Interesting....

Sadly, if like us you were born in the 1950,s the being racist is built in.
I can feel the righteous going crazy at their key boards but at the end of the day I'm Right

Lovely, isn’t it??
Nobody is born hating another person simply because of the colour of their skin.

I think its great!

When DD2 started work in a supermarket while she was still at school, she told us about a new friend she had made who worked on the next till and never stopped talking. She was, apparently very tall, slim and pretty - she forgot to mention she was Indian and it took ages for us to work out who she meant. They bonded over a love of Take That and Grunt Mitchell!

I was born in 1949 and I am not racist. I do notice the colour of a person's skin but also their hair, accent etc.

I once went for an interview and was asked whether I had any friends from ethnic minorities or other races but said I hadn't. I forgot my friends who are Indian, Polish, Jewish, Moslem and my Chinese Malayan sister in law.

I wasn't born in the 1950s, but in 1940. I absolutely refute the assertion that my generation is racist. Some probably are, but the same can be said about each subsequent generation.

Agreed, kitty - I'm your vintage and my friends/acquaintances are "the one who's good at knitting", "the keep fit fan", "the good neighbour" etc, not the black one, the brown one, the oriental one.

(Hope you've noticed the frequent playing of your greatest hit on the BBC drama The Last Post recently!!)

I'm still RIGHT

There is research that shows the same. Kids under five don't notice skin colour.

I was born in the early 1940s, but spent a good part of my childhood in the Far East, mostly in Singapore and Malaysia. My parents socialised with people of all origins (those two countries have in built diversity with significant numbers of not just Malays but also Chinese and Indians and, when we were there Portuguese and Dutch people) and my mother taught at the top girls school there. Racism there was but mainly among the local population for each other.

My family come from London and I lived there in the mid 60s and while I agree that there was a lot of racism then (and sexism), to say that for our generation racism is built in is quite ridiculous.

Not knowing the GN members background I cannot comment on the situation in their community, but racism was not common among my friends and family. DH has a mixed race godson born in 1967.

I was born in 1953 and when I was about 5 I bought home a boy who had moved in a long the street to play with my brother and I. He was from Trinidad and my mother told me to send him home. I was confused and horrified at the same time and have continued to be confused and horrified but actively non racist all my life. Sorry illtellhim you don't speak for us all even if you think you do. You sound pretty dogmatic yourself.

In our (small) church we have members from all over the world, Africa, South America, Caribbean, Asia, western and eastern Europe, and I feel privileged that they are all my friends. It also means when we share a meal there is an amazing variety of lovely food. They all seem to be great cooks. I was born in the 1950s.

Born in 1949 - grew up in middle class part of Merseyside. All colours and parts of the world at school - Norwegian, Nigerian you name it. Nobody made any distinction. It was only when I left Liverpool I came across the idea that your skin colour was something that might matter.

When young, my eldest son was telling me about a new boy in school and all he mentioned was he had “lovely curly hair”, the colour of his skin was not mentioned, it was lovely. One of my little grandsons was lucky enough to be chosen as a mascot to walk out on the pitch with professional footballers. Later, I asked him if he enjoyed it and he said “ yes I did and I held ........... ‘s hand and he even had a black face” . Kids learn racist behaviour from others, they are not born with it.

I think things have changed even in the last 20 years. We welcomed a black girl into our home under the holidays for inner city children scheme and took her and my own DDs to a swimming pool. My Dds were very upset when they were getting dressed as they said this lass had been the target of some very unpleasant racist comments. And one day the neighbouring child come to play for the afternoon and they all finished up siting on the sofa under a duvet watching Mary Poppins - when the neighbour came to fetch her child, she looked horrified and dragged her DD out and off home at some speed - she never let her child come to play with ours again. I am guessing that it was not Mary Poppins that set her off.

Would that happen nowadays? - I think not.

I do think that there was built-in racism at the time I grew up. My grandmother was very racist and did not hold back on her views, all of which I heard as a child. I know my FIL was the same - what a pain he was!

We did not see a black person from one year to the next, so for us it was something unusual.

I remember when I first went to uni, there was a mature black male student on our course and during a tutorial the tutor said: "Well Mr Blackman, what do you think?" - I nearly fell off my chair! But in fact, that was his name!

When GD first started school we were looking at her reading book and I asked her what was different about one of the little girls, she looked closely and said " she's wearing red shoes " she was indeed but she was also of African origin and all the other children were white.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

*000 is a typo - not a comment!

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"