Asking someone where they are from
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Caporegime
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Pretty simple.
The "racist" thing about it is the person assuming somebody who is black, isn't British because they keep asking where are you really from.
But Britain isn't a race...
What?
It has been gone over a million times why it could have been racist.
Asking someone who is black where they are "really from" after they have told you they are British/born in Britain implies that the woman may have thought that someone could not be properly be "from Britain" if they have that skin colour.
So?
It due to the implication that someone cannot be British/considered British if they have black skin.
It is using the colour of someone's skin to exclude them from what someone may consider as "British".
So it is racist to ask someone who was born in Britain what their heritage is? (Because we all know what the lady was asking)
Again, no adequate explanation. The lady was rude and ignorant, yes, but racist? Please.
Also side question, are you both white?
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Of course it isn't racist to ask someone what their heritage is. I don't think anyone has said that. People should be free to ask inquisitive questions without being drawn over hot coals.
But the lady didn't ask what her heritage was. She asked where she was from and got a response, she then wasn't happy with that and rather changing the wording to make her intent clear she went for the classic "no but where are you really from?".
"No you can't possibly be from X, look at you... Now tell me, where are you really from"
Caporegime
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Which you, me, and this Ngozi lady all know what the lady was asking. So you choose to take offense at the wording of some rude lady, sure no problem - but assuming racist intent is a step beyond, especially since you know what is being asked.
See above.
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Soldato
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Stop playing dumb, its obvious what Hussey meant given the context.
Soldato
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It isn't what she asked, but its probably what she thought she was asking, just got confused in the wording or didn't think about the wording.
The intention of the question, the intent, wasn't racist?
But of course this is assuming that the intent was the above. Who knows, it may not have been. Perhaps SH was in a bad mood and genuinely harbours racist undertones. We will never know.
We only have one side of the story.
If the old woman did persist in asking the question then that's just an awkward conversation.
For this woman to now be calling it abuse, and shes the head of a charity for domestic violence, is disgraceful.
Feel free to point out where I said she was racist. I have simply said asking where I am from will get you the answer to the question you've asked. I am from the UK as I was born in Bristol. I can't say I'm from anywhere else because that would be demonstrably false. Where I am from and my heritage are two different questions. Asking one doesn't necessarily get the other.
Then she should've asked the correct question. It gets tiring having to explain "Well I'm from X but my grandparents are from Y". I am from the UK so if you ask where I am from, that's what I'll tell you. I am under zero obligation to explain my family tree to you even less so if you can't ask the question properly.
If anyone should be accused of playing dumb it's the person who can't engage their brain and realise they were asking the wrong question.
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I love this, it's amusing. It's funny how in this instance the one being called a trouble maker or seems to have the onus of being clear falls on the person who is being offended. No, it doesn't matter that what she was being told is something a lot of minority people have to go through. She should've sucked it up and explained herself.
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Your use of "but" implied that's what you thought. Apologies if I'm wrong but considering the chain of posts you were replying to and what you've written above it is hard to see if you are implying something else.
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By all her accounts written her parents were from the Carribean, and if they come from the Windrush then that would confirm it.
I'm not sure where she gets African from. If she is saying her parents originally come from Africa then how can she have Carribean heritage?
I suspect she's been put on the spot previously about her background and shes reacted defensively.
As an aside note, William threw the older woman under the bus immediately.
What??!
This perfectly illustrates the whole issues surrounding this. At what point do you draw the line at someone's heritage?
Like I said earlier, most of us likely have heritage or are "from" Rome, Norway or France.
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