I have family members who are Danish, Czech, Israeli, American , Canadian and English, and four grandchildren of mixed race, but admittedly not of colour, and I have been called ‘Taff’ , ‘Sheep Shagg3r ‘ and ‘Boyo’ because I am Welsh (with English parents)- do I consider this name calling ‘ racist’ , well, if it is said by ‘pansy, plumb in the mouth, English puffs, then nah, I consider it a ‘win’ , ’cause I have obviously annoyed the bathplugs -oops is calling them pansy, and puffs racist , just joking ( there’s no rugby on ) honestly.
My Dad always said ‘ you can call me what you like, just don’t call me late for breakfast’ – that is also my philosophy, there is far too much PC these days
We have had dozens of foreign Students live with us, for periods of up to two years, mostly from France & Germany but also from Slovenia, Russia, Belgium , Spain. Portugal, The Middle East, China, Taiwan, & Japan, mainly in the age group 15 -19, & of all colours!
I have to say, that they have been little or no trouble and it’s been a pleasure having them live with us as part of our family, and it was good for our kids also.
At first some of the Germans seemed abrupt both in manner and speech, but this seems to ease off fairly quickly and they settle in very well, and certainly work hard at their schoolwork.
We have never locked anything away or ‘lost’ anything ,and we would have no hesitation in welcoming them again to Chez 700.
My children have several very good German & French friends who came to us as students and are now adults with their own families & all of whom are very nice people, quite modern in their outlook, if somewhat opinionated about Europe, and I recall many nights when we talked about the EU & Europe , often until the early hours.
We have met , hosted and been the guests of their parents, and there was never any suggestion of rudeness or animosity towards us or the UK.
However, sometimes whilst in filling stations or restaurants in Europe some people have appeared to be rude & indifferent, but this is not much different from some people in the U.K.
I really don’t think that we are racist in this Country , although some people undoubtedly are, but as a Nation we are better than most.
There was a report leaked to The Guardian newspaper, 6 or 7 years back, which they eagerly published , but actually being the Guardian,they only published a small part of it, heavily edited so that it could make the accusation that racism is on the increase in Britain.’
The rising tide of prejudice in Britain – their story Line!
But the Guardian report was a lie, false news, pure left wing inspired tosh – The full actual report ( which is available to read ) showed that the number of British people who said they were either ‘very or a little ‘ prejudiced, actually fell from 38% in 1987 to 25% in 2001, & went back to 38% in 2011. Note – Prejudiced not Racist .
So no increase at all over a 14 year period.
Also, what the newspaper deliberately failed to mention is that in 2012 it was down to 26% & then went up to 30% in 2013, and in 4 other years lately ,it averaged just over 30% – so less than the previous 14 years.
There is a political agenda in many newspaper articles, with truth consigned to the bin!
Actually, in the UK, pure racism is rare, thank God – it’s evil and should/ must be stamped out, but it is not a one way street as it includes hatred of white people as well.
What we have in this country is large sections of the population, who see/ fear that their homes, jobs, children’s education, housing, culture etc is being threatened by a high level of unrestricted immigration – their genuine concerns over this is not ‘racism’ ..
We as a nation, are far too ready these days to put ourselves down – as Someone indicated, looking from an outside point of view, we are not anywhere near as bad as a multitude of other countries.
Where we have racists then we should deal with them , but we shouldn’t confuse discussion on immigration, or other religions ,with racism.