Well... Even if you argue "I was attacked by a group of black youths so now I'm scared of all black youths" isn't an unreasonable feeling, opinion, or attitude to have, you certainly can't argue that you were carrying a preconceived opinion or feeling about black youths you had never met before.
I typed out a great big response to all this. Then I read it back to myself, pressed Ctrl+A, and typed this. Proper heavy topic for a modding forum, this sort of stuff always ends in tears. Use to be like this in serious all the time going back a few years.
Sadly that's just how it was. IDK if it's still like that, it's been over 30 years since I was at school. It really sucked mostly because I knew this black kid and we'd known eachother since primary school, all through middle school and then into high school yet he distanced himself from me in high school.
It only ends in tears if you are too opinionated and think your poo doesn't stink. For that you'd have to imply you're perfect and that's stupid. Funny how people judge, yet will have plenty of their own crap they should be worrying about fixing rather than putting labels on me.
Was it? Every single black youth was out to mug white youths at knifepoint? You sure, 'cos I feel like that's the sort of thing that would have made the news. Hell, the history books.
Didn't say every single did I? If you're genuinely interested from a historical perspective then this... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Street-Boy...ard&qid=1573226510&sprefix=tim+pritcha&sr=8-1 Should paint a clearer picture. In fact, we were mugged by a faction of the 28s. Oddly enough during that book our paths cross. I'm not going to talk about what happened it's in the book.
I feel I'm probably not opinionated enough to participate - most of what I have to say is anecdotal or philosophical, owing to the fact that I live in one of the whitest parts of the country and therefore lack the first-hand experience of both race and racism. Hell, there were no black kids at my secondary school. None. I mingled with and befriended folks from all manner of races at uni, without prejudice. Then I went back to my mountain man ways in the back of beyond. Now I have to travel to a nearby takeaway to see anyone with so much as a tan!
It's like that where I live now. Pretty backward here. Brixton and south London was a whole different story. The book I linked to will go through it from a black perspective. Where I lived it was very different. Better by the time I left from a racism perspective but yeah, my town was very racist white chav back in the 70s and 80s. As I said as an adult I understand. As a scared 13 year old kid I didn't. I just avoided situations that made me feel vulnerable like any one would. The main character in that book moved into my town. That part is in the book. That's the town I lived in now. You can probably understand why none of my family live in that area now.
Do I need to quote you *again*? C'mon, dude, we've been over this. You very clearly said that after being mugged by a specific group of black youths you changed your attitude to all black youths. Even the ones who didn't mug you. And the ones who didn't mug anyone, per the above. If it wasn't every single black kid mugging people, then "that's how it was" is untrue. Simple as.
OK in Brixton pretty much everyone was racist. Especially in Angel Town. As a white person you simply didn't go there. In Streatham Vale it was mostly whites with some blacks. Now it is predominantly black. In Mitcham (next town over) it was all whites. Chav high rise council estates. Mitcham was a very racist town, and two particular estates used to be a no go zone for blacks. In fact pretty much the whole of London was like that. There was very little integration, just black areas and white areas. I chose to spend my time in Streatham Vale, given it was mostly mixed. However, it still had racism from both sides. Especially the local pikeys. That was where our paths cross in that book. Half of the problem with the world today is quite simply down to people having no experience. Politicians live in places like rural Oxford and have absolutely no bloody idea how the real world looks. Which of course comes down to money as usual. If you're not born into that sort of life or end up stuck in it like I did then you just won't understand. Like I've said in the thread, idealic liberalism is ridiculous. "If I just close my eyes and pretend it's not there it'll go away". Now? Mitcham and Croydon are literally no go zones unless you like danger and risk. They knocked down all of the awful high rise in places like Brixton and Wandsworth for the post codes, then dumped then all in Streatham Vale and Mitcham. That YouTube video is exactly how it is there now. That's not actors those are real gangs. There's been countless stabbings and shootings there and in surrounding areas. It needs addressing. Badly.
Can't argue there, but I would like to point out I'm definitely not looking at all this from an ivory tower. I live in a deprived area of Bradford - the local children's centre was closed by the Tories, obviously, the unadopted road looks like a bombsite, there's a halfway house at the bottom of the street, and the rozzers have busted two grow-ops in the last year alone to my knowledge - and was born the son of a former Naval radio engineer and a shop assistant who, after the death of my father, worked in a range of jobs ranging from cleaning the local A&E department to driving a delivery van for a motor spares outfit. I went to the second-worst school in the area, did a BTEC at the local technical college, then entered the workforce. There are ivory-tower liberals, no doubt about it. I ain't one of 'em.
Yeah I can get that. Like I said, I've been up that way and to Bradford so I know how it is. That was terribly segmented too, with Asian areas and white areas and the aforementioned "no go" zones. Bear in mind this was the mid 80s. I've also been to Whitney where David Cameron lives. It's very different there...... I always wished I lived in Hampshire. Somewhere out in the country miles from anywhere. And that's pretty much where I am now. There has been a couple of stabbings here recently, but ironically both of the guys who stabbed each other were from London bringing drugs down here. Which again is a wider problem. Drug dealers are no longer limiting their crap to cities. Now? They send down a member to small towns and set up business there. And of course it comes with all of the trappings, such as stabbing and shootings. We have created and underclass. Like, worse than the poor. These people are dirt poor, all funding has been removed and thus any hope to go with it and that's why all of the stabbing and shooting. It's all about poverty. They have no life, no hope and no morals. They don't expect to make it to 30. It's incredibly sad.
As someone who lives on the outskirts of Croydon I'd disagree with that, having said that I'm probably not best placed to make a judgment as being middle aged (what age is that exactly?) i don't have much desire for nights out these days. Having said that if i was in my 20's things would probably be rather different.
I have literally - literally - never come across a no-go zone in Bradford. Ever. In my life. I mean, don't get me wrong, there's some rough areas, but they're far from no-go zones. "No parking your car here if you value your alloys" zones, maybe, but not no-go.
The last time I was at The George pub it got tear gassed and evacuated. And that was 20 years ago. It hasn't got any better from what I've heard. I've also realised that living in an area like that is definitely desensitizing. I used to think nothing of a road being closed because of a shooting or stabbing and be more worried about being late. Since leaving I've completely changed. Even my accent has completely changed. I'm almost close to not swearing now too.
Well yeah that's what I meant. Violence wasn't a huge problem then. Now Salford was and is another story...
Sorry, I think I'm having a slow day - three 17-hour workdays in a row catching up to me. You said: I took that to mean "I've been to Bradford, and when I went it had no-go zones." I guess it could also mean "I've been to Bradford, and it still has no-go zones," too. But, to the best of my knowledge as someone who lives in Bradford, neither are true. Now you're saying: So does that mean there weren't no-go zones in Bradford? If so, what did you mean by no-go zones before? I is confuzzled.
I meant no go as in not nice places where as you said you'd probably come out to find your car on bricks. Or scratched of dented. I did mention this was back in the 80s in an earlier post btw. I've not been back since then. It's not a place I would associate with violence and gun crime etc. Now? I wouldn't know.
Last time I was in Croydon it was an absolute shithole and I vowed never to go back. But I didn't get a racial tension vibe.
Ah, the no-go zones also known as "any city in the UK." I first went to Bradford in the late 80s, to visit the National Museum of Photography, Film, and Television (later the Media Museum, now the Science and Media Museum) and the Colour Museum (now closed to the public but open to school trips, oddly,) and to grab a curry on the way back. And I've lived there now for... 15 years? More? I forget. I don't recall any areas rougher than you'd find in any city then, and I can't think of any now. Can't say I've ever looked at the rougher areas from a perspective of racial segregation, either, but now you mention it the roughest area I know is verging on exclusively white. Interesting. The wife's 1960s Mini did get written off when some toerags tried to nick it from Morrisons carpark but couldn't figure out the steering-wheel lock, tho'.
