Throughout college I was the only white person in a group of friends. The majority were Asian (Pakistani descent), couple of black guys, two chaps of Moroccan descent, one was half white, half Pakistani and a Chinese friend. We all still very close 15 years later but sometimes it was tough being the minority.
I never experienced any racism from within our group – aside from a bit of casual ribbing – but there were occasions when we’d meet other groups of exlusively Asian guys who would absolutely point blank refuse to acknowledge me. I’m talking about everyone doing a round of hand shakes and they would all deliberately refuse to shake my hand despite me offering (this has happended numerous occasions over the years). I have been to club nights and beaten up being called a f***ing gora, a sweat, white b*****d etc. Not a nice feeling to be singled out when the people don’t know a thing about you, but then the people dishing it out had probably experienced similar or worse.
The worst was the grief I would get from some old white friends from the estate who would ask why I hang around with packies. I would also get similar inferences from family, although not as blatant.
Racism is ugly full stop. Language has the capacity to hurt people no matter what the old axiom says, so we should be a bit more sensitive with what might offend. That isn’t PC gone mad it’s called empathy and one of the good things about being human.
