which was a lie) and he (bless his kindness) said "oh! You're British" and we wound up chatting for the rest of the journey, with my ignorance apparently being forgiven as some kind of odd cultural thang. He was a lovely guy. But I'd been afraid of him for no good reason other than my own prejudice.
Since then I've done my level best to watch my own stupid thought processes, and I've tried to prod and poke others. But I do think it's there, and I think although we wrap it up in a lot of different words and phrases, we are still carrying a couple of centuries worth of prejudice and preconception around in our heads most of the time.
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Re: hi
Date: 2007-04-27 10:06 am (UTC)It's more of a cultural choice. This becomes very clear if you travel in Turkey.
My problem would be if a woman was pressured (by family) into dressing in a certain way. But then, most women do feel pressured into dressing in a certain way, so it's complicated. Is it worse to be pressured by your father than it is to be by some fashionista who doesn't know or care for you?
Re: hi
Date: 2007-04-27 10:12 am (UTC)I say I dress for me. I probably don't. I dress for the society I live in, which expects me, as a woman, to look pretty, to be aesthetically pleasing to a certain visual standard. I diet because my social conditioning tells me that I should be a certain weight, and the further I am from that, the less socially acceptable I am. I dye my hair, because it has grey streaks and social conditioning says that makes me look old and that is bad. I dress according to a series of standards which are laid down by the fashion industry.
I'm really no more free than the Pakistani girls in head scarves at all.
Having said that, I do still have issues that as a left wing well meaning liberal, my determined attempts to not judge everyone by my standards can mean that I'm condoning behaviour towards WoC, saying it's 'all because they are of a different culture' which I wouldn't accept happening to a white woman at all, which is another kind of racism - thinking that a woman from a very traditional Pakistani background, for example, doesn't deserve the freedom or choices which I would expect as standard for a British girl.
Re: hi
Date: 2007-04-27 10:21 am (UTC)Re: hi
Date: 2007-04-27 10:30 am (UTC)phwwoooaaaarrrrrrrrrr
sorry :P, please return to your intellectual pursuits
Re: hi
Date: 2007-04-27 10:41 am (UTC)In the end she did marry someone arranged for her. Who, appalled by her family's attitude, immediately packed her off to University and supported her through that.
It's not simple. We're all pressured by society and culture in a variety of ways. Freedom, choice and racism all sound like very simple concepts but they're not.
In Turkey, women are not allowed to wear 'the scarf' at University or if working for the government. In the street, you see groups of young women, some of whom wear the scarf and some of whom don't. All acting like young women the world over.
I know I grew up in a multicultural area. For years I kept wondering what was 'wrong' with Plymouth and it wasn't till I revisited (seven or eight years after moving back to Harlesden) that I noticed how monocultural it was. So I am culturally prejudiced in that I am only really happy living in a multicultural society. I feel more comfortable there!