- But the cultural distance I enjoyed as a Briton in a foreign country felt like a blended veneer of invincibility and invisibility. I thought of myself less as a participant than an onlooker. While reporting from rural Mississippi in 2003, I stopped to ask directions at the house of an old white couple, and they threatened to shoot me. I thought this was funny. I got back into my car sharpish and drove off – but I never once thought they would actually shoot me. How crazy would that be? When I got home, I told my wife and brother-in-law, who are African American. Their parents grew up in the South under segregation; even today, my mother-in-law wouldn’t stop her car in Mississippi for anything but petrol. They didn’t think it was funny at all: what on earth did I think I was doing, stopping to ask old white folk in rural Mississippi for directions?
LOL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Race_riots_in_England Worth noting: Black British make up 3% of the population of the UK, while African Americans make up 17% of the US. Numerically, there are 2 million Black British and 55 million African Americans. There are as many African Americans in the US as there are white people in the UK. So when you look over these incidents, throw in a little math. Race in the US is deeply messed up and minorities get the shaft in every instance. But this trend of foreigners pointing fingers while legit Nazis are on the rise over there in the "civilized" world grinds my gears.
Even black brits deal with racism on a regular basis. Gary even states that if my aim was to escape aggressive policing and racial disadvantage, I would not be heading to Hackney.
This shows that in a lot of white majority societies that had slavery are still under the influence of racism.
I think it's more to do with the fact that societies in which there is a social group at the top, the ones at the bottom get hurt. In South Africa, the blacks often have more privilege than the whites. In Middle Eastern, it's which ever ethnic or religious group happens to have power at the time. India has its class system. I'm sure if I knew more about the world, I could give more examples. The fact of the matter is, it's not a race issue. It's not a religious issue. It's a class issue. A power issue. It is a flaw in almost every society on the Earth and it is beyond shameful.This shows that in a lot of white majority societies that had slavery are still under the influence of racism.
It is very shameful because race is just a social construct. When you get down to it white skin is just an adaptation for better living in the north and south environments as a more efficient way to protect yourself from the sun and collect vitamins form the sun's rays. But saying that race the main issue feels like it is diminishing the troubles that African Americans face.
Agreed. Especially as a Jew, the growing brazeness of Nazis in Europe makes me very wary of Europeans making critiques of the American racial landscape (which, granted, is ugly and not likely to improve soon).
In my lifetime, we've gone from the top rated show on television being the Dukes of Hazzard to legitimately discussing the retirement of the confederate flag. Gays can marry, Americans are actually giving a shit about women's soccer, we've had two female secretaries of state, one of which is running for president for the second time and a trans woman is on the cover of Vanity Fair. Never say never.