I’m closer to punching something than to writing anything meaningful.
For fuck’s sake.
At least the numbers are slightly skewed by the people who are going to die first.
This is news how? Sorry, having grown up as the only Indian family on a street full of white people, this is hardly news. People looked at you as if you were strange, or something the cat dragged in. It’s nothing new, and quite frankly, it really doesn’t surprise me at all.
Maybe I’m just used to this kind of behaviour. 
Unfortunately, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. From the few conversations I’ve had with friends open enough to talk about it honestly, what you describe is very common.
But to say explicitly “I want nobody unlike me living near here”?!?!?!
:mad:
As an American, living in the South, I have had a fair share of contact with people who do not hesitate to express their views on race.
Sadly, I have reached the conclusion that it is one of the uglier parts of the human condition.
We can pass on knowledge from one generation to the next, but not wisdom. Not at all, at all.
Yes, it is sad that there are a lot of idiots and bigots in the world, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Well, its coming from the same type of person who’d call me a Paki, and various other epithets because of the colour of my skin. Most of them don’t have enough brain cells to keep the other brain cells warm, so it doesn’t come as a surprise at all.
What exactly is the problem here?
What is wrong with preferring to live among those you perceive as your own kind? It’s more a cultural than a racial thing - the desire to be among those people with whom you share a history, heritage and folk experience.
According to that article a large %age of people from all races in Britain admitted to having this desire, and I personally suspect the real figures would be a lot higher if we didn’t live in the age of PC where people feel they have to lie and disguise their feelings about such things.
If you think about it honestly surely you can understand that it’s only natural? Not racist, bigoted, ignorant, hateful, or anything other than a harmless and natural preference.
“Honestly” speaking, I would like to live in a diverse neighbourhood. I couldn’t give a fuck about sharing or not sharing an historical inheritance with my neighbours. Variety is the spice of life.
Or putting it another way: my sister was born in England, and is black, and my grandmother was born in the Caribbean, and was white. By the results of the poll, these people would prefer to live next door to my foreign granny rather than my British sister.
Cobblers. I think it’s rather sad.
26% of ethnic minorities would prefer to live in their own homogenous communities - they’re sad too.
I am thinking about it “honestly”, and honestly, your arguments are the same as those of the BNP.
Well the first hole I see in this argument is the assumption that all Asian/Black/obviously-not-White people are first generation Britons… or do you need thousands of years of “cultural history” before you have a “shared folk experience”?
I’ve met people born and bred in the same town as me who have some damn strange ideas. I’ve met some “ethnic minorities” whose morals and ethics and general world view were complete compatible with mine. You can’t tell anything from skin color that gives you a worthwhile insight into character.
I can tell you which of the people polled I’d rather live next door too - and they aren’t the people peering over the fence, tut-tutting at the lack of shared heritage with their new neighbors.
I was thinking about this yesterday because I was on the bus home from work, sitting in the back where there are two rows of seats facing each other, and across from me were two kids about five years old - a blonde-haired blue-eyed girl and a black boy. They obviously knew each other (the girl called the boy by name) and were having a great old time playing together with their toys.
What the hell is “unnatural” about that?
jjimm, if my arguments happen to be the same as the BNP’s (and I very much doubt that they are) why would that ipso facto make them wrong? You say that you would prefer to live in a mixed neighbourhood, which is fine, but why must everyone else feel the same way or be deemed morally bankrupt?
This isn’t the first stone thrown in a race war. This is nothing more than people (from all ethnic groups, it can’t be pointed out enough) indicating a preference on a form. No-one’s demanding anything, no-one’s insisting on anything, etc.
ruadh there’s nothing ‘unnatural’ about children from different races playing together! It’s a hell of a cheek to imply that I said that. It seems that I’m talking about “culture”, a nebulous concept to be sure, but it doesn’t matter because you’re only hearing “race”.
cazzle:
I just don’t understand what you are saying here. What assumption that “all [non-whites] are first generation Britons”? What is a first generation Briton anyway?
And, since it’s impossible to look at any other aspect than racial, let’s focus on the point that a comparable number of non-whites apparently feel exactly the same way as whites do. Was that completely lost on you, or just conveniently ignored in your scramble to express moral indignation over those evil, bigoted 40% of whites?
Errrrr, no it wasn’t a comparable amount…it was little over HALF as many.
I’m English. I live in Ireland. Would you expect me to seek out a ghetto of other English people so that I can live in the same “culture” as them? Or does that idea sound as completely bonkers to you as it sounds to me?
Brixton and Southall, anyone ? Try and find a non-Asian in Southall on a Sunday.
Immigrants are as “racist” as yer anglo-saxons. c’ept it’s an ignorant over-simplified misnomer that gets a poll noticed. It’s about a whole lot more, as most of actually know when we stop to think.
To believe in these polls is somewhat ironic given the ignorance of the subject matter of same, IMHO. Of course.
GorillaMan, perhaps it’s a matter of opinion but when dealing with something as vague as a poll, then in my book 26% and 40% are definitely in the same ball park. To put it another way, only 14% of non-whites felt differently than whites. Comparable enough for you?
jjimm of course it’s bonkers! But it’s a bad example to pick, because the divide between Irish and English is not that big. The two peoples generally look the same, speak the same language, have a relatively large degree of mutual respect, and have been very well known to each other since the dawn of time. All superficial stuff, but it counts for a lot. Probably more than it should, but why pretend otherwise? I have never visited Ireland, but I imagine I would feel quite at home. Why would I want to seek out other English indeed?
Its true. Except in this case its called “preserving one’s cultural identity”. Which, I feel is a load of bollocks. And yes, its the same argument that a lot of “white” people use.
However, I’ve lived in diverse environments (outside of the street I grew up on), and believe me, when you get a group of culturally diverse people together, the results can be amazing.
Oh, and I feel “culturally” closer to Britain than I do to India and Pakistan. But I’m brown. Does that mean I have to go and live with other brown people Reuben?
I want to get to the bottom of what you mean by:
What does this mean? What specifically is it that these respondents want?
And indeed, if they prefer homogeneity, then they must logically not prefer something else. So, other than this amorphous “sharing”, what specifically do they not prefer amongst their neighbours? Different language; different accent; different religion; different diet; different drinking habits; different colour?
I’m always amused to see how people sheeply consider the “result” of a “poll” as represenative for a whole nation, group, society.
1000 citizens have answered some questions - that most probably don’t leave much space for other then yes/no answers - and that is “representative” for the mindset of all citizens of the UK?
OK.
Why bother to go voting in the coming US elections?
Search for 1000 volunteers to do it and things are settled since that is enough to represent the whole US population.
If you say it isn’t, then why do you even give one moment of your attention to such “polls” and their results?
Salaam. A
If a poll showed support for the Tories at 26% and Labour at 40%, would you say that was a comparable showing for each party? :dubious:
And I’m astonished at your arrogance, telling the Irish that they don’t have a cultural identity of their own.