Coronavirus

[Plastic Person]

I didn't feel right taking to the streets on Saturday, and I couldn't help but notice that many of the voices shaming people for going to the shops less than a month ago were the same implying that those choosing not to attend a BLM protest were exercising their privilege. I did, and continue to, donate to BLM causes and routed all profits from my cultural business to BLM funds this weekend.

I am glad that theories regarding the structural, endemic and incremental effects of racism in society, talk that was seemingly only relegated to the leftiest nerds at university a decade or more ago, are now being supported by the likes of er, Piers Morgan. But drawing up a puritanical list of rules in regards to who is, and who isn't making the correct amount of difference in the right or wrong way assists with nothing useful.

Saying that, privileged white people taking deep and personal offence at the notion is deeply silly, and those doing so will find there to be clarity, solidarity and perhaps even beauty in embracing even a hint of the vulnerability that black people face everyday, simply by virtue of existing with a different skin colour. Nonetheless, there are a million nuances within that argument, too, as @RoyJess points out in his post (well, the half of it I agree with personally!)

Mad times.

 

[GaryH]

What racism have you ever experienced in your life?

As a teenager, 17 years old, walking with a friend into a local town centre in the evening going to a pub as we had done in the past, turn a corner and were faced with 5 black kids, we walked past, said nothing, one walks up to my face and stops me saying us whites shouldnt be there and we were in their territory, next thing, bins thrown at us, punches, abuse, we ran like hell to get away.

What happened to me and my mate didnt change us, and growing up in Cardiff which was and still is a very multicultural city meant we were brought up not to treat others differently. However, there are people of all races, all colours, all beliefs who get discriminated against, or attacked, its not just blacks - hence ALL lives matter.

 

[imanautie]

As a teenager, 17 years old, walking with a friend into a local town centre in the evening going to a pub as we had done in the past, turn a corner and were faced with 5 black kids, we walked past, said nothing, one walks up to my face and stops me saying us whites shouldnt be there and we were in their territory, next thing, bins thrown at us, punches, abuse, we ran like hell to get away.

What happened to me and my mate didnt change us, and growing up in Cardiff which was and still is a very multicultural city meant we were brought up not to treat others differently. However, there are people of all races, all colours, all beliefs who get discriminated against, or attacked, its not just blacks - hence ALL lives matter.

Black lives matter doesn't mean only Black lives matter ..

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[RoyJess]

All protests start out legally, it only takes one person in authority to say one sentence and it becomes illegal....

Is it always the case that it takes one person to spoil it for all the others. At the end of the day, whether it is a small group of people spoiling it or not, it is the organiser responsibility that any event is run and organised properly and at the appropriate time.

Saying that, privileged white people taking deep and personal offence at the notion is deeply silly,

No not at all, it was implying that anyone that saying that "now is not the right time to protest" is racist. I'm not racist and far from it. I've friends from all walks of life, I see them all as equals.

 

[Plastic Person]

What happened to me and my mate didnt change us

Incorrect, it left you with prejudice. This is understandable, we all have them. The challenge, especially now, is to overcome them.

The idea of 'territory' for blacks versus whites itself arises from poverty, social division and structural racism. I know it sounds mad, especially when you've been punched in the face, but that incident itself is the result of a trickle down effect. I could bore you with a million more examples.

 

[Mr Pearse]

This is where it starts getting silly. Because you don’t believe that during a pandemic that is a suitable time to protest means you are racist or white privileged. I’m sorry but I don’t care what you want to protest about thats your human right but please not during a pandemic. I want this lockdown to be over sooner rather then later. It only takes one person in those many thousands to spread it far and near. So do you think out of those many thousands everyone was COVID 19 free?. I would love to see my elderly relatives but I can’t travel 120 miles to see them. So for the same people in my situation why should we risk prolonging lockdown. It’s not about race or religion or anything you want to think it’s about. It’s about having some common sense.

 

[Spookle15]

So anyone who is white basically has no opinion on this because "you can never understand what is going on" so shut up. If black people obviously are happy to risk their health with COVID-19, then that's up to them.... and if their actions, along with any other groups protesting, cause a spike.... well put up with it, and if you die from it, tough. We needed our protests. Put that on your tombstone.

Trouble is..... and you can see it from the beaches, the parks.... all the things we've been complaining about..... you can see people clearly DON'T understand what's going on. People are stupid by and large. All people. So don't try and tell me that everyone protesting knows the risks. Don't try and tell me some people are not using this an excuse to get out of lockdown. And don't try and tell me months more of lockdown will be worth it..... because people are just going to keep on dying every single day, from COVID-19 and all the other diseases that people are dying of because they can't get treatment.

The time for a real change is not now.... our governments are dealing with (and I know people will hate this) a bigger, more visible, more widespread issue that has the potential to affect every single person on the planet......if you want to label me a racist because it will make you feel better, then do so, because this is just science.

And that doesn't just mean me, with my white privileged hat on (because I always had it in the cupboard just for the day I needed it)..... it means.... every single person.....and no one group, one cause, one whatever you wish you call this, has the right in the current climate to risk and play russian roulette with the lives of everyone around them. EDIT: And this includes future events like if all the theme parks open and thousands turn up and there is no social distancing. Or any other event that causes mass gathering.


And there is nothing more I can say. If we're going to have more cases, more people of every race are going to die. The lockdown in certain areas may be extended. More people are going to die because of this from other causes. Businesses in some cases will never re-open.

Ultimately, I want the UK to get over COVID-19 as soon as possible. I don't know how others feel. If there was no COVID-19 this conversation would never be happening. I wish people could understand that.

 

[Mr Pearse]

Wow just wow I have no words to be fair.

 

[GaryH]

Incorrect, it left you with prejudice. This is understandable, we all have them. The challenge, especially now, is to overcome them.

I disagree. I have no prejudge against them or any other black person because of what happened. The same thing may happen to a white person walking past a group of blacks. Didnt change the way I view people at all, and as I said, I firmly believe where you were brought up defines this. I lived in Cardiff until 9 years ago when I moved to Devon.

The contrast was stark. Cardiff is very multi cultural, people from all walks of life, and generally everyone gets on. Devon was and still is totally different. You hardly see anyone from any other backgrounds in the city centre, even my boss who is from Bangladesh was spat at, shouted at and had racist "you dont belong here", "go home" messages posted through his letterbox when he came to live here.

Devon I would say is very unwelcoming to outsiders, even white English/Welsh/Scottish/Irish ones living in other parts of the UK when compared to Cardiff, and i'm thankful I was brought up in a very diverse and tolerant city.


... on a separate note, I cant help feel this topic is moving away from Coronvirus and more into a separate topic about the protests!

 

[Mr Pearse]

I disagree. I have no prejudge against them or any other black person because of what happened. The same thing may happen to a white person walking past a group of blacks. Didnt change the way I view people at all, and as I said, I firmly believe where you were brought up defines this. I lived in Cardiff until 9 years ago when I moved to Devon.

The contrast was stark. Cardiff is very multi cultural, people from all walks of life, and generally everyone gets on. Devon was and still is totally different. You hardly see anyone from any other backgrounds in the city centre, even my boss who is from Bangladesh was spat at, shouted at and had racist "you dont belong here", "go home" messages posted through his letterbox when he came to live here.

Devon I would say is very unwelcoming to outsiders, even white English/Welsh/Scottish/Irish ones living in other parts of the UK when compared to Cardiff, and i'm thankful I was brought up in a very diverse and tolerant city.


... on a separate note, I cant help feel this topic is moving away from Coronvirus and more into a separate topic about the protests!

Cardiff is great for multiculturalism, where I live in the valleys tho well erm least said the better some places still don’t like English people living in the area.

 

[Jonathan]

Cardiff is great for multiculturalism, where I live in the valleys tho well erm least said the better some places still don’t like English people living in the area.

And some places in Cornwall don't like people visiting from the next village/town/whatever.

 

[Spookle15]

Sad to hear that about Cornwall. I would have hoped for better from a place that supposedly welcomes millions of visitors a year.

Liverpool is a great city for multiculturalism. It's also a very friendly place.

 

[Jonathan]

Sad to hear that about Cornwall. I would have hoped for better from a place that supposedly welcomes millions of visitors a year.

Liverpool is a great city for multiculturalism.

I lived in Cornwall for 14 years before I moved up to Biddulph and now Congleton, with five of those years being in St Ives. You'd be surprised at how much ill-feeling there is towards tourists. I lived just off the town centre in St Ives, and in the height of summer, it was incredibly difficult for us to drive anywhere - all too often, tourists would step off the pavement to pass each other due to the sheer numbers of them. I'll admit it was partly due to the pavements in St Ives being rather narrow or non-existent in places, but it was still frustrating. I still think living in St Ives helped to make me a better tourist.

 

[ringo]

Sad to hear that about Cornwall. I would have hoped for better from a place that supposedly welcomes millions of visitors a year.

Liverpool is a great city for multiculturalism. It's also a very friendly place.

Cornwall has elements where even someone living from a very young age is still viewed as an outsider.

The same regarding tourists, some don’t want you there but will willing accept any money a tourist brings in.

@Jonathan it doesn’t get any better than a tourist attempting to drive down Fore Street height of summer

 

[Jonathan]

Cornwall has elements where even someone living from a very young age is still viewed as an outsider.

The same regarding tourists, some don’t want you there but will willing accept any money a tourist brings in.

@Jonathan it doesn’t get any better than a tourist attempting to drive down Fore Street height of summer

Especially if they're driving the wrong way down it. Oh, the one way system in St Ives is a lot of fun.

 

[Mr Pearse]

Well that was some update by the welsh minister. No hotel/caravan holidays in Wales this summer and no sporting/concert events to take place for possible till the end of the year.

 

[Matt N]

This is fantastic news; New Zealand is now officially free of coronavirus and has lifted most restrictions: https://apple.news/A5L98IvGvRjuGS2f1xl8OYQ

The only thing still in place is that their borders are still closed.

 

[Dar]

It would have really been handy if those coppers had just had the patience to wait for the pandemic to be over before killing a man in broad daylight

 

[GaryH]

Well that was some update by the welsh minister. No hotel/caravan holidays in Wales this summer and no sporting/concert events to take place for possible till the end of the year.

Meanwhile the Wlesh Rugby Union continue to refuse to give refunds to those of us with the postponed Wales v Scoland game. £200 of mine they still have, grrrr

 

[D4n]

The inability of some people to distinguish between a mass gathering for the purpose of leisure and a mass gathering that is the consequence of desperation / necessity is incredible.

It's nothing short of deliberate ignorance and I have lost a lot of respect for some people from whom I would expect better. I guess this truly is Tory Britain.