Why is America blamed for racism more than England and the United Kingdom?

[Anonymous]

Honest question. Stick to fact and not hateful comments please.

[WhiteSteve]

Well, first of all, is it? Also an honest question, I’m just assuming I’d obviously hear mostly about American stuff as an American. I doubt people in the UK are more focused on OUR racial problems than theirs, so maybe they hear mostly about their own local issues. Not that our shit isn’t bad enough sometimes to make the world news.

But let’s assume your statement is true for this question. A few things come to mind.

So…first, the obvious big one: slavery. Certainly not unique to America, and it began before America was “the USA”, so England had its hands all over that too, not to mention all over the goddamn world. But at some point the ball was left in our own newly established court, and we kept dribbling for almost another century. We finally figured that bullshit out, with differing opinions on how much of a factor it was in the Civil War, but regardless, I’m guessing Union soldiers weren’t necessarily getting shot with fucking cannonballs and getting their leg sawed off while wide awake with nothing but a bottle of booze and a filthy battlefield rag to put in your mouth to bite down on, all in the name of freeing those poor slaves. It was probably just other political shit driving it, the abolition was just kind of a pleasant afterthought. But it’s not like the North won and all the white people were like “YEAH! WE WIN! Come on, ex-slaves, come live amongst us, as well as us, in brotherly harmony from this day forward!” They were like “oh…uh…yeah…so guys are free now. Coolcoolcoolcoolcool…. I guess…. there’s that clearing, the one by the swamp with all the mosquitoes? You guys can build some shacks over there. Good luck! See ya around! Well…. if you guys could kinda keep to yourselves over there for a bit…. just give us like one more quick century to figure out if we can share things and give you the same access to stuff we have. Take it slow, man, we just freed your ass, how much more do you want?” A HUNDRED MORE YEARS UNTIL CIVIL RIGHTS. Ain’t that about a goddamn ho.

So that brings us up to a time when some people who were alive then are still alive now, so I still count this all as relatively recent history. I took a course in college taught by a guy who was heavy in the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s as a college student down South. Worked with Martin Luther King, Jr., all the big events, this cat was there. Selma, Alabama, dude was there. This guy was out there getting sprayed with fire hoses, chewed on by fuckin’ German Shepherds. Food dumped on him and being hit at restaurant sit-ins. Guy is a fucking real life hero, and I met him. Wicked powerful. And I don’t say this about anyone specific, but I’d bet my balls some that some white guy who stormed Normandy Beach on D-day and did some epic shit, and lived the rest of their life an American hero…that same guy may have went home to (Forrest Gump voice) Greenbaaooowwww, Al-uh-baymuh, opened up a diner, and stuck a big ol’ “Whites Only” sign in the window. People are multifaceted. You can do awesome shit and do other terrible shit. You can be a hero and a villain simultaneously.

What I always compare shit to is how rapidly tech advances. Hypothetically, imagine that the first cellphone went on the market the same day as MLK’s “I Have A Dream” speech. When was that? Early-60s? Let’s say 1962-63ish so we can make it a round 60 years from today. Let’s say the first mobile phone is like ‘92-‘93 for another round number, but it might be a little longer. Basically the Zack Morris cordless payphone he would use on Saved By The Bell back in the day, haha.

So we’ve had 30ish years of cellphones, 60ish years of Civil Rights. We’ve gone from Zack’s five pound brick of a phone to literally having a computer in our pockets. Shit, the fucking things might be spying on us for fuck sake, lmao, these things are maybe more advanced than we even realize. All that in 30 years. And that takes all kinds of math and science and engineering and shit, big brain stuff. Meanwhile, let’s check in on black folks in America, after TWICE that amount of time, and requiring absolutely ZERO technology. It requires nothing but unconscious respect, really. “Oh, there’s another human, just like me.” UnFUCKINGbelievable that that’s even a little bit challenging for anybody, anywhere, at any time period. Are things better? From my outside perspective, I’d say yes. But there are still so many problems. And worst of all, getting it stamped out of the actual laws and whatnot is one thing, but the real problem is what’s in average, everyday people’s hearts and minds, and then their subsequent actions —and I can’t assume that, I just know because so many say it out loud. And average everyday people often hold positions of power or influence (politics, bureaucracies, law enforcement, private employer management) and they can even unconsciously be fucking with groups of people, let alone in a targeted way, which can also happen.

Actually, speaking of 30 years ago…. Rodney King. We all watched him get his ass whupped by four cops when he posed no threat, and all four walked. Then people got pissed and rioted, and THAT was the outrageous part? Holy fuck, man. Fast forward to George Floyd…for a guy my age, it was like watching a rerun. Only difference is they punished the cop this time, so that’s better, but the whole point is that we need this to not happen in the first place. And again, many people are more outraged at the angry responses than they are with the cop fucking killing a guy, even doing backflips to justify it or blame it on something else….. bottom line, whether he died or not, I don’t want police kneeling on people’s fucking necks in the first place. Fuck, I’d prefer the guy got away over that, Jesus Christ, what kind of fucking savages are we? Just an absolutely Bananaland mentality.

I’m a thousand words in, and I’ve only covered racism against ONE race, there’s plenty more, but not enough space or time, and that says it all, as far as the US goes.

[WhiteSteve]

To more briefly touch on the UK where I’m less familiar with the issue…. I’m aware of it. I know black folks get shit there, Indians and Pakistanis, and generally Muslims from various parts of the world as well. I really hardly know anything to even really speak on it, but the one thing I did think of was that they don’t have armed police there, or not armed with guns, at least. We have COUNTLESS black folks (usually young men) shot and killed by police here, and we can go back and forth about how these interactions originate and evolve, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter, the situation shouldn’t end with the cop shooting and killing someone, unless the guy is actively shooting at the cop or others. Better trained cops, no guns, different approach to policing…I don’t know the answer, but I sure as fuck know this is a problem.

[goaded]

Maybe the fact that discrimination has been explicitly written into various laws over the centuries?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws

Or that you still have authority figures who are willing to let white people get away with murdering a black man?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Ahmaud_Arbery

[Anonymous]

Because a large majority of the people who cry racism in the US have never been anywhere else.

[Guy13]

We have more resources that the world wants... that's why !!

[Anonymous]

I don't think anyone thinks that. I think people just expect it from England. I mean they kind of used to enslaved the world. They may be a shadow of thier former glory. But that doesn't mean they've lost that arrogance. In short England gets a pass well America is just expected to be more evolved.

[jshm2]

Because America has killed, stolen, enslaved and pillaged a lot more races and lands than the British, Dutch and Spanish empires did?

[Levin]

Pretty sure the UK is blamed for everything as well...

[AngryCarl]

Because the UK is a tiny island that nobody cares about.

[Googlemyahoo]

do people forget the civil war fought to end slavery? How many other countries did that.

[goaded]

Britain didn't have to, they voted. Then they paid the slave owners to free their slaves. They did put a delay on the freeing, which wasn't great, but that was the end of it (if you ignore the fact it took until some time last decade to pay off the debt.

[SmokinAces2000]

Americans don’t live in England or the United Kingdom, they live in America….

[Rustyshackelford69]

Didn't know it was