as I was waiting in a queue in the supermarket I was shocked at what I heard...it was very busy and a man and woman stood in the queue behind me but then they noticed the cashier was asian and when the woman saw she said oh god a paki baki (whatever that means), the man asked her if she wanted to move to another till and they did, even though the queue on the other till was longer.
It sounded like she had such hate and prejudice over this person because of his ethnic origin.
It's a strange world.
About Me
- Jenny
- Hello I'm Jenny. I spend the majority of my time with cats and sometimes with supermarkets. I enjoy taking photographs, spending time with my Neice and Nephew, and volunteering at different places with different people. I am hoping to attend University in the near future so I can train to become a nurse. I consider myself to be a very nice girl with very nice thoughts.
5 comments:
I don't even know what that means!
I can't get my head around prejudices like this at all.Of course I know that it happens, but I just can't understand how anyone can think that someone is unequal to them just because their skin is a different colour or they practice a different religion or they were brought up in a different culture. It totally baffles me.
Since I moved to London, I've noticed a different kind of racism, a racism that is superficially tolerant but that festers under the surface. On the one hand, it is more practical than the kind you just described; on the other, it is two-faced and even more frustrating because the pretence should make them realise that we are all equal.
The mind boggles, my Granddad would have said.
Could you elaborate a bit on festering under the surface?
I've only seen racism such as outright racism like that (which I haven't often come across) or individuals annoyed with the issue of people from other countries being here but I doubt they would be racist to the person's face (I assume you mean that?)
My Mum's dad was from the Ukraine so that makes me a quarter Ukranian, so technically I'm not "fully British"
I'm a bit paranoid at the moment, since I heard that woman saying horrid and racist things, as I wonder if people come to my till because I'm white. or smile and say hello because of the colour of my skin. I find that a bit offensive if that happens. Although I know many people don't behave like that!
...individuals annoyed with the issue of people from other countries being here but I doubt they would be racist to the person's face (I assume you mean that?)
Yes, that's more or less it... although it's more than that too - it's a racism that overlooks individuals, which is to say that a person may have a generally racist attitude but will happily talk to a regular in the pub who is part of a group of people they would normally talk about negatively - does that make sense? I think it happens because London is so multicultural that it's impractical for anyone to be too active in their racism (I'm generalising here of course; there are always exceptions). Some people still have a racist attitude though, so it's still there beneath the surface.
Probably most people don't consider the ethnicity of the person on the till at all; that couple were unusual (at least, I hope they were!)
I should point out, actually, that I don't mean to say there is a lot of this kind of racism in London. There is only as much of this attitude as there is anywhere else; it just manifests itself in a different way here for the most part.
ah yes I understand now!
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