Once again we're back to this word "minority". Does the fact that an ethnic minority is involved somehow lend the apparent racist tone, special legal clearance ?

Is there a demography to race discrimination ?

I honestly don't know what the law is on this.

To anwser the thread starter, does it realy matter? if they wanna do such an event then why not?


I know what you mean abourt the double standards.As some people who are all for this sort of thing would be crying racism if it was the opposite way, but i don't realy class those sorts of people as human anyhow

That's what they actually meant with the != (does not equal) symbol. Not very clear to non programmers I agree

I made it very clear why there is a difference.

I know you did, and I'm not criticising what you put. I am, however, still wondering what the precise terms of the law are on this issue.

I've actually raised the point a few times, and nobody seems to know the answer, including myself.

The thing is, that you've missed the whole point. It is OK for these types of event to take place, and for other people to be excluded, but it isn't OK the other way round. D'ya getme?

Ya getme

If you have ever been told or heard "she's pretty- for a black girl," you'll know why these contests exist.

If you have grown up with very few positive representations of people like you, you know why these contests exist.

If you grew up hearing that your skin tone, your hair texture, nose shape, lips, big butt and thighs were "ugly," "wrong," "animalistic," you know why these contests exist.

It is frustrating being a black woman in this country sometimes. I have a hard time getting my hair done (I live in Scotland) and I even have trouble trying to find jeans that fit properly. A lot of people take for granted just how many silly little things are geared toward white people. It hurts my heart to hear a little black girl say that her own skin is ugly because she is dark. I spent many a year burning my hair out with chemical relaxers before I decided that my own natural hair was fine and nothing to be ashamed of.

Do you think that some white people who live in countries other than the UK have similar gripes?

What do you mean? That they can't get there hair done, find clothes that fit or positive beauty representatives? Perhaps in Bizarro World, but not here Earth.

The ideal for beauty is white the world over. Ask anyone who is a person of colour and they can come up with hours stories about skin lighteners, warnings of staying out of the sun for fear of getting darker (not skin cancer, but darker) and various other things.
You would think in places like Kenya, Ghana, Belize and other countries with sizeable black populations that there would be no hair relaxers and all of that. Well, there are.

I am going to go out on a limb and state that you are not a black woman, based on your quizzical question.

What do you think I mean?

White minorities that have been actively discriminated against are typically rare, but in a case where they were, I wouldn't see any problem with a white empowerment sort of event.


Ah I see. I have no clue, but it would be interesting either way. There's a disparity when it comes to actually having totally anti-discriminatory law, because in order to have it you cannot address ingrained prejudice in society.

It's like affirmative action in America, I used to totally be against it until I realised what the point of it was. Morally, it's hard to judge whether such programmes are good ideas or not. Inequality in the present to combat the discrimination of the past in order to create equality of the future, or equality in the present and hope that somehow this will eventually cancel out built-in discrimination.

I feel the debate is set back a lot, sometimes because of over-reaching by minorities, but 9 times out of 10 because of the mainstream refusing to see the injustices to others in the face of injustices to them.

I don't know, since I have yet to see a place on the planet where Black people set the standard for beauty. If you do know of such place, please let me know as I would love to visit and I could possibly find some makeup that suits me.

You clearly have a very negative view of yourself. Surely it would be better to focus on positives?

Even the fact that we call it "reverse" racism is annoying to me. Racism is racism and as a white woman I've been on the recieving end of racist glares in the street for absolutely no reason other than that it's very obvious racism. But nobody gives a monkey's when it happens to whites; it's like we should just suck it up and accept it as payback or something. It's not taken at all seriously by the law, media or even regular people and that's just causing resentment and probably relation racism!

What does a "racist glare" look like ?

Do you not think it could be paranoia?

That's right, hence:

Non-black != white.

I don't know why I am responding to this but....
Nah, I actually love myself-- some would say too much. I like my kinky hair, my brown skin, my very curvy backside and my big legs. True, it would be nice to walk into boots and find a foundation that suited, but hey, I do alright and I very much like Clinique's superbalanced foundation in Wheat, though 17.50 a bottle is a little pricey, but I am worth it. (oops, that is Lo'Real's tagline!) I have had admirers that were of every race going, so there goes another positive.

I would say you are quite ignorant, maybe you should try to educate yourself about people before making comments.

Good post! I'm sick of tired the ignorant people you get (not directing this at the OP by the way) that always bring up the same points e.g how come theres a black entertainment tv channel, if there was a white entertainment channel there would be uproar, how comes there's no straight pride parade... blah blah blah. You've summed it up nicely.

Which comments would those be? You appear to be very happy, so who cares what anyone else thinks.

This is what I'm talking about.

Nobody's willing to believe it happens.

When you've (general you) been on the recieving end maybe you'll have a bit of understanding and won't be so quick to blame it on the person who's calling racism.


When it happens to you, I'm sure you'll know.

The thing is, you said racist glares. How can you interpret that? I have been accused of playing the "race card" ( ) when actual racist crap has happened to me. I don't mean to sound rude or otherwise, but I know a lot of white people that are fearful of black people, and they tend to act very paranoid around black people. I have had friends ask if they would be safe coming into my former neighborhood. It was a very upscale but predominantly black area. Said friend could have never afforded to live there. There is a very good test developed by Harvard University that shows that most people, black and white, prefer white people to black, and are more fearful of black people. I took the test and it showed that I preferred black to white, but then I have never been conventional. Google it, because I don't have the link handy.

I'm not frightened of anyone based on looks alone, aside from maybe gangs who hang out on the corner looking intimidating, and they can be white, pink, blue, whatever. I don't care.

I also don't consider myself a paranoid person ojudgemental, and I've not been on the recieving end of racism enough for it make me obsessive about it, but it has happened and it was very hurtful. I was brought up to be colouredblind but, and maybe racist glare is a dodgy way of explaining the looks I get, but when it's happen I know why. It's really not un-obvious and I honestly don't think it's me making an issue out of one thing into something else that's not there.

So what exactly is it you're so pissed off about ? Is it because you've tried to report racist glares to the police and they've laughed ? You said before that racism against whites wasn't taken seriously - are the racist glares the only personal example you have of this ? Or have you also been called names, physically attacked or not been given a job or something like that ?

Sorry but racist glares don't even register. Everyone gets looked at, glared at for any number of reasons. As long as no one's physically or verbally abusing you so what ?