Interesting....

Many of us may have relatives in the Caribbean who are black. DH's ancestor went there and spread his seed rather a lot. When DS was checking in at the airport in New York the black woman at the desk looked at him in surprise and said "You ain't no surname" which might have been construed as racist if it was the other way round. He had a good laugh about it.

A similar thing happened to me in St Lucia, I was being served by a woman who had difficulty accepting that a white person could have my surname.

Apparently in St Vincent someone with my first and surname must be a local based on a history of so many Scots moving there.

My daughter did exactly the same when she started school in mid 70's. Racism is a learnt behaviour imo fed by a minority and kept alive by the media .

How heart-warming!

I wonder whether the change toward being more racist dates from increasing Americanisation? In the Uk we didn't have plantations of the Southern US, with their large populations of imported slaves, owned by a white man, worked mercilessly and treated as subhuman, punished with the lash and the women fair game for the men of the owner's family. Yes, there were black servants here, even ones bought abroad as slaves, but many were footmen in stately homes, in the same position as white servants and a curiosity rather than an underclass. There were divisions in society, but those divisions were more by class than colour - agricultural workers and domestic servants in general had little say in their lives. And during WW2, there were coloured US military personel here, again a curiosity and a minority.

It was television that brought Americanisms and American attitudes to the UK.

We had racism drummed into us as my father had been in Africa and India in the war and had had some unpleasant experiences. His bigotry and prejudices grew with age - he always had something against the Welsh and the French (to the extent that he would not entertain or even listen to an anecdote about anyone called "Jones"), and to this were addedlong hair, Union members, homosexuals - in fact anyone who was "different". A real Alf Garnett. Towards the end, he even developed an intolerance of the Scots, whom he had had admiration for all of his life.

My sister and I used to laugh about it and said we really ought to get boyfriends with long hair, Union membership and Welsh accents - preferably black, to boot! (Unfortunately there weren't many in East Anglia, where we were)

Somehow we never really adopted his views.

The stories in this thread are heartening.

Unfortunately, however, some people still feel discriminated against, where it is quite unjustified. I admire those who, despite this, take the stance "attack is the best form of defence" and joke about it or confront the person who is obviously looking down on them for whatever reason (disability, colour, size).

It is interesting that so many posters had a non-racist upbringing. I certainly did not!! I confess that it took me a few years to shake this off - proving the point that it is learned. It was so refreshing for me to see my DGD with her best friend and to know that their upbringing (and hopefully that of my own DDs) is so very different.

My friend had a black step grandfather. It wasn't until she was five that she noticed he was black.

I was a wartime baby. My daughter is mixed race and a lovelier, more caring child I could not have had. She was fostered at 18 months, 40 years ago and rings us every day to check we are well.

paddyann, do you agree that racism didn't become a problem near Glasgow until somewhere in the l960s? I remember hearing then of people putting their houses up for sale when Jamaican immigrants moved into their streets. Before that it really wasn't a problem.

People were judged by whether they were hard-working decent people or not, unless we are talking about the Protestant- Catholic division where bigotry ran wild on both sides, although there too there were exceptions.

Thinking of the song from South Pacific, You've got to be carefully taught.

DGS was watching football with DS and asked "why is there only one black man". Took DS a little while to work out that he was talking about the referee. We think about this every time we hear about racism

I believe there are far to many who adopt the 'you don't like me or you won't accept me because of the colour of my skin'attitude. Isn't it attitude that separates us.? The colour of skin is not a reason to like or dislike another human being or even care what race or religion they are. It is what lies within a person that counts.

When I was five, my father who was a GP in a small town near Glasgow agreed to take a last year medical student from Glasgow University out with him on his rounds and let him sit in the consulting room, both subject naturally to the patient's approval. I think Daddy was paid a small fee for tutoring, during this time. The student was to stay with us for the period involved, and I, only being five at the time now have no idea how long the student was with us.

The relevance of this story is that he was the first African I and most of my father's patients had every seen in real life, and as far as I know no-one either refused to allow the student to sit in on their consultations with their doctor, or made any ill-natured comments that could be construed as racist. This was in 1956

At Sunday School 70 years ago we sang..' Red and yellow, black and white, All are precious in his sight' This was a bit theoretical and, perhaps, a curiosity as we had only seen children of the same skin colour.
What did upset me, though, was that my best friend had doors shut in her face several times when she tried to play with the daughter of the house. Her father's (legitimate|) way of earning a living was gratly disapproved of in that community

My mother tells the story of her first encounter with a black man in the thirties. At the age of four or so she was walking along the street with her mother when her mum suddenly pushed her into the hedge and covered her body with her own - as a black man walked past. My grandmother held racist views all her life and it was a source of great tension between us at times.

illtellhim We had a of friends of different races live near us in Merseyside and we had many a happy day playing all together no one noticed the colour difference all our foreign friends families had their own businesses and did well serving the area.
Two of the children from "our gang" went on to be specialist Doctors in their chosen field would you object being treated by one of them ? I think not somehow.

Three weeks after we got married, DH's parents came to our house for dinner. A long term school friend of mine was leaving as they arrived, neither of them spoke to her as they passed in the drive, but I didn't think anything of it.
When I asked if they wanted anything to drink, FiL said "not in the same glass that 'n****r' used".
That was almost thirty three years ago, he was told immediately to get out of my house, and he's never been here since! MiL wasn't racist, but wouldn't say anything to him, he's an overbearing moron!
DH still has a relationship with him, but it's been very strained since that day.
For the benefit of 'illtellhim', I'll mention that I was born in the 50s.

racism is taught at home,where I lived just north of Glasgow there were several multi racial families in the mid fifties,nobody that I remember ever reffered to their colour .In fact once when my dad was talking about the west African man at the bottom of the street the only way he describeb him was " you know,the really tall man at number 5"

*000 is a typo - not a comment!

I was not aware of race/colour differences - until a new boyfriend gave me endless grief for not noticing he was 'black'. (He had a tan complection, hazel eyes and curly brown hair...how was I to know?!) He was so annoyed he dyed his hair black so as to better demonstrate his heritage.000
Nowadays I have to be racially aware for the sake of self preservation. Heaven help me if I step out of line and assume people are happy just being themselves without me being ready to acknowledge their ethnic/religious background and possibly giving them special leeway because of the demands of their belief system or race.
I'm a cheerful white mongrel, so couldn't care less personally.

My son mentioned when he was about five he had played with the brown kid. He was just expressing what he saw, and nothing more

I was brought up in rural Yorkshire & can't remember seeing an Asian let alone Black face until I was at Secondary School unless we went into one of the larger Towns (very rare event), in my 3rd Year at Secondary School a Half-Cast Pupil joined, she was more of a curiosity & was not Racially abused.

I took my DD into College with me one morning (Mature Student), in my Student Group there was a Young Nigerian man, he offered DD a piece of a chocolate bar, she was fascinated by him but was unsure whether to accept (she was only 6).

I agree children are not Racist unless they are taught to be prejudiced. I have had many friends from all nationalities & worked with many. I take people as they are not judging by the colour of the skin

Young children are far more open minded than adults and whether they even notice the colour of skin is debatable. Prejudice isn't innate, it's learned.
I guess racism develops as they lose their innocence.

Born in the 50's,I was brought up with mainly white people around me,many from other countries.We had a neighbour who was a newly arrived Jamaican and he was just as much part of the community as anyone else.I never encountered racism from my parents,grandparents or other neighbours.

We are in the same situation as you
luckyGirl
In my DGS reception class the boys are out number by girls,
The little lads tend to run round the playground together playing dinosaurs.
Not once has my DGS mentioned that one little boy is black.
Nor has he mentioned that another has a large facial deformity.
Its lifts my sprits when I see all the little
ones so happy in each others company.
I wish it would be forever thus.

My daughter is 51 years old. When she was about 6, exactly the same thing happened about her new friend at school.
She had described this child right down to her hairstyle but not a word about her colour/race. Children are delightfully unbiased until they hear about/experience racism.