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I am a caucasian man, the woman I live with (for the past 12 years) and my step kids are black, we are all English born and bred and we have been to just about every corner of the UK from Scotland to Cornwall and we have never felt like 'outsiders' even in the 'whitest' part of Scotland people assumed we were British first and foremost, my daughters really are very attractive girls (now 16 and 20 years old) and the 20 year old does tend to get young men 'looking' at her but its not because she is perceived as exotic but merely because she is perceived as attractive.
That's great to know. I am sure that since my daughter received the "You're pretty for a colored girl" statement from a clerk the very first weekend she was in Yorkshire, that surprising event threw her for a bit of a loop on the front end.
Also, she moved from the American South, where people of color make up 30 or even 50 percent of the local population in many regions. In fact, in Texas where she's from, non hispanic whites are the MINORITY. So the UK would naturally seem less diverse to her.
She is, however, enjoying herself immensely in merry olde England, and I can't wait to visit her there in a few weeks.
The word "colored" doesn't have the severe negative connotations in the UK that it does in the US, and I'm sure that the woman didn't even realise that she was denigrating the rest of her race while trying to make a compliment. Racism in the UK these days has shifted far from black people, and is now almost entirely toward the Polish and "people-who-might-be-Muslim", not that it is all that common.
I attended a party in Houston a fews years ago. A lot of the guests were uttering very loud anti hispanic racial slurs whilst being waited on by hispanics!
In fact my observations from living in the USA, is that Americans, generally think of Britain as a kind of morally, culturally superior place, a place of good breeding and excellent manners. Polite to the point of being disadvantaged, witty, urbane. Cultured folk who know about art and world affairs and tea and crumpets. And all that crap. I tell you it ain't so.
I'm American and lived in various European countries for almost a decade, the UK among them; I returned to the US 5-6 years ago.
You are 100% right about this. A lot of British people have bought into it as well, sadly. People there heard I was from Texas and immediately assumed I was an ignorant, racist, homophobic redneck. I was treated like an idiot by so many people over there that I adopted an English accent in public, only using my American accent around people I actually knew. I got tired of clerks and random strangers trying to start arguments with me about the US. (Didn't help that Bush was president at the time.)
Being Jewish I'm particularly sensitive to anti-Semitism, which I have rarely experienced in Texas. I don't consider ignorance to be anti-Semitism which is why I give a lot of Polish people a free pass; there are only a few thousand Jewish people remaining in Poland and most Polish people have never met one, so they really have no idea what one is outside of idiotic Soviet-era stereotypes or their grandparents' own lingering anti-Semitism. There was quite a bit of it in the UK, sadly. I was disappointed by that.
British people should know better, but they often don't. I heard conversations on a daily basis in offices that would get you fired here in about 2 seconds. The racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, etc. were disappointing and discouraging.
(That's not to say we can't be the same way. Oh, we can be. Definitely.)
I'm American and lived in various European countries for almost a decade, the UK among them; I returned to the US 5-6 years ago.
You are 100% right about this. A lot of British people have bought into it as well, sadly. People there heard I was from Texas and immediately assumed I was an ignorant, racist, homophobic redneck. I was treated like an idiot by so many people over there that I adopted an English accent in public, only using my American accent around people I actually knew. I got tired of clerks and random strangers trying to start arguments with me about the US. (Didn't help that Bush was president at the time.)
Being Jewish I'm particularly sensitive to anti-Semitism, which I have rarely experienced in Texas. I don't consider ignorance to be anti-Semitism which is why I give a lot of Polish people a free pass; there are only a few thousand Jewish people remaining in Poland and most Polish people have never met one, so they really have no idea what one is outside of idiotic Soviet-era stereotypes or their grandparents' own lingering anti-Semitism. There was quite a bit of it in the UK, sadly. I was disappointed by that.
British people should know better, but they often don't. I heard conversations on a daily basis in offices that would get you fired here in about 2 seconds. The racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, etc. were disappointing and discouraging.
(That's not to say we can't be the same way. Oh, we can be. Definitely.)
Still doesn't explain the totally sincere remark by the woman in the store, "You're pretty for a coloured girl." I mean, this happened about 2 days after my daughter moved to Harrogate. I think her jaw is STILL on the floor! Hopefully the woman who said that is just some crazy old bat who needs to go ahead on and retire rather than continuing to work in a shop that's open to the public!
When you hear someone say something so utterly clueless you have to make some allowances for age and upbringing. As strange as it seems to you, she may simply not have any clue that what she said was insulting.
A lot of people grew up never seeing anyone different than themselves.
I attended a party in Houston a fews years ago. A lot of the guests were uttering very loud anti hispanic racial slurs whilst being waited on by hispanics!
They probably thought they didn't understand Spanish or didn't consider them human at all.
It's like rich folks who have no problem discussing personal matters in front of a waiter. That's because they don't consider them fully human. Just like you can't feel embarrassed in front of a dog they can't feel embarrassed in front of a waiter.
When you hear someone say something so utterly clueless you have to make some allowances for age and upbringing. As strange as it seems to you, she may simply not have any clue that what she said was insulting.
A lot of people grew up never seeing anyone different than themselves.
This isnt very likely as this happened in Harrogate.
I attended a party in Houston a fews years ago. A lot of the guests were uttering very loud anti hispanic racial slurs whilst being waited on by hispanics!
Such behavior is almost a staple of movies depicting racism. Usually one person whispers to be quiet, and the white lady begins to shout "I don't care who hears me, I am only speaking the truth" or some variant on that statement. Sometimes people are doing ti deliberately.
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