Well, I don't know what the social climate is like where you are (maybe someowhere in the US)? In the UK there are places where we girls don't always feel safe for whatever reason, but guns aren't legal for citizens to buy here. We use rape alarms or pepper spray.
Fearing someone just because they're black seems racist to me, but that's probably because there aren't the same social tensions between people of different colours in the UK as in the US. Most black people I know in UK are very much like white people and occupy the same social spheres. People who hate black people are considered Evil - it is a mainly unmotivated hatred. I imagine that if where you are, white and black people constitute separate communities that don't mix and there's known animosity between them, then there might be good reason to fear black men after dark in a dodgy area if you're white and a vulnerable profile of person.
You don't need a gun though, I don't think. Unless you're trained to use it, how can you be sure you won't kill someone instead of just deterring them? Even if you were trained, 'fight or flight' is a powerful thing and just takes over. Maybe go for pepper spray?
Wow, you must be some upper class snob to not realise that the white and black communities don't mix. Go out and count how many whites and blacks there are. In a city centre you'll probably get an even enough ratio but go to a small town or the suburbs and there's a big difference.
I haven't seen you round here much, Takuto. Are you new?
Very British kind of bating tactic, that - accusing someone implicitly or explicitly of being a filthy rich snobby Tory. If all you wanted was to get a rise out of me I'm not about to defend myself as a non-snob - but to say that I was raised in a small village. There were fewer non-white people there than in my university cities to be sure, but the two BME pupils at my local primary school were popular enough kids. We were practically bombarded with anti-racism morals - and I like to think it did us some good! Certainly, racism was treated as a 'capital crime' at school. To be honest, the racism I've seen is worse in the cities. I know there are places in the UK where many people are mistrusting of Pakistani and Polish people, perhaps because many live within their own sub-communities, work for cheap and undercut British workers economically, and don't participate in British life and culture. But that is not all of them. In any case, most black people I've known from the UK are culturally similar to me and hang out with white people. Maybe because most of them have lived here for at least one generation and have assimilated; maybe because of the Commonwealth. Who knows? It feels awkward even speaking of 'them' and 'us'. I'm not living in the UK at the moment; I'm in mainland Europe, and the difference in the way black people are treated here is noticeable. Here, black people and white people associate far less, and I can actually see more reasons for interracial conflict than in the UK.
By all means have a snoop around my comment history if you want to know any more about my life...
I've been here around 8 months I think.
I'd like to point out that I wouldn't have called you a snob if I had taken into account the possibility of us having totally different backgrounds. Smaller communities have better morals than large cities where racism is abundant. Hate crimes are a big thing but, thankfully, conferences are up and running so heads of police and charities can work together to make tackling racism easier.
I still believe you underestimate the amount of crimes motivated by racism.
Listen sweetie, in the U.S. they sell boxes of ammunition like candy bars. Hand guns are as ubiquitous as black umbrellas. Your blithering about Euopean civil society is absolutely such a naive response to American urban jungles that we can only conclude you are pathologically aloof.
Listen and learn. Then feel the sense of relief that the trouble makers were all deported from England in the 1700s. We're still across the pond making trouble. Hitler's big mistake was that he never realized American cities operate under low level military conflict all the time. Don't be dumb like Hitler was.
Wow Godwin's law came into play pretty bloody quickly there, didn't it? What raw nerve of yours did I just touch? Or are you having a bad day? I might be an English speaker, but that doesn't make my country a sort of cultural 'colony' of the US. We don't know everything about how you live, and I personally wouldn't dare presume to be able to separate the Hollywood from the reality. So I for one just talk about what I know.
Is it really such a 'pathology' then that I respond to America with Europe? Can you respond to Europe with anything but America, and other places you might have lived?
Having spent time on four different continents, I suppose I could digress into a comparative cultural discussion. But this woman fears for her life. That's serious stuff, isn't it?
Well, if you want to digress, nothing's stopping you, and it's not going to hurt anybody. She'll make her decision either way. As I say, all I have to contribute is what I know.
Should I buy a gun if I fear for my life
← View full post
Well, I don't know what the social climate is like where you are (maybe someowhere in the US)? In the UK there are places where we girls don't always feel safe for whatever reason, but guns aren't legal for citizens to buy here. We use rape alarms or pepper spray.
Fearing someone just because they're black seems racist to me, but that's probably because there aren't the same social tensions between people of different colours in the UK as in the US. Most black people I know in UK are very much like white people and occupy the same social spheres. People who hate black people are considered Evil - it is a mainly unmotivated hatred. I imagine that if where you are, white and black people constitute separate communities that don't mix and there's known animosity between them, then there might be good reason to fear black men after dark in a dodgy area if you're white and a vulnerable profile of person.
You don't need a gun though, I don't think. Unless you're trained to use it, how can you be sure you won't kill someone instead of just deterring them? Even if you were trained, 'fight or flight' is a powerful thing and just takes over. Maybe go for pepper spray?
--
Takuto
5 years ago
|
pl
Comment Hidden (
show
)
Report
0
0
Wow, you must be some upper class snob to not realise that the white and black communities don't mix. Go out and count how many whites and blacks there are. In a city centre you'll probably get an even enough ratio but go to a small town or the suburbs and there's a big difference.
--
Grunewald
5 years ago
|
pl
Comment Hidden (
show
)
Report
0
0
I haven't seen you round here much, Takuto. Are you new?
Very British kind of bating tactic, that - accusing someone implicitly or explicitly of being a filthy rich snobby Tory. If all you wanted was to get a rise out of me I'm not about to defend myself as a non-snob - but to say that I was raised in a small village. There were fewer non-white people there than in my university cities to be sure, but the two BME pupils at my local primary school were popular enough kids. We were practically bombarded with anti-racism morals - and I like to think it did us some good! Certainly, racism was treated as a 'capital crime' at school. To be honest, the racism I've seen is worse in the cities. I know there are places in the UK where many people are mistrusting of Pakistani and Polish people, perhaps because many live within their own sub-communities, work for cheap and undercut British workers economically, and don't participate in British life and culture. But that is not all of them. In any case, most black people I've known from the UK are culturally similar to me and hang out with white people. Maybe because most of them have lived here for at least one generation and have assimilated; maybe because of the Commonwealth. Who knows? It feels awkward even speaking of 'them' and 'us'. I'm not living in the UK at the moment; I'm in mainland Europe, and the difference in the way black people are treated here is noticeable. Here, black people and white people associate far less, and I can actually see more reasons for interracial conflict than in the UK.
By all means have a snoop around my comment history if you want to know any more about my life...
--
Takuto
5 years ago
|
pl
Comment Hidden (
show
)
Report
0
0
-
McBean
5 years ago
|
pl
Comment Hidden (
show
)
Report
0
0
I've been here around 8 months I think.
I'd like to point out that I wouldn't have called you a snob if I had taken into account the possibility of us having totally different backgrounds. Smaller communities have better morals than large cities where racism is abundant. Hate crimes are a big thing but, thankfully, conferences are up and running so heads of police and charities can work together to make tackling racism easier.
I still believe you underestimate the amount of crimes motivated by racism.
Listen sweetie, in the U.S. they sell boxes of ammunition like candy bars. Hand guns are as ubiquitous as black umbrellas. Your blithering about Euopean civil society is absolutely such a naive response to American urban jungles that we can only conclude you are pathologically aloof.
Listen and learn. Then feel the sense of relief that the trouble makers were all deported from England in the 1700s. We're still across the pond making trouble. Hitler's big mistake was that he never realized American cities operate under low level military conflict all the time. Don't be dumb like Hitler was.
--
Grunewald
5 years ago
|
pl
Comment Hidden (
show
)
Report
0
0
Wow Godwin's law came into play pretty bloody quickly there, didn't it? What raw nerve of yours did I just touch? Or are you having a bad day? I might be an English speaker, but that doesn't make my country a sort of cultural 'colony' of the US. We don't know everything about how you live, and I personally wouldn't dare presume to be able to separate the Hollywood from the reality. So I for one just talk about what I know.
Is it really such a 'pathology' then that I respond to America with Europe? Can you respond to Europe with anything but America, and other places you might have lived?
--
McBean
5 years ago
|
pl
Comment Hidden (
show
)
Report
0
0
Having spent time on four different continents, I suppose I could digress into a comparative cultural discussion. But this woman fears for her life. That's serious stuff, isn't it?
--
Grunewald
5 years ago
|
pl
Comment Hidden (
show
)
Report
0
0
See More Comments =>
Well, if you want to digress, nothing's stopping you, and it's not going to hurt anybody. She'll make her decision either way. As I say, all I have to contribute is what I know.