I would suggest it doesn't say 2 wrongs make a right but it suggest that perhaps this woman isn't the nicest person (if these tweets are true) and that her recollections on these matters perhaps shouldn't be taken quite as the gospel truth. Who knows.
Asking someone where they are from
- Thread starter Lysander
- Start date
I would suggest it doesn't say 2 wrongs make a right but it suggest that perhaps this woman isn't the nicest person (if these tweets are true) and that her recollections on these matters perhaps shouldn't be taken quite as the gospel truth. Who knows.
Soldato
- Joined
- 25 Nov 2005
- Posts
- 12,660
Being racist doesn't mean you make things up, it just means you're racist, although given some of the racists on here it does seem making things up is common among racists
It might. Equally it might be meaningless. How do we know the background of this Elizabeth woman? How do we know this Elizabeth woman isn't a very nice person or has mental issues herself/is lying?
It's all noise.
Even with all that said, it doesnt matter whether Ms Fulani is horrible as well. The only thing in focus is how SH spoke to her, which was not acceptable.
Last edited:
Give this story more time and soon there'll be a version where Lady Susan asked which plantation she works on...
From personal experience, if someone asks me where I'm from I don't consider it to be racist in any way. This could have been handled completely different but I suspect the opportunity arose to make it something bigger and take advantage of the current climate. Ngozi Fulani isn't a naive person who's had no social interaction or doesn't understand that not everyone is a bad bad stranger.
"Oh, sorry do you mean my heritage? Well although I consider myself British my parents/family are originally from ....".
Once with me it was
"Raz, where you from"
"Kent"
"No originally "
"London "
" what about your parents?"
"They're still in London"
"Did your parents come from another country or were they born here?"
"Oh, from Pakistan "
"So you're Pakistani?"
"No, British"
"OK ok I give up"
"Haha I know what you meant, I'm Indian "
"BUT YOUR PARENTS ARE FROM PAKISTAN "
"Yes they came here from Pakistan but were born in India"
".....you look white though, i thought Italian maybe..."
I knew what he meant from the beginning but had some fun...
From personal experience, if someone asks me where I'm from I don't consider it to be racist in any way. This could have been handled completely different but I suspect the opportunity arose to make it something bigger and take advantage of the current climate. Ngozi Fulani isn't a naive person who's had no social interaction or doesn't understand that not everyone is a bad bad stranger.
"Oh, sorry do you mean my heritage? Well although I consider myself British my parents/family are originally from ....".
Once with me it was
"Raz, where you from"
"Kent"
"No originally "
"London "
" what about your parents?"
"They're still in London"
"Did your parents come from another country or were they born here?"
"Oh, from Pakistan "
"So you're Pakistani?"
"No, British"
"OK ok I give up"
"Haha I know what you meant, I'm Indian "
"BUT YOUR PARENTS ARE FROM PAKISTAN "
"Yes they came here from Pakistan but were born in India"
".....you look white though, i thought Italian maybe..."
I knew what he meant from the beginning but had some fun...
In today's climate, this is no longer so easy to glean.
Well we're talking about the Royals and I doubt they'd have thrown someone under the bus without just cause unless they were desperate to cut the criticism after years of scandal or maybe Charles just didn't like her very much so had little reason to stand in the way.
Tbh don't particularly care that much as they (the Royals, their sycophants, the suspiciously opaque NGO's and other such bureaucratic nonsense) should all get lost.
Last edited:
Why does every single new person who comes into this thread totally misrepresent the entire situation and problem?
For the millionth time, the problem is not that she was asked where she was from.
Also, you not feeling uneasy/offended in the interaction you had is irrelevant.
Last edited:
I think that we're going through a period of time where society seems to scream OUTRAGE at many things. Social media, the mainstream media, etc are rapidly turning into a cancer where a bad news story is seemingly all that gets traction. It's awful. It needs to change.
Incidents like this will get spun by both extremes of the onlookers. That's probably the biggest issue in all of this, but, I think the hugely missing part of the conversation is, what was the intent. Intent, I feel, is everything.
Was the intent to make a racist slur, trying to force a confession someone who is black to 'admit' they are not British, and are African? Or was it someone who 'is a person of their time' and in a very clumsy way (by modern standards) simply trying to strike up a conversation? None of us were there, so we won't know. 42 pages into this thread however, you can see that there are plenty of opinions (and I guess trolls) who like a view on it all.
I think one thing I will always say in these situations, as a neurotypical non-disabled white British heterosexual christian male, how can I have an opinion on any kind of prejudice, as I've simply never experienced any. Where I find the world to actually be, in the main, quite pleasant, you only need to change one of those attributes and you can see how people have to almost fight for every single one of the rights I take for granted. That is unacceptable, and if this person felt there was a racist action, I would have liked to have thought it could have been handled at the time in a quiet constructive manner, and not become a 'national scandal'.
As a parting comment, an organisation I have done work with has had John Amaechi in to run a multi part course on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion - I would highly recommend it.
What hit me the most was in the initial session where he felt that when people asked him 'where are you from' he didn't truly believe people believed him when he answered Stockport. That's a pretty awful situation, so maybe we do need this all over the press so people realise the impact they can have on someone....
Incidents like this will get spun by both extremes of the onlookers. That's probably the biggest issue in all of this, but, I think the hugely missing part of the conversation is, what was the intent. Intent, I feel, is everything.
Was the intent to make a racist slur, trying to force a confession someone who is black to 'admit' they are not British, and are African? Or was it someone who 'is a person of their time' and in a very clumsy way (by modern standards) simply trying to strike up a conversation? None of us were there, so we won't know. 42 pages into this thread however, you can see that there are plenty of opinions (and I guess trolls) who like a view on it all.
I think one thing I will always say in these situations, as a neurotypical non-disabled white British heterosexual christian male, how can I have an opinion on any kind of prejudice, as I've simply never experienced any. Where I find the world to actually be, in the main, quite pleasant, you only need to change one of those attributes and you can see how people have to almost fight for every single one of the rights I take for granted. That is unacceptable, and if this person felt there was a racist action, I would have liked to have thought it could have been handled at the time in a quiet constructive manner, and not become a 'national scandal'.
As a parting comment, an organisation I have done work with has had John Amaechi in to run a multi part course on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion - I would highly recommend it.
What hit me the most was in the initial session where he felt that when people asked him 'where are you from' he didn't truly believe people believed him when he answered Stockport. That's a pretty awful situation, so maybe we do need this all over the press so people realise the impact they can have on someone....
There was no reason to make such a big issue about the whole interaction. They're adults, not kids. Touched her hair? OK then point it out in some appropriate fashion. Does Ngozi know everything about everyone's culture? Doubt it. So why would we expect LS to? Add to that it seems that everyone is taking what was said as the absolute truth (although I don't know if its been 100% verified) because - and i loathe to say it but it does appear to be the way these days - a black woman said it against a clearly privileged white lady.
Not everyone is a boogeyman and most things can be dealt with sensibly.
*edit - I say no reason but clearly there are some reasons one could think of, but whether they are true or not is open.
Last edited:
Permabanned
- Joined
- 28 Nov 2003
- Posts
- 10,695
- Location
- Shropshire
Perhaps now Lady Hussey is unfettered by decorum to the Palace and it's etiquette she could become less of an "Asking someone where they are from" type of person to more of a "Telling them where to go" one 
Caporegime
- Joined
- 1 Dec 2010
- Posts
- 53,727
- Location
- Welling, London
Am I the only one who thinks this thread has run it’s course now?
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Jul 2005
- Posts
- 9,110
- Location
- Birmingham
You probably have, it goes both ways normally i.e white people can be racist towards black people and equally black people can be racist towards white people. Would you get the same treatment if you were to go to an ethnic minority area of say Birmingham and try to buy something from a local shop for example.
Problem with these types of things in the workplace is you can't challenge what they are saying properly, because you can't risk being seen as racist in the workplace. So these sessions are normally all one way even if several people might be sitting there thinking they don't agree with what's being said.
Soldato
- Joined
- 3 Oct 2007
- Posts
- 12,169
- Location
- London, UK
And? She was in her 20s in the 1960s, not the 1940s. She should know better, she is meant to be diplomatic working in the royal court. Sorry I don't buy the age thing in this case, she comes from a generation that should know better and the circles she moves in says she should have known better. Sounds like upper class snobbery to me and its bitten her in the arse.
Perhaps now Lady Hussey is unfettered by decorum to the Palace and it's etiquette she could become less of an "Asking someone where they are from" type of person to more of a "Telling them where to go" one
Doubt she'll stoop to your level
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 29 Mar 2003
- Posts
- 57,317
- Location
- Stoke on Trent
Nobody has even questioned that this is a woman who has been to every Country the Queen has been to so probably has a great interest of where people's relatives are 'originally' from. If the 'victim' had answered they may have gone on to have a good conversation about it.
Every time I've worked with a non Brit person I've always asked them what their heritage is or where did their relatives originally come from but I suppose it's how you ask it because nobody has ever been offended.
Two of my bosses were born here but family from Pakistan & Jamaica, no problem when I asked them.
I have no problem asking people stuff, today I asked a bloke in the Chip Shop why he had lost his leg and we had a 10 minute conversation about diabetes and how crap the NHS is.
Another bloke in ALDI was walking really bad and he said he'd got a broken hip and waiting for his operation date.
Like I say, it's how you ask stuff.
About 40 pages ago to be honest, I can't believe the level of debate around such a simple incident!
Probably time to lock it.