Sheepeh wrote:
It's odd, because I also went to schools that had a quite large multi-ethnic population, and as kids we saw nothing wrong with it at all...someone told us that was their name and we accepted it, as you do at that age.
Other people I know went to schools deep in the heart of "White countryside" with nary a coloured person to be seen...these are the ones that immediately think "foreign looking" people don't "come from here".
I recently took one of these people in to our local Chinese Takeway, staffed by the most friendly Chinese guy...my friend went to order and the Chinese guy said "Hello mate, what can I getcha" - he's lived in this town all his life.
My friend was so taken aback by the seemingly impossible voice coming from a Chinese looking guy, he stopped for a second before ordering, and had an embrassingly quizzical look on his face.
The same with a Pakistani fellow who runs a little newsagents near me, his shop is stereotypically Pakistani Newsagents...small, cramped, a little random placement on shelves...but the guy gives the best service in the town, always chats to his customers, helps the kids find what they want before they go to school...another guy who's been here all his life but has prejudice against him from people "who won't go to that Paki shop".
I guess you being exposed to these things at a young age, Mimi, shaped you in to the wonderfully tolerant and sensitive person you are now, rather than the old biddy who obviously thought you "looked a bit foreign" earlier on in the thread.
At least you'll be the one having better service, experiances, and friendships, though, eh?
*end ramble*
Aye. I've been pretty disgusted by the level of pathetic racism I've seen since moving from London. I'm not totally naive, but I really thought I'd have to go to somewhere more remote than warwick to come across people who automatically and disliked anyone with a foreign accent, and called people "coloured" at the slightest provocation. Once Chinese guy (possibly the only one in town) mispronounces a word, and forevermore, the person who heard him speak will be telling their friends "THEY COME INTO MY SHOP AND CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH". Or a perfectly polite German bloke asks someone a reasonable question and wanders off, and that person makes a shitty snide remark as they leave about "who won the war". It's embarassing. Your
parents weren't even alive during the war, fuckpipe.
It's really weird never seeing any black and hardly any asian people in town, too. I can't even remember the last time I heard a sexy accent.
Ahem. Anyway.