bats

l

I agree with this. Trump's stint gave bigots permission to voice their feelings, not just in the USA. . People are more vocal and more aggressive. About it.

CanadaJimmy

The UK and Britain is inherently multicultural - incorporating english, scottish, welsh and northern irish into the same country all with their different languages and traditions. A different flavour to immigrant nations like the US and Canada but still very tolerant.

dbd33

English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish is not really a multi-culture. All those people look the same (some have more potato like flesh than others but it's marginal). All those people were raised with the same history, albeit often on opposing sides of wars. Significant minorities in all those places are gammon. Some speak rustic languages but it's cosmetic, they need English to function.

That said, London is a multi-culture and an immigrant city. Growing up, waves of immigration were represented on our street. Jews from around the time of WW2 (many nationalities). West Indians from the Windrush bus driver era. Indians. Pakistanis. Chinese, Poles (though they later came in much greater numbers). Immigration made us aware of the world, we used to chase the Biafrans with Polo mints.

OrangeMango

I don't think that the whole of the UK is racist. Only certain elements of British society are however racist. Brexit has also strengthened this.

Same as the recent UEFA cup and football. It's not racist either, but certain fans are racist.

mikelincs

The biggest problem is that the UK is led by a PM who is undoubtedly racist, and he is supported by a racist Home Secretary.

OrangeMango

Boris may be blond haired and possibly see himself a some kind of Arian, but as far as I know he also a Middle Eastern background, namely from Turkey.

kimilseung

The online element has been mentioned. But what and where does this online influence come from. I have seen a big US influence, of things never really part of British culture.
memes get imported from the US, often with awkward edits. US vet worship is a good example, it was never a thing in the UK, outside 11/11. Now the internet has many vet and service person worship memes, the text is British related, but often if you look close the uniform or equipment is American.
Same with the flag shagging memes
Now you don't have to be a vet worshipper or a flag shagger to be racist, but In the US, they seem to be the entry drugs.

dbd33

Letterboxes. Piccaninnies. Watermelon smiles. Failure to condemn booing of footballers taking the knee. His behavior is racist.

I don't imagine he has any personal view on race, I think he's an opportunistic racist, he judges that xenophobia fits the mood of the country and so he's a racist for the moment. He's PM and there's Brexit so I suppose him to be correct.

Jingsamichty

"Veteran" is a personal bugbear of mine. I come from a services family and not one of them would describe themselves as a veteran - an ex-serviceman, certainly, but never a veteran. It's a horrible American import and I don't really know how and when it happened. But otherwise I agree with you, the "vet-worship and flag-shagging" are the spinal cord of the average racist.

Jingsamichty

Johnson probably isn't a racist, he's just a total snob but he'll overlook your colour/religion/morals as long as you're rich enough and if you can help him in his avaricious trundle through the Game of Life, viz. Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Sajid Javid...

dbd33

Yes, he's primarily classist but there's an overlap in that, if you're black or gammon, you're unlikely to belong to a class acceptable to him.

BEVS

I agree with these observations.

Lychee

Now racist? It always has been: https://historicengland.org.uk/resea...nd-resistance/

Speak to anyone Black, Asian, African, etc. and they will confirm the UK has always been racist, even while it has diversified. If you're white, you would not necessarily see or experience it. But the UK has always been racist. Listen to your non-white friends about this topic, not your fellow white folk.

BEVS

Sometimes I think the word prejudice is a far better than the word racist ,as this word has come to mean a form of white v any other skin hue. Prejudice happens to many sorts of folks and I should know as I've been on the hard receiving end in my time simply for where one of my parents came from... Ireland. I'm whitish pink in skin colour. So prejudice happens to all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons.

Lychee

Yes, prejudiced, but also racist. Again, this is a topic for us to listen to non-white folks about their experiences, being judged, dismissed, not given the benefit of the doubt, overlooked, threatened, despised, assaulted, etc. over the colour of their skin. This form of racism has always been present in the UK. The UK has always been racist. It's okay to feel uncomfortable about this.