Spot on.
The issue here is accepting racism when it should be called each and every occasion.
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Iām colourblind when it comes to people, so I find it really hard to feel bad for racists. Iām not sure that every person who,is subject to racism wants to get into a full on anti racist process in order to book a room. If a bunch of friends want to spend a weekend together and one member books because itās less hassle, Iām sorry it has to be that way
I was In a taxi in Jerusalem, when I gave the hotel address, the cabbie told me that was a Palestinian hotel and I wouldnāt like it, I refused his advise. My facial features have been taken for of Jewish origin on many occasions, but in fact my family is Anglo-Saxon. When tanned, my brother, who has a full dark beard appears Arabic. The fact is our parents are from Liverpool, with family BP names that include brown, colville and Lethbridge . Iām not a genealogy geek, but I expect our origins are anglo-Saxon with perhaps a Roman/Arabic influence.
Not arguing, just commenting, as I know we are largely in agreement on this.
Iām looking forward to the day (donāt think Iāll live long enough seeing as how we are now stepping backwards further than I thought possible) when people wonāt say āI donāt see color.ā I want to see all the colors and want others too as well. I want to see and not fill in the blanks with some preconcieved ideas about what it means to be that person. I donāt want comments like āHe doesnāt even sound blackā or āshe does act like the rest of themā to ever be seen as compliments again.
As a teacher I once told a light-skinned, red-haired Hispanic student with a Hispanic name something along the lines of āif you were Hispanicā¦ā She reminded me that she was Hispanic. I felt chagrined and vowed to really try to see people and not just look at their skin and open my mouth. Iāve failed many times and I understand the struggle is real. I really have to thank my students for calling me out so many times and really trying to pry the scales off my eyes.
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I mean that I treat all people the same. My phillipino colleagues taught me how to make their special dishes. My sister, my Jamaican fried and I went to the market to buy goat and plantains and we were taught how to cook them.
My parents taught us not to judge from appearances, to be open, in the Late 60ās when being gay was illegal, our parents had a gay couple as friends who joined us for family events and weekends. Right now I have a couple who are mixed race. Heās a Northern Ireland, orange supporter, sheās from Guyana. I only know about the orange as they were here for the annual parade.
Louise why do you feel that @Zandra, myself or anyone else from a BAME background āis getting into a full on anti-racist processā by the mere act of booking a room on Airbnb as ourselves.
As I have already said myself, family and friends regularly book on Airbnb. It has never been an issue. Far from the mere act of booking ābeing a full-on anti racist processā as you call it. Itās has never crossed my mind to do otherwise. It sounds like you are suggesting I and other BAME guests shouldnāt book on Airbnb for fear of discrimination.
Thatās not treating all people the same. Would you also suggest gay people should have a straight looking person book for them?
Chris was victim blaming and suggested āShe could have avoided this drama if she let her white friends book the place instead of herā.
I usually value your opinions on this forum, but canāt on this occasion.
Helsi, sorry for my ignorance, but what is BAME? Iāve not heard it before
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I donāt think I was attacking anyone. Apologies if it was taken that way, just offering my pov. How are people who are targets of discrimination supposed to cope with it when booking an Airnb?
What is BAME?
Here is the definition I got by Googling BAME:
BAME. British. Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (used to refer to members of non-white communities in the UK).
Thanks for saying what I was trying to say and failed.
Please please learn how this is such aā¦ not greatā¦ thing to say.
Hereās some help:
https://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/19/mixed-kids-are-always-so-beautiful/
People are people, no matter what their ābreedingā.
Itās nothing to do with being a ārace warriorā (wth does that phrase even mean, anyway? Are you talking KKK?) , itās simply about treating people EQUALLY.
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Yes, my husband is mixed. It really pisses me off when people say, āBut Conrad doesnāt look black.ā.
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New York, the most diverse place on earth - right? Black English Yorkshireman with a white Scottish girlfriend and everyoneās head goes into a complete spin like the feckin Omen or something. Sorry, my dear American friends, but you have a HUUGE problem.
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@Malagachica Race Warriorsā¦ i am speechless 
Itās about having the same right as anyone else to book a room, not about going out to defend human rights in Gaza or Syria for example.
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How I agree with every word of that article
No this isnāt right at all. Being able to book a holiday, or anything else, without having to adjust your image or purposefully leaving out information about yourself is NOT being a ārace warriorā. Itās called living your life as a human being.
Iām sure you intended for your comments to be harmless but this is so so wrong. As a society we should not be accepting of racism. Iāll say it again - comments like this breed racism and make it socially acceptable. It isnāt.
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Glad I wasnāt the only one who balked at @Malagachicaās reply. It reminds of the times I have heard people (e.g. Neighbours etc) make racist comments and then say āoh but not youā. Because ā¦ Iām excluded because they know Iām ok?
So once Iāve ridden on someoneās coat tails to get my Airbnb booking my host will learn that Iām really a nice person and will not be scared of brown people in future. O.K.
To be honest I thought these arguments came from uneducated people. Yet here we are; this is the 21st century. And this comment comes from someone who has a degree at SOAS. Iām so depressed right now. @Malagachica I know your comment is well meaning but thatās what makes it so chilling. If thatās what a friendly, well educated voice is thinking, I am very scared.
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Hi @Malagachica
When we join in debate on a forum itās not mandatory to respond to every point someone has made in a post.
I didnāt respond to other areas of the post because @Magwitch more than adequately covered the other point I would have wanted to comment on, which was around mixed race couple producing āgorgeousā children. With her comments and link to that fantastic article that echoād many of my experiences as a child and as a parent.
And because I had already commented on my thoughts that just because very sadly some individuals have experienced racism, homophobia, Islamaphobia etc when booking on Airbnb doesnāt mean that the rest of us should feel the need to disguise who we are to be able to book a room or place.
For the record - I am not blaming those who might want to disguise their race, sexuality or religion to make a booking. I have clearly not said that in any comment I have made. I have said we shouldnāt have to.
And why are you only resentful of me @Malagachica others responded to your posts too, but werenāt subject to this remark. Rather they have received a reasoned response/apology.
@everyone that I seem to have offended:
Itās quite upsetting to wake up in the morning to find you have been branded a racist!
First, @Magwitch, thank you for your concern for my education. I donāt usually read the Telegraph, but will look at this article, though I think you may have misunderstood my comment, which I perhaps didnāt put clearly enough. I wasnāt particularly concerned about the childās mixed race and of course itās a given that all babies are beautiful @almost everyone (except for the one of mine that looked like a pug). but this was a case of two extremely good-looking people producing a particularly good-looking baby. It doesnāt mean that I think all mixed-race babies are ipso facto beautiful. My sonās white South African brother-in-law and his black Zimbabwean wife have a son who is, of course, gorgeous to us, his family, but most people would find just normal-looking.
@Zandra, I do see what you mean and am sorry if I have offended you. I think a little history is in order:
I studied Urdu, Persian, Indian and African music at SOAS and afterwards continued with my main interest in African music by studying in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau (sadly I can remember hardly anything I learned and certainly can play no instruments) but I have great memories of my times in those countries. During the past few years I have had several stays in Nigeria where I have been teaching soapmaking in the Delta. Itās been a fascinating experience to be a minority race (my colleague and I only saw one other white person in Port Harcourt) and I certainly wish that minorities in the UK were treated with the friendliness, openness and good humour that we were ā¦ and yes, we got a lot of āwe donāt really like white people but youāre different.ā Not really surprising as most whites in the Delta region are working in the oilfields, hate being there and are loudly contemptuous about āthe blacksā. I also have several Nigerian friends in our church and am godmother to two of their children. I am very aware of the difficulties they face here in Spain, but I believe that slowly things are changing. And I also realise that for many people āslowlyā isnāt fast enough.
So, @Zandra, I completely understand your point and I wouldnāt dream of suggesting you should or should need to ride on anyoneās coattails to get an Airbnb booking. All I am doing is quoting the experience of one guest family, what they said (and remember that the ārace warriorā quote was from Serge from Cameroon, not me) and how I couldnāt bring myself to blame them if that was their chosen strategy.
The only point of your post that I do take some issue with is that I actually do believe that while there must be universal laws of human rights and equality, I also believe that one of the things that breaks down prejudice is actually knowing, interacting, socialising with and indeed loving people of other races on a one-to-one basis. But I grew up in the optimistic sixties when we thought if we āgave peace a chanceā the world would turn out perfect ā¦ I shall leave this answer up as I particularly wanted @Zandra to read it, but as I hate confrontation I will delete all my other posts since I seem to have caused such offence.
And go back to kettles and duvets ā¦
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No-one on here has called you a racist.
Please donāt delete or edit your posts or it will need mean comments and responses will be out of context.