Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of Brits would like the British Museum to give the marbles back too! <3
Not me
Damn you
Looking at the experience of black Britons through an American lens
151–160 of 394 posts
Re: Looking at the experience of black Britons through an American lens
#152The problem exists elsewhere too, because of the extremely widespread proliferation of American media - I see the Polish media taking american talking points about race, sexuality, religion, and just transplanting them wholesale into the Polish frame of reference as if they were equally important here - more often than not, they simply aren't. While racism is a problem in Poland, it's not a systematic racism like in…
What you mean racism is problem in Poland? Since early '90 there is for instance a growing number of people from Vietnam and I've never heard about any attacks on them?
Re: Looking at the experience of black Britons through an American lens
#153Many americans (including journalists, thinkers, politicians, etc) can't imagine that there's any legitimate culture, or any issues, and preoccupations, other than their own. Or that their views are not the pinnacle of civilization, and they're not the white knights humanity waits to be saved by.
It's part of the traditional exceptionalism...
Re: Looking at the experience of black Britons through an American lens
#154Who is this addressed to? From the article it seems addressed to British people using social media to share American specific viewpoints. But the comments here make it seem like it's Americans doing the imposing of views.
Re: Looking at the experience of black Britons through an American lens
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
> people watching American news and for instance adopting "all cops are bastards" attitude is just dumb in so many way Now you know how many of us in the USA feel. Yet for some reason it seems you assume that it is correct in the US. Why? If the simple fact that this social phenomenon is happening here is what validates it, then why complain when it starts happening where you live? If, on the other hand, the we are n…
It's not the same. There really IS footage of USA police shooting innocent black people. There exists no such footage in Switzerland. Swiss people protesting against Swiss police because of this footage from the USA makes no sense. US population protesting against US police because of this footage makes sense.
So Americans across this gigantic country should adopt the attitude that all cops are bastards?
Re: Looking at the experience of black Britons through an American lens
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's an (american) election year, so that would explain most of the politics and propaganda behind that.
Unfortunately it's been going on for a long time. For example, why was OJ Simpson's verdict met with adulation when everyone knew he was guilty? That's the first thing that popped in my head when I read their last paragraph about lying to ourselves, though I admit I just listened to a podcast where Sam Harris or John McWhorter bring OJ up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPHUu9sAGKo ("Sam Harris' podcast: The New Rel…
> For example, why was OJ Simpson's verdict met with adulation when everyone knew he was guilty?
Uh, maybe because the glove didn't fit? It's one thing to say "everyone knew" he was guilty, but when prosecutors don't even do they're job properly you can't just convict based on what "everyone knows".
Re: Looking at the experience of black Britons through an American lens
#157I remember American trainers for company sponsored training basically making the implication that there being no black people in most of the groups (of 10-15) being a sign of the institutionalised racism keeping them out of tech.
Not considered was the ~1% black population in the country where the training took place. Having 3/80ish black engineers was actually significantly more diverse than if you'd just grabbed a random subset of the population. (ditto for Polish, Indians and Chinese, the actual sizable minorities in the country).
Now had he been talking about the 15-20% of female engineers participating, he may have had a point, but the american perspective was "wow, there should be way more Black people because America has more Black people"
Re: Looking at the experience of black Britons through an American lens
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a British person with Caribbean family background, I found the reaction to this from the internet so strange. In Britain it's normal that the different cultures here mix. Shops selling Baltic bread, next to shops selling jerk chicken, across the road from a traditional English pub. People of all colours and backgrounds frequenting all of them. From an outside perspective, people in the USA seem very pre-occupied w…
Your perception that in the US "black and white people live different lives and mixing is frowned upon" seems like it's been heavily influenced by some less-than-honest talking points. The idea that the UK is an oasis of racial harmony versus a segregationist USA is pretty far from the truth.
Not that far I'd say. While the British have their nazis and everything in moderation, at least they're not generally 24/7 preoccupied with race. (They are however preoccupied with class a lot).
Re: Looking at the experience of black Britons through an American lens
#159In addition to the entirety of the author's examples and experiences, we need to recall that the UK/British view of race is heavily influenced by the fact that skin color is not the only way in which folks in the UK experience racial discrimination. For centuries, the Scottish and Irish natives have been variously oppressed by the British, creating a racial context which is distinct from one wholly concerned with ski…
Would you mind stop overloading the word racist with more definitions? People can be nationalists or biased towards group identities with many different flavors. The underlying issue is that people get discriminated. And besides, the Brits are a very mature ethnic identity, as such, they've had many centuries to come up with and nourish many different ways to discriminate - be it which village you come from, what sch…
> Would you mind stop overloading the word racist with more definitions?
Racism has been linked with discrimination against nationality for many years. In the UK the Race Relations Act 1965 (55 years ago) included "national origin".
Re: Looking at the experience of black Britons through an American lens
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a Greek, I agree. Ancient Greek culture influences a lot of things, but I've never heard of any Greek being offended by any of it, we consider it homage/remixing. Except the Parthenon marbles, we want those back.
As a Brit who visited Greece it shocked me how much of a political issue it is there. I kind of came to the conclusion that any slippery slope or historical argument is less relevant than "If they want them so badly and we don't really care, just hand them over"
I agree.
The British Museum would be pretty empty if we had to give everyone their stuff back. I can see why they resist so much.