Right, so I know many of you don't care about this- and I shouldn't really, it's only online, but here's the thing about online, things are written here forever you could say. And there has been a lot of 'back and fourth' between me and a particular user on this site, they know who they are.
And one of my friends, wrote a comment on their post about me (nothing bad) and she responded with this:
I know I shouldn't really react to this, but I just want to clear my name if that makes sense.
So my response:
"She was mean to me"
I'll hold my hands up, I probably have said some harsh things to you in the past - with reason - but I should have conducted myself in a better way. Saying that, we haven't been the kindest too each other, have we?
"And racist too"
If you feel like I have been racist to you, I apologise for making you feel that way.
But please tell me what have I said that was racist to you? I call you out because of the words you say, not your colour. I call you out because of what appears to be the (quote MLK) "content of your character".
You think I "target" you because you are white. But that's not the issue, your skin colour and race does not matter to me because before you are white you are a human being. And you are a human being, who has said racist things to me, which I remember such as asking me if my parents are cousins because I am Pakistani, you told me Pakistanis were the only people that grope young girls (that comment got removed), you've like comments such which say things like:
"THIS IS WHY NO ONE LIKES PEOPLE OF COLOUR"
Examples:
My response and this person's reply:
On another question, this person liked this horrid opinion I know, because '+1' means the asker liked the opinion:
And I have called things like this out, because I as a person of colour feel like people of colour are being racially stereotyped with some of the things you say- and I don't think that is fair on us people of colour.
"All because I refused to stay silent about the grooming gangs gang raping young white girls"
Speak about the grooming gangs I am not trying to silence you. But if you are going to speak about them, please mention the full facts - especially if you are talking about the race/ethnicity of the criminals and victims.
For example, I have had a user tell me you led to her to believe it was only white girls being targeted and only Pakistani men committing these crimes. And when you lead to people to believe things as such, it creates things like racial hatred which can get really dangerous if we are not careful.
And I'm just going to put a few facts out there.
Claim means what people believe based on what they have read.
Conclusion is what unbiased research have found out and are now telling the public to rectify any misconceptions.
So when I say "90% of the sex offender register consists of white men" what I really should have said is " studies show, the majority of people convicted of sexual offences appear to be white men, however, there is not much public information avaliable on this."
And when people say "Pakistanis are disproportionally involved in grooming gangs" what they should really say is "A number of studies show Asians are disproportionally represented in these crimes concerning grooming gangs, but many of these studies suggest the data is not good enough to determine whether this is a true reflection of offenders in these cases"
So I am sorry, for broadly saying statements before, and the person I am responding to should be too. The truth is, we're both young, we read certain things and come to our own conclusion and sometimes we don't always read things properly. But we're young, we're learning and we have a long way to go, this is just a learning curve for the both of us.
Above is some more information about grooming gangs which I found on a website called 'full fact'. I think that is it important that if people are going to mention ethnicity of perpetrators, they mention this.
And if you really want to read more on the grooming gangs in the UK, please read this website because information from newspapers and MPs themselves have been biased which has lead people to believe certain things: https://fullfact.org/crime/what-do-we-know-about-ethnicity-people-involved-sexual-offences-against-children/
And if you're going to mention the ethnicity of the victims, please state all the ethnic groups which were targeted. BAME (Black Asian Minority Ethnic) and white girls. It doesn't matter if there were less BAME girls who were victims- none the less, they were still victims, so it is only fair those ethnic groups get a mention too.
"She even posted a mean bullying question about me that the admins deleted"
The question was something like: "Is this an attempt to bully me away from my campaign?"
And I featured this person's MyTake about libraries, in it.
Because that is what I felt that MyTake was. Whether it was or wasn't I don't know- but it did certainly make me feel bullied. Posting a question about it, may have been a step too far, so I apologise for that.
I am really passionate about the whole #SaveOurLibraries things so when I see hashtags such as:
'LetOurLibrariesDie'
'LibrariesTimeToDie'
'LibrariesDeadOnTheArrival'
It hurts me, especially the insensitivity about the issue. Because I know kids who can't afford internet or have lots of brothers and sisters so they don't have a quiet place to study so they use the libraries for that.
I'm a student, and I can't afford all the books I need for college so the library having books which I can borrow for free comes in handy for me. And I need a physical copy of the books, because I spend a lot of time using technology so sometimes I just like to get away from that and use books. Plus, when my battery dies, and I still want to study, the books come in handy.
And plus, as I've said before the libraries are used by people such as the elderly and young children with their parents- so it isn't fair on them either. Yesterday I saw a little girl at the library, she looked about 8 or 10, and she reminded me so much of my younger self - she even looked similar to me - she was walking down the stairs so engrossed in the book she was reading it's like she shut out the world around her.
A lot of factors came into my mind when I saw those 'hashtags' I don't know the OP's class background- but for lower-class people I can tell you from experience the library is a huge help.
I'm talking to the OP when I say this, if you have a certain view about libraries please at least try and be a little more sensitive to the people who the library helps.
My Conclusion:
I don't want to fight or argue. Really, I don't. But I have seen this person post comments about me calling me 'nasty' and so on.
So I just want this person to stop posting such misleading comments about me, we don't have to be friends with each other, we don't have to like each other and we don't have to agree with each other- but both of us have been behaving like children recently, and I am sick of that and want to end it.
So to this person (they know who they are):
So like I said, we don't have to agree with each other, or like each other, or be friends, but can we be civil to each other and apologise for any upset we have caused each other?
I am sorry for any upset I have caused you. Can I please also have an apology for the upset you have caused me?
That's the end of this MyTake.
Thank you for reading. :) <3
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