friend of a friend of mine went to berlin with a group and they had a big night out, were walking home in the morning and a guy cycles past and shouts the n word at him, laughing hysterically, then cycles off. everyone very shocked and you do still feel that for all the problems in this country, you would probably not get that sort of thing. there's a big difference between uk and europe in that sense i feel
No, no there really isn't, I can tell you of many experiences well into the mid 2000s where me and my parents got called 'wogs', 'ah-raabs', 'terrorists' etc. but I don't want to contribute to a thread full of smug Brits. There is trying to be anti-racist to the best of your ability and doing it in lower case (we are all falible after all, even if we come from an exploited racialised group) and then there is writing patronising hr statements where the occasion doesn't demand it. And it's the latter why literally everyone cannot stand the professorial tone that Brits adopt when it comes to discussing such issues.
The only reason why it seems different is because the conservatives have monopolised the discourse on being anti-immigrant. A lot of people can tell you how labour used us as bait through masterminding CONTEST post-9-11. But the thing is Manchester is way more segregated than London. You should be aware of this (maybe you've even discussed it on here?) the Pakistani community leads a relatively isolated existence to the Brits.
If anyone thinks that in polite society it's not ok to be racist to muslims and black Africans (hell, even punjabi sikhs from lower class and rural backgrounds) without English as their first language or immigrating from a comparitively later generation without being able to lay claim to the black British or British Asian identity then oh boy. I've got news for you.
Being able to make explicit racist statements hasn't been hushed up, they've just been transfered to communities that most people on this forum don't interact with outside of professional life. My family still don't have white mates. Sure, they have white work mates, but actual white friends off the job? Not at all.