After finishing his rant
Well now I too have witnessed my very own racist incident. In London. An angry old 6’3″ white man shouting at a BME university lecturer (apparently Muslim, I didn’t bother to ask), and one of his BME students. He didn’t seem to mind much about the white female student.
After finishing his rant about all the Muslims coming over here to impose Sharia law, and being challenged on it, he asked why they’d all done 7/7. At that point we left, which is when he tried to become violent.
‘Glad’ (?) to say I’d got involved in the ‘discussion’ ten minutes before to offer support and will be reporting it to the police. If you find yourself a victim or witness to race hate crimes, you should too.
Apparently a number of people in the UK are wearing a safety pin visibly as a pledge to take action by speaking up and stopping racist bullying.
The safety pin was, it seems, chosen because it can also indicate – without making a big fuss – that it’s safe to sit by that person on public transport, ask them to stay with you while you get your breath back, phone the police, walk with you to get away, etc. Mine’s on my jacket!
The whole thing makes me want to weep.
These attitudes have always been here but it had become socially unacceptable to express them. That’s good. That’s the first step towards getting rid of them. This ridiculous and poisonous vote has re-legitimised this kind of expression. It has given heart and courage to nasty little racists everywhere.
Britain has never been perfect and we have a lot to answer for historically but this is the first time in my life time I have felt categorically ashamed of my country.
I have witnessed public transport racists a couple of times in London. In recent years, a few of their kind have been prosecuted after other passengers filmed the incidents and posted them online.
None of this is new, it’s a nasty undercurrent that’s always been here but now the Brexit vote has given the racists a boost. The sad thing is that while very few would condone the behaviour of the worst offenders, the anti-immigrant sentiment is strong. I recently heard a colleague express a desire to stand on the South Coast and shoot immigrants as they arrived. He does not mean it literally. Even so it makes me very uncomfortable. The remain voters are a tiny minority where I work. One comes from a country that has a genocide in its recent history. I wondered how he would have reacted to hearing that. I don’t like to ask.
The safety pin was, it seems, chosen because it can also indicate – without making a big fuss – that it’s safe to sit by that person on public transport, ask them to stay with you while you get your breath back, phone the police, walk with you to get away, etc. Mine’s on my jacket!
Yes, something of that nature was sorely needed in Rotherham
1,400 girls were raped time and time again, and everyone of those rapes was a hate crime
What on EARTH does that have to do with this?
I guess I can figure out what it means – I guess you’re saying it’s good that Muslims are facing xenophobic abuse, because of Rotherham.
If that’s what you meant I don’t want any more comments by you.