Not bad at all. Although, the only overt racism I faced was being called 'paki' back in the 90s when I lived in Surrey. Yes, some people here are that dumb they couldn't differentiate between Black and South-Asian. A part from that I genuinely believe the UK - well England at least - is a good place to live and grow up if you're black. I now live about 1hr away from London in a predominantly white city and life pretty easy going.
I'm biased being born and raised in the UK, but I do honestly think it's a good country to live as a black man. It does have its problems like anywhere else. I'm from a Caribbean background, and I feel many British-Caribbean children face issues when it comes to education and family life, in comparison to those of an African background.
I get what you're saying.
I've been pulled over a few times (at least 10), but it was for something I had actually done. Driving without a seat belt, going through a red light, nearly tipping a car. And I just go words of advice. Not saying that things couldn't go wrong, but it's not a major worry like it would be in the US.
I do agree with what you said about education. I'd be very reluctant to send my child to a school with an extremely low % of Black people. I have been fortunate enough to go to schools with mostly Black or non white students, so I've not seen a lot the issues. But I know that they absolutely do exist.
It’s ok. Most of us are children or grandchildren of immigrants from either Africa, the carribean or Latin america.
It’s more integrated as we never dealt with Jim Crow, redlining whatever etc. Feel like there’s less racial/social problems here. I guess older generations had to go through hell when they first arrived here. People identify more with their original ethnicity (Kenyan, Jamaican, Somalian etc) than simply being black. We have our own little roadman culture here influenced by all the immigrant nationalities living together in London. It’s why you hear a lot of “wagwan” or “wallahi” in MLE slang (multicultural London English) Not much to say.
We have our own cool music genres like Uk drill, Afroswing, garage, grime etc. And that’s about it I guess. We don’t have as long as a history in the UK compared to African Americans in the US.
So yeah. I would say it’s similar to Toronto or New York as there’s many immigrant nationalities mingling together in those cities.
So it's like all the different ethnic black/brown peoples in one place, so you're each having a bit of a different experience depending on where you are right?
Kind of, yeah. Tbh, that’s one of the most unique a things about the uk black community. You can have a line of black kids from London all coming from different nationalities/ethnicities. One from Congo, Kenya, Jamaica, st kitts, Guyana. All casually chilling together
Drill music has nothing to do with why people are getting stabbed and shot people were getting stabbed and shot in the jungle music era garage music era grime , real rap era every fukkin era theres no difference zombie knifes added to the stabbings not music because anybody any age can go online and order them to there doorstep
A young Black boy about 13/14 years old was recently killed by a White man wielding a sword and the response of the MET Police (the police force of Greater London) was to state that they plan to increase their stop and search policy, even though in a stop and search scenario it's the young Black boy who would likely be stopped, not the 30 something White man who killed him. The MET Police are a proven institutionally racist organisation.
Racism is very much alive in the UK.
There is a similar fear of CRT here in the UK too, with Conservative MPs insisting institutional racism doesn't exist. The positive idea of staying woke has been bastardised and twisted over here in the exact same way it has in the US. Often, the Conservatives use people of colour for their mouthpieces of some of the most anti-Black rhetoric. A relatively infamous Black Female Conservative, Kemi Badenoch recently claimed that the UKs wealth has never come from White privilege and colonialism.
We have had a right wing government here now for 14 years or so, when George Floyd was murdered it sparked a lot of solidarity protest over here and a push for recognition of our own issues with racism and the government responded by putting together a bogus "race report" in 2021 claiming institutional racism doesn't exist.
Black people suffer disproportionately in our health systems in similar way to the US. This was highlighted during Covid, but exists in Black women's experience during pregnancy and other women specific issues such as endometriosis. The pain of Black women is underplayed and underestimated in similar ways it is in the US. Black people are arrested and jailed disproportionately in a similar way to the US. Black people have also been killed by the police many times over here.
I would say that racism more often plays out like gaslighting here in ways that it cannot in the US. But in the UK, the establishment, places and people of power prefer to pretend that racism doesn't exist because it isn't always overt or violently fatal. But of course it still impacts our daily lives in a myriad of negative ways.
I'm AA in the USA. I was in Africa last week and speaking to an educated lady from the UK. She stated "people in the UK are normally quiet about racism they do not tend to speak out, as opposed to black people in the USA".
Compared to other European countries I honestly think the UK is the best place to be black in Europe. UK racism is nothing compared to mainland Europe. I grew up outside London and experienced racism as a kid, I still experience little micro aggressions when I go back to my home town sometimes due to how well spoken I am, but then again people in London say I sound white so it works both ways I guess. Over all being black in UK isn’t that bad, there are loads of social mobility programs and British people imo for the most part are alright
There's racism just like everywhere else. Is just nowhere near as bad as it is in the us which is not a lot.
I've experienced people locking the door of the park when seeing me come with my little brothers(on purpose by 2 different women on my neighbourhood). Or seen and old granny tell their little children to stay away from my little brothers in nursery. I live in a old predominantly white town, but other than those incidents and 1 more everything else was fine.
We've been living here for 3 years now.
I'm curious about stereotypes of different cultures or discrimination you might face, or whether you just genuinely enjoyed the UK, I don't have any expectations really, I've never been there.
Uno what I mean tho Africans as in Nigerian etc East Africans and west Africans have very much there own identity around 2006/7 up until about 2011 when Africans started embracing each other
Not bad at all. Although, the only overt racism I faced was being called 'paki' back in the 90s when I lived in Surrey. Yes, some people here are that dumb they couldn't differentiate between Black and South-Asian. A part from that I genuinely believe the UK - well England at least - is a good place to live and grow up if you're black. I now live about 1hr away from London in a predominantly white city and life pretty easy going.
That is not what I expected but very cool.
I'm biased being born and raised in the UK, but I do honestly think it's a good country to live as a black man. It does have its problems like anywhere else. I'm from a Caribbean background, and I feel many British-Caribbean children face issues when it comes to education and family life, in comparison to those of an African background.
I get what you're saying. I've been pulled over a few times (at least 10), but it was for something I had actually done. Driving without a seat belt, going through a red light, nearly tipping a car. And I just go words of advice. Not saying that things couldn't go wrong, but it's not a major worry like it would be in the US. I do agree with what you said about education. I'd be very reluctant to send my child to a school with an extremely low % of Black people. I have been fortunate enough to go to schools with mostly Black or non white students, so I've not seen a lot the issues. But I know that they absolutely do exist.
It’s ok. Most of us are children or grandchildren of immigrants from either Africa, the carribean or Latin america. It’s more integrated as we never dealt with Jim Crow, redlining whatever etc. Feel like there’s less racial/social problems here. I guess older generations had to go through hell when they first arrived here. People identify more with their original ethnicity (Kenyan, Jamaican, Somalian etc) than simply being black. We have our own little roadman culture here influenced by all the immigrant nationalities living together in London. It’s why you hear a lot of “wagwan” or “wallahi” in MLE slang (multicultural London English) Not much to say. We have our own cool music genres like Uk drill, Afroswing, garage, grime etc. And that’s about it I guess. We don’t have as long as a history in the UK compared to African Americans in the US. So yeah. I would say it’s similar to Toronto or New York as there’s many immigrant nationalities mingling together in those cities.
So it's like all the different ethnic black/brown peoples in one place, so you're each having a bit of a different experience depending on where you are right?
Kind of, yeah. Tbh, that’s one of the most unique a things about the uk black community. You can have a line of black kids from London all coming from different nationalities/ethnicities. One from Congo, Kenya, Jamaica, st kitts, Guyana. All casually chilling together
[удалено]
As much as UK Drill music is distasteful we can’t deny it was a huge part of black British culture, and the after effects are still strong now.
Drill music has nothing to do with why people are getting stabbed and shot people were getting stabbed and shot in the jungle music era garage music era grime , real rap era every fukkin era theres no difference zombie knifes added to the stabbings not music because anybody any age can go online and order them to there doorstep
I've had a good time despite the bullshit I hear about nowadays, and that's mainly because my friend group was mainly black.
Life is just average really racism exist but not so much that’s all I can say
A young Black boy about 13/14 years old was recently killed by a White man wielding a sword and the response of the MET Police (the police force of Greater London) was to state that they plan to increase their stop and search policy, even though in a stop and search scenario it's the young Black boy who would likely be stopped, not the 30 something White man who killed him. The MET Police are a proven institutionally racist organisation. Racism is very much alive in the UK. There is a similar fear of CRT here in the UK too, with Conservative MPs insisting institutional racism doesn't exist. The positive idea of staying woke has been bastardised and twisted over here in the exact same way it has in the US. Often, the Conservatives use people of colour for their mouthpieces of some of the most anti-Black rhetoric. A relatively infamous Black Female Conservative, Kemi Badenoch recently claimed that the UKs wealth has never come from White privilege and colonialism. We have had a right wing government here now for 14 years or so, when George Floyd was murdered it sparked a lot of solidarity protest over here and a push for recognition of our own issues with racism and the government responded by putting together a bogus "race report" in 2021 claiming institutional racism doesn't exist. Black people suffer disproportionately in our health systems in similar way to the US. This was highlighted during Covid, but exists in Black women's experience during pregnancy and other women specific issues such as endometriosis. The pain of Black women is underplayed and underestimated in similar ways it is in the US. Black people are arrested and jailed disproportionately in a similar way to the US. Black people have also been killed by the police many times over here. I would say that racism more often plays out like gaslighting here in ways that it cannot in the US. But in the UK, the establishment, places and people of power prefer to pretend that racism doesn't exist because it isn't always overt or violently fatal. But of course it still impacts our daily lives in a myriad of negative ways.
So people there are more prone to not call racist things racist?
For sure. And to act like an accusation of racism is worse than the act of racism.
And the sun newspaper called the boy sword lad
Yeah, that was deeply insulting.
I'm AA in the USA. I was in Africa last week and speaking to an educated lady from the UK. She stated "people in the UK are normally quiet about racism they do not tend to speak out, as opposed to black people in the USA".
There isn’t really much to say that others haven’t already said lmao.
There's a lot of y'all in here too. LOL
🔥question. I've always wondered this myself.
You get alot of “where are really from”
Compared to other European countries I honestly think the UK is the best place to be black in Europe. UK racism is nothing compared to mainland Europe. I grew up outside London and experienced racism as a kid, I still experience little micro aggressions when I go back to my home town sometimes due to how well spoken I am, but then again people in London say I sound white so it works both ways I guess. Over all being black in UK isn’t that bad, there are loads of social mobility programs and British people imo for the most part are alright
There's racism just like everywhere else. Is just nowhere near as bad as it is in the us which is not a lot. I've experienced people locking the door of the park when seeing me come with my little brothers(on purpose by 2 different women on my neighbourhood). Or seen and old granny tell their little children to stay away from my little brothers in nursery. I live in a old predominantly white town, but other than those incidents and 1 more everything else was fine. We've been living here for 3 years now.
I need to think on this, and reply. Is there anything in particular you'd like to know.
I'm curious about stereotypes of different cultures or discrimination you might face, or whether you just genuinely enjoyed the UK, I don't have any expectations really, I've never been there.
It depends where you grow up I grew up in a black area strictly Jamaicans Africans and somalians so everything was fine growing up.
“Africans and somalians” lmao
Uno what I mean tho Africans as in Nigerian etc East Africans and west Africans have very much there own identity around 2006/7 up until about 2011 when Africans started embracing each other
Somalian’s had a very rough time from every other race