Where are you from? Is it an insult?

Fleurpepper

Callistemon21

Sorry, but I don't know what you mean by your last post in relation to this discussion.

A pity- this discussion is about prejudice, and it comes in very many forms.

Yes, I know that but there must be a missing link between your posts about people from The Balkans and mixed-race people which I've missed or not understood. Sorry. 🤔

As currently with racism towards those from the Balkans- who are the same colour and race as most of us

The Balkans are quite a disparate group of countries.
Do you mean a specific country?

Callistemon21

Sorry, but I don't know what you mean by your last post in relation to this discussion.

A pity- this discussion is about prejudice, and it comes in very many forms.

It’s really not hard to not do or say racist things. To apologise if you screw up

Yes, I agree.
Unfortunately Lady Susan didn't realise that she was being racist and then she persisted.
She did screw up and she has apologised.
I expect she has learnt a hard lesson and she won't be seen in public again either.

Unfortunately that was not enough,

volver

Callistemon21

I will bow to your always superior knowledge volver

You obviously know far more than me about Australia and its peoples.

Probably.

Ha ha.
Nice one.

Sorry, but I don't know what you mean by your last post in relation to this discussion.

Why would it be. A simple comment, very clear.

Was that meant to be a lecture?
It's not very clear.
🙂

Callistemon, I have mentionned it many times before. The reaction from some people, and institutions- to mixed race people, is VERY different depending on whether it 'shows' or not. People are only called 'mixed race' if it is evident from their looks. People who have a 'variety' of mixed race relatives, know that VERY well.

Most of us is still the majority in the UK.

As currently with racism towards those from the Balkans- who are the same colour and race as most of us

Well, I know that because they're our relatives 🙂

the same colour and race as most of us
However, you can't see us all 🤔

The 'classical reply':

Race refers to the concept of dividing people into groups on the basis of various sets of physical characteristics and the process of ascribing social meaning to those groups. Ethnicity describes the culture of people in a given geographic region, including their language, heritage, religion and customs.

However, from the middle of the 20C, the lines have become more blurred, and often inter-cross, and 'racism', just as 'prejudice', can be used to describe discrimination which is not directly linked to colour, or even race- but just on being seen as 'different', for whatever reasons.

As currently with racism towards those from the Balkans- who are the same colour and race as most of us.

And racism is not 'just' about colour, you do realise this, yes?

Could you explain to us the difference between race and ethnicity, please Fleurpepper?

Some definitions might be helpful.
Thank you 🙂

Callistemon21

I will bow to your always superior knowledge volver

You obviously know far more than me about Australia and its peoples.

Probably.

MerylStreep

Fleurpepper
I know you watch British tv dispute the fact you are Swiss and live in Switzerland.
Has the wide range of accents on British tv passed you by?
Of course it hasn’t.
But that fact wouldn’t support your racists under the bed campaign, would it.
But you carry on and fill your boots with this rubbish.

Rubbish did you say? And how rude can you be, and totally irrelevant. I am very much British, thanks.

There are many on here who are currently not living in the UK- and yet, somehow, they never seem to be accused of not being British- and not told they have no right to be hugely disappointed, sad and even angry, at what is being done to this amazing country.

And racism is not 'just' about colour, you do realise this, yes?

Callistemon21

^Mervyn Bragg saying how he had to quickly get rid of his Northern accent when he went to Grammar school and on to Uni^

That was then.

Melvyn Bragg is 83, a product of the 1950s grammar school system, where many of us had elocution lessons as part of the curriculum to enable us to get good jobs in later life. BBC pronunciation was of importance but even so, all this education and elocution lessons did not eradicate our accents totally.

Melvyn Bragg still has a less pronounced accent, as do I and many other people I grew up with.

Strong accents do not hold people back now although clear diction is essential still in some careers.

I take it your did not watch the programme on accents and the effect/influence it still has, today, on education and career prospects. In this particular instance, the legal professions. 3 nights ago.

The research carried showed very clearly how difficult it still is, in certain professions, to climb up the ladder if you speak with a non RP accent, Northern or otherwise. Yes, still now, today.
A pity you didn't watch it, as the evidence was very clear. Also very clear that add a different ethnic origin or parents, and skin colour, made this even more so.

This is not prejudice, or rubbish to fill my boots- but the reality, proven by clear and multiple research.

Prejudice is often hidden very deep, steeped in cultural roots and often unconscious.

I will bow to your always superior knowledge volver

You obviously know far more than me about Australia and its peoples.

So were they friends of yours or you just saw them?

Both. Why does that matter?

There's the ones I was told I couldn't have perform at an international conference because "abos always turn up drunk". Or the Anglo person who told me they would step down from the committee we were on if I got bags made with traditional paintings on them to give away as promotional items. Or the opera singer who got stepped over in the street after she had a heart attack, because everybody assumed she was drunk.

They are not just another set of Australians "living a simpler life". They are living according to their own traditions which are ignored and sidelined by many non-aboriginal Australians. Such as is going on in this thread.

I just wondered to myself if this is why I get so annoyed about racism. The discrimination showed to the traditional inhabitants of Australia who have lived there for more than 50,000 years.

Quite often in Victoria Square, or in Tandanya
So were they friends of yours or you just saw them?


Indigenous Australians are not all a separate entity as you seem to be saying - they live next door, work in schools, nurseries, their children are at school, play football etc with our children, they are friends and neighbours.

Some prefer to live a simpler life as they have done for thousands of years (it is probably the best way to live for the sake of the planet). But then so do other immigrants.

Unfortunately even Indigenous Australians are disagreeing amongst themselves on the way forward.

They're not separate from other Australians.

Have you verified that with any aboriginal people?

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/24/discrimination-against-indigenous-australians-has-risen-dramatically-survey-finds

Of course everything may have changed in the last 18 months...probably not though.

nanna8

I haven’t met any First Nation people since I was in the Northern Territory a few years back so I can’t say. I don’t claim knowledge I haven’t got, unlike some.

I've met quite a few Indigenous Australians.
They're not separate from other Australians.

Plenty aboriginal people in Adelaide when I lived there. Quite often in Victoria Square, or in Tandanya.

How strange that you've never seen any where you live nanna8.

I haven’t met any First Nation people since I was in the Northern Territory a few years back so I can’t say. I don’t claim knowledge I haven’t got, unlike some.

Mixed race families, lesbian families, gay families, families with disabilities, singles I could go on but hopefully you get the picture

Or all together in one family like ours 😀

I don't think race is so much of an issue

Have you verified that with any aboriginal people?

nanna8

Well we all talk more or less the same but there are other methods- here it is which school did you go to? It is slowly changing but still holds for locals. I don't think race is so much of an issue because there are dozens of different races all within a stonesthrow. No one notices anymore, at least not where we live. Probably different if you are in the centre or the outback.

No, it's not.

"The Outback" is like a World Jamboree!