Ben, I don’t take anything you say with a pinch of salt, or with an eloquent shrug.
Are you personally familiar with every-day racial discrimination at work, out shopping, in a bar or pub, on the train? Do people in cars or vans shout at you as they pass in the street, calling “F*ck off, nig-nog!” so as to alarm and humiliate you in your own town, in public?
My two sons “of colour” grew up in Essex and experienced hassle, isolation and racial bullying at school and in the labour market. They’re the same age as you, not kids now, and know how to look after themselves. They’re probably more than a match for you, and don’t have a chip on their shoulder. But they hate being dissed and having their experience of mindless race hatred and being misrepresented as over-sensitive by anyone who hasn’t experienced racism, like (just possibly) yourself.
If you have, I will willingly swallow my words in their jus. . Just give me a taste of it to sample.
Coincidentally, yes I am. When I lived in Indonesia it was quite common to experience a form of it - what with white folks being the exception down there. Come to think of it, I’ve experienced it in most of SE Asia with the exception of Singapore, where people will think it but not say it.
Where do you get the idea that I have a chip on my shoulder?
Okay, and this relates to what I said, how? Did I tell your sons they should toughen up and get used to it? No. I said that the current mode of life for many people is to take offense at the slightest little thing - such as Liam Neeson recalling something from 4 decades ago, that when looked at in context boiled down to “a member of some group raped a friend, I wanted to kill a member of that group” - where the group in question could range from coloured people, to white folks, to random bears shitting in the woods.
Is racism bad? You bet. I’ve been on the receiving end, and I’m sorry that your sons had/have to go through it on a daily basis, but it doesn’t mean that every issue and every thing has to be directly related back to “is it cos I is black?” - besides, coloured people aren’t blameless in this either, they can be just as racist.
Stella, white people don’t experience racism in Britain, most people of colour do. Unless you have convinced yourself that they are all lying, whinging, or envious of their racial superiors.
If your children had come home from school distressed several times a week because they’ d been set upon on the walk home because it was "their fault’ the class had been kept back by the teacher or because it rained on games day. Or excluded from a game because ‘the one for chimps is over there’. You would have told them not to be sensitive, dear? Or, tell the teacher (the one who always mispronounces your name to get a laugh from the class)?
Ben, why do you represent the way black people speak in that sneering, stereotyping “Is it cos’ I black?” way? Does stereotyping people of colour come natural to you?
OK Paul, have done so. These matters bring very bitter memories of dreadful hurt inflicted on my harmless, upright, decent and worthy of respect children. To deny the existence of widespread racism in UK (despite many successes in addressing it) is a major folly IMO.
No thanks, Ben. I think we have each made ourselves as clear to each other as we are going to. I don’t think you have a chip on your shoulder BTW, I was pointing out that my kids don’t.
Peter… sadly there are many children who have suffered bullying from fellow pupils/teachers and whoever… it is still going on… Why there have to always be some folk who will “pick on” whatever difference they choose, to use that as a reason for their ghastly behaviour… is beyond me.
You certainly do not need to be from another ethnic background to have suffered in this way… (I feel for you and for your children and am well aware that what we suffer as children, is with us for ever.)
And I always thought they left them by the pool so that the really helpful British holidaymakers could wash them for them whilst they were busy eating.
He must have been living under a stone these past few years if he thought such comments were no big deal. There was only ever going to be one reaction - whether you think it is the appropriate reaction is another matter.
When you’re a long standing international movie star you know (or should do) that anything you say or do will come under intense scrutiny so for him to make public his thoughts from 40 years ago and on such a subject as race is a serious error of judgement IMO bearing in mind the PC world we now live in. If you want to unburden yourself go see a priest or a shrink but don’t tell the whole world unless you’re willing to accept any backlash.
I don’t think you can say that white people in the UK don’t suffer racism. Admittedly it is much rarer than the other way and like any other ‘ism should not happen but sadly it does
You are right of course, Nellie. White people do experience racism at the hands of minority ethnic groups. I have only ONCE experienced racial abuse from blacks. It occured in Birmingham (Handsworth) in 1973 when my new wife and I walked out together and were accosted by a group of young black men who suggested my wife would do better with them than with me . It was fairly good-natured but loud, coarse and suggestive, humiliating for a young and not very confident new husband.
I was never racially abused by blacks by in Africa during my ten years there, but was abused, threatened and treated roughly by white South Africans in apartheid RSA during my shorter stay there.
So I would suggest that the incidence of racially motivated behaviour by blacks towards whites is infinitesimal by comparison with the converse.
But for non-whites it is a fact of daily life. It isn’t always abusive. It consists mainly of being ignored in group situations (social groups, meetings, shops, offices, school and college), denied promotion or developmental training at work, having talents and aptitudes underestimated or discounted etc etc. There is considerable data supporting this, including in the NHS, where non-white nurses are seriously under-represented in senior posts in relation to their their numbers and their years of service.
. Just give me a taste of it to sample.
. It was fairly good-natured but loud, coarse and suggestive, humiliating for a young and not very confident new husband.