curtis
Member
Charente Maritime
Posts: 474
|
Post by curtis on Dec 1, 2022 11:34:08 GMT 1
I think Sri Lankan or possibly Indian and will have no reservations about asking them,
|
|
cernunnos
Non-gamer
Posts: 2,086
Member is Online
|
Post by cernunnos on Dec 1, 2022 11:41:19 GMT 1
Age has got nothing to do with it, can you imagine the Queen at 96 asking a similar question? Age has a lot to do with it. We used to collect golliwogs off the jam pots , so look at race completly differently than a 30 year old .
This " blown up" media hype , is not news but shows the future, it does make "us oldies" laugh!
|
|
Aardvark
Non-gamer
Living in soggy 22 and still wondering what's going on.
Posts: 2,172
|
Post by Aardvark on Dec 1, 2022 11:48:11 GMT 1
I agree. Those who collected the golliwogs from jam pots did so in innocence, with no intention of disrespect to a dark-skinned race. That racist mindset was instilled later on in life.
I can understand the woman's fopar up to the point she actually moved the visitor's hair to read the name tag. At that point I see disrespect.
|
|
|
Post by Polarengineer on Dec 1, 2022 12:44:48 GMT 1
I'm not as old as the LIW, but if I met this person dressed in carib with coral beads and a birds nest on her head I would also not think she was born in UK. She should make her mind up where her roots are and not be offended but proud of her ancestry.
|
|
|
Post by woolybanana on Dec 1, 2022 14:12:06 GMT 1
This is not racism or abuse but bad manners, pure and simple. Lady Whats her name should be ashamed. As to the charity boss, she should get the racism/ abuse off her shoulder; it does her no credit.
|
|
|
Post by omegal on Dec 1, 2022 14:59:45 GMT 1
Our Daughter has been through maternelle, primaire, college and lycee refusing to go on to Uni in Bruz due to the huge number that drop out early. OK so that is her background. She is often asked where she is from in the North East, maybe Strasbourg for example, she has obviously an accent for that part of France, goodness knows how but when she says the Perigord or Brittany is where she has lived and been Educated in France, they ask her but where originally and she knows immediately they mean "originally" so she tells them Londres Ouest, Royaume Uni. Surely that was all the younger woman had to say, where the family originated from. Racism is now too easily used as an attack on even the most simplest of things, sometimes I wish we could start all over again and see how we have ended up like we have now because now you only have to sneeze and wallop, sadly racist might well be called out.
|
|
|
Post by jackie on Dec 1, 2022 16:00:31 GMT 1
Reading the transcript of the conversation it sounded like a pretty interrogative, arrogant line of questioning. She actually asked where did ‘your people’ come from! Obviously a colonial mindset will always be a colonial mindsetIf. Also if she couldn’t intone from the responses she was getting that she was making someone feel uncomfortable what the hell is she doing in that job? Perhaps it’s good she’s gone and hopefully will be replaced with someone with a more modern mindset and diplomacy skills.
|
|
|
Post by lindalovely on Dec 1, 2022 16:03:31 GMT 1
I think it's a good illustration of why people retire. I think it is/was a management problem. I doubt it is the first time the person has offended people by her approach and use of words, and as her role brings hers into contact with the public then she needed to be particularly sensitive. We have all worked with people like that in big organisations. The options are diversity training (probably lost on her), or management of her role so she is less likely to offend. In other organisations she probably would have been counselled to retire a long time ago.
It's nothing to do with whether indviduals here or elsewhere think it is woke, harmless or whatever, but managing the public image of an institution that is supposed to represent all British Citizens..and as we have seen from census data this week, British citizens are not all white, Christian, born in the UK. That poses a problem for the Royal Family who are most of those things.. when going forward. So I can understand why she resigned, or in fact retired from her role.
When we had our interview for naturalisation, we were interviewed by someone who most definitely wasn't very politically correct or tactful in their line of questioning, although for us it made very little difference, being white and the right kind of immigrants. Other people had had similar experiences and commented, and we came to the conclusion that the department had probably received many complaints about this person so they had moved them to a role where they could do the least damage. They happily told us they were assigned to interview all the Europeans! A smart management move maybe.
|
|
exile
Member
Massif Central
Posts: 2,686
|
Post by exile on Dec 1, 2022 16:32:10 GMT 1
Surely that was all the younger woman had to say, where the family originated from. I suggest you read a transcript. She was told - perhaps not as quickly as she could have been - that her parents were of Afro-Carribean origin. Yet again she asked where in Africa her "people" were from. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the slave trade in the 15th - 18th century would know that people were very unlikely to be able to answer that question. Just as a matter of interest Omegal, where are your people from? Back in the say mid 18th century. Those into genealogy can possibly answer that but even then records before 1800 are beginning to get thin. And for balance - I have absolutely no idea where my people were back then.
|
|
|
Post by woolybanana on Dec 1, 2022 16:38:21 GMT 1
I have!
|
|
|
Post by lindalovely on Dec 1, 2022 17:04:57 GMT 1
I don't know whether the image will work, but the woman in this picture on the far right, seated and with the dark skin is my great great grandmother. Very little is known of her origins or her people. She was called 'black nana' although my grandmother always swore, she had dark skin because she worked with coal! I do know that the spoke French as a fist language, and her and my great great grandfather arrived in London from Wales.. so I would struggle to answer the question as to where my people were from. I would probably enjoy giving the person that asked an answer that they didn't want though! Just to make them suffer for asking the question in the first place.
|
|
|
Post by omegal on Dec 1, 2022 17:15:20 GMT 1
Surely that was all the younger woman had to say, where the family originated from. I suggest you read a transcript. She was told - perhaps not as quickly as she could have been - that her parents were of Afro-Carribean origin. Yet again she asked where in Africa her "people" were from. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the slave trade in the 15th - 18th century would know that people were very unlikely to be able to answer that question. Just as a matter of interest Omegal, where are your people from? Back in the say mid 18th century. Those into genealogy can possibly answer that but even then records before 1800 are beginning to get thin. And for balance - I have absolutely no idea where my people were back then. Hanoverian Leicester in the 1700's and our family tree goes back to before that, my wife and my Niece have spent a lot of time in discovering the period before and the period after, when the family moved to Chelsea and after that out to Middlesex, Surrey, New Zealand and Australia, the last two we have many relatives still out there from many years ago. So I could answer someone who really wanted to delve in to my history.
|
|
Nifty
Member
Posts: 5,025
|
Post by Nifty on Dec 1, 2022 17:30:12 GMT 1
Why is it racist to ask someone what their family origin is? I agree that in the current world where putting yourself up as a victim is feted it was unwise to have asked. What is the relevance of the question and why persist with a line of questioning that bordered on an interrogation and clearly made someone uncomfortable? As a Lady in Waiting she would have been used to meeting people of all colours and creeds so it seems bizarre that she behaved like that. Allegedly
|
|
|
Post by tim17 on Dec 1, 2022 18:17:36 GMT 1
Just throwing this out there.
It seems there are two camps of thought - out and out racism and stupid comment from an old woman, I wonder if the age of the poster is a factor it determining which camp you're in?
|
|
Nifty
Member
Posts: 5,025
|
Post by Nifty on Dec 1, 2022 18:54:48 GMT 1
I am in the campo tonight.
|
|