neil

I did say something and he qualified it by saying it was based on the ones he'd had to work with. I just told him that when it comes to work I can beat anyone else on the laziness scale so much so I could probably change his opinion of white people.

snowbunny

Well done.

It's hard for me to challenge racism because I usually saw it only in people who were my elders and who rather liked Jim Crow, and I was taught never to back talk my elders. Now that I'm in the middle ages of life, I will take it on.

I *knew* the guy would say based upon people who'd worked for him.... does he think he could get "white" people to work as hard for him for the money he paid the Mexicans?

anotherlimey

I hate it when people expect me to agree with them or at least acknowledge it. It's not just the laziness remarks too, I've keep getting told Black people are dirty.

I shouldn't feel too bad these people probably don't know any Black people; I had someone in my office tell me all English people were snobs apart from me, I was "OK". I'm the only English person they've ever met.

YankeemovingAbroad

Maore

Have you spent time in Germany? I wonder if that society is progressive and open to ethnic diversity or quite racist in their thinking?Any opinions?

maore

Yankee

Sorry for the late reply I am in Prague over the week end to party like a mad person. I have little experience of germany or germans in general except for a good german friend who live in Sheffield (might not be very representative of the entire german population) , he is a guy very opened to new cultures (maybe the only german who love kasava /afro-caribbean food )

We had a few talks about ethnic minorities in germany , he just told me there are two germany :east pretty backward (in their views about ethnic minorities ) and can not understand/accept that a non german born in germany has as much rights/priviledges as a "pure blood" german on the other hand west germany which has learned its lesson from history is progressive and have a complete disgust for the extreme right.

In general germany have a serious issue not with africans /vietnamese /etc...but the turkish population , in his own personal point of view. He can not stand turkish who cry out racism left and right and on the other hand would not accept a german guy going out with one of "their " sista under the excuse of the guy not being muslim.

In terms of my own limited experience (driving through germany on me way to Prague) , I found them welcoming and helpfull maybe because they know I will not be staying their country_LOL

Note: Germans are not as talented as Dutch in terms of language - you will find places where they just speak and only german, whereas in Holland you create your own new language and you will find a Dutch who is actually already speaking it_hehe

Maybe you are interested by Italy , I had a lot of prejudice towards italians : voting for far right so I had this image they just hate foreigners. I spent a whole summer with me cousin in a small village close to Bergamo (Milan) and I was greeted with daily "bon giorno" by the locals ( old/young man/woman) - Staying there basically destroyed all my views/prejudgements about Italians and their views of minorities-
\
The only issue I have with Italians at the moment is despite a large population of immigrant ( north africans /senegalese /etc...)as far as I know they never had a "non caucasian" as a football player representing their country (even the germans went through this step _hehehe)

Reading through what I wrote just made me think - my experience might not be relevant to you (I can not stand , you might have the greatest time in your life there) , give it a try and you might be pleasantly surprised or totally disappointed . It is still worth the try for your own benefit .

cindyabs

I lived in the Netherlands for 4 years, Germany for 3. During the time I lived in the Netherlands, I only found 2 people who could not seem to speak English, Germany however was a different story. I doubt that the non English speaking Germans I ran across could not speak English, they simply chose NOT to speak English. Therein lies the difference.

YogiBabuu

Hello everybody,

I'm a new member of this forum. Just let me introduce myself. I was born in Poland. At age 25 I came to US, After couple years, I married Bengali girl, and we have been together 10 years already.

Based on my personal experience, I could say, that Americans are more open minded to mixed marriages. On couple occasions, European tourists (mostly British), have hard time to accept that kind of relationship. People at restaurants stop eating and cannot take their eyes off. It happened in Florida, Disney World, like in Caribbean Islands.

Jerseygirl

Welcome to BE YogiBabuu

newXgate

From wikipedia :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage

"United Kingdom

See also: United Kingdom Census 2001

As of 2001, 2% of all UK marriages are inter-ethnic. Despite having a much lower non-white population (9%), mixed marriages are as common as in the United States. For example, Black British men are significantly more likely to have non-black wives than African American men; 18% of UK black African husbands, 29% of UK black Caribbean husbands, and 48% of other Black British husbands have a wife from a different ethnic group. [13]"

anotherlimey

Probably chavs!

I've never had that problem in Britain.

maore

Hi YogiBabuu,
I live in sheffield (norfolk park) which is not as multi-cultural as London , my neighbours are mixed couples catholic/church of england ,indo/english and franco/ghanian. That 's my kind of England.

Would you share details of your negative experience ? I am asking this question because I am not sure staring in itself is negative : people might be totally disgusted or pleasantly surprised to see a mixed couple ? I am just saying it can go either way.

One day I had a chat a london cab driver ( english tatooed and a freaking supporter of west ham) he just told me straight in the face he bloody do not give a damn the shape/coulour of people (his daughter married to an Irish lad) coming in London what turn him mad is : people coming in this country and who did not contribute in anything (tax) and getting straight away benefit from the state.

YogiBabuu

Hi Maroe,

We stayed at Kissimmee, FL, which a popular place for European tourists. I would say majority of them are British, on couple occasions I also heard some French and Italian. Couple times, we went to this buffet place, called Golden Coral, and as you can imagine, it was popular among them. Every time, when we grabbed our food and moved to the table, people stopped eating, stared and made comments. It happened every single day. I would say we both are easy on the eyes, but this kind of behavior must have some other sources.

Similarly, people reacted when we stayed in Bahamas and recently in Aruba.

We live in NY, so we are used to seeing people of different colors in different configuration. However, white & indian is a rather rare, even for NY. I know, because, Indian people prefer to marry within their own group.

As I see it, Great Britain has large population of people from South Asia, and the same rules apply. They simply, like their own group. Since, society divisions are much stronger in Europe. Those tourists from England, found us somewhat unusual.

Feel free to ask more questions.

maore

Oh I see what you mean , last year I met in a pub a girl. Guess what ? her mum is Polish and her dad Indian . she travelled for the first time in her life in Poland and she had a great time meeting her mum 's family side and culture.

I am opened to mixed couples but I have to admit I had a hard time to believe her because of what you said (indians generally marry within their own community:castes or religious lines) and she was around her thirties which means her parents must have met in the seventies (not many polish immigrating in the UK at the times ). That 's my own problem and I have to deal with it - anyway she 's the stunner unfortunately she 's a londoner and only God knows how much I can not stand these people _hehehe

anotherlimey

Did you have a swastika tattooed on your forehead or something?

I've never had that, even in the Chav enclave of Kissimmee.

angelman

my latina wife is often the victim of racism. Not by white people but by other hispanics. Even her own family regularly chide and tease her about the fact that she married an white guy, not only that an english one at that! She is always hearing remarks directed at her quietly by people saying things like "look at her cant she find a nice latino guy, she is so white washed, she has no respect for her own culture. etc. etc. " Sometimes its incredibly upsetting for her. It can be doubly hard because she decided to change her surname from a very hispanic one to..."white" and you cant get any whiter than white. She regularly gets comments from people about this. They ask why she didnt go for a double barrelled name, was she embarrassed of who she was and her culture. etc.
The irony is that she knows more about latino culture, history, folklore, music and traditions than anyone.
Needless to say she has never had any white people comment or anything, indeed she gets upset that people dont see her as hispanic!
It's a weird world.
There is a huge amount of bull**** associated with race. People say stuff that really reflects their own illeducation, worries, jealousies, neurosis and insecurities than anything.