I know I could be posting a shit ton of videos and pics of my holiday rn and bask in the adventure. I will when I'm home.

Rn, (just before I sleep) I can't help but think about everything happening back home. The other British tourists I've bumped into here were also very shifty and awkward around me.

I'm done infantilising everyone that should know the difference between being a good and bad person.

While you educated yourself on unlearning literal racism, a little poc kid had to unlearn the self hate you instilled in them.

"It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here."

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Straylight · 31-35, F

So I live in the American south, where racism is pretty much backed into the background. It’s often subtle enough that it might go right past you. Well, if you’re white anyway.
And a lot of people seem to recognize it but pass it off as just part of the way people talk here, or this person was brought up in a different time. And for a long time I kinda accepted that. This guys not racist, he just… makes racist jokes. It’s a generational thing. But like you’ve said, these are adults who know right from wrong. And if anything, acknowledging something is wrong but participating to fit in is even worse. It’s choosing to hurt others. It’s choosing evil.

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HijabaDabbaDoo · F

@Straylight It's an excuse. Even a prepubescent child can discern between intent and impact. I know you can't change people, and that shifts in attitudes only come when challenged but it shouldn't have to be anyone but yourself that challenges unhelpful learned behaviour.

They're trying to set a hotel of asylum seekers on fire in my city with petrol bombs. Others were hiding in restaurants with groups of people trying to break in to attack them. The city centre is wild rn.

There's also unreported stabbings and deaths from other cities from across the country, some of which my friends mentioned to me. I just heard they even targeted and vandalised the Muslim portion of a graveyard with white paint... Graves?? The dead can't rest either.

The only positive thing and I say that word very lightly, all this has done for me is validate everything I've ever mentioned to people. For so long black and brown people have been gaslit into thinking the UK wasn't racist. The majority would always compare it to the US because they were subtle about it here too- except when they weren't.

I and many like me could see all this building because it's been our lived experience for years.

Straylight · 31-35, F

@HijabaDabbaDoo I hope you and your family stay safe.

HijabaDabbaDoo · F

@Straylight I'm in Turkey rn so I'm okay. I'm more concerned about my family rn. I'm hoping the dust settles by the time I'm back

SW-User

@Straylight Eight years ago my wife and I moved back to the south. Where shecwas raised. I instantly was exposed to a 1950 interpersonal environment. I havevon many occasions called my brother-in-law on his speech. I get he was raised in the south. But like. Me, he spent twenty years in the military. We were surrounded by all sorts of people. I would have thought he would have learned something.

Straylight · 31-35, F

@SW-User It’s so ingrained that I wonder if they think of it as a kind of slang that doesn’t mean anything.

SW-User

@Straylight Therein lies the problem. They don't think. It comes naturally and is second nature to them. Even most at church. An African-American mother and 2 kids started showing up a while back and you should have heard the "gossiping". It's no wonder they stopped attending after a month or so.