Thank you Alameda for a great post!

Cat, I almost feel ashamed to say it, but I have no personal experience of racism, which is why I can´t comment!!!  I live in a community that is almost 100% white-British so I suppose it is very easy for me to sit here and have my idealist views! When people complain about the vast numbers of immigrants coming to the UK, our community think of the nice Polish cafe in our main town, the ONE corner shop run by a nice family of Pakistanis, or the TWO Turkish kebab shops, and cry "ouh but they fit so well into our community and are so friendly and lovely" !!!!! 

I suppose the nearest I get so seeing racism of my OWN race is actually here on this site!!!  I suddenly realise that many Turks judge us because we are westerners and because of the reputation of some tourists, and a quick glance at the translation forum reminds us that only the very desparate or liberal of Turks would consider marrying one of "us" and taking us back to their small Turkish village to meet their parents!

Witnessing racism in the media sickens me. I immediately put myself in the place of the individual who is being discriminated against, and it feels worse than bullying - it is victimisation at it´s very worse. 

However, I think there is something (as you said) within us that can become territorial.  How would I feel to be living in a London suberb that has become almost entirely populated with immigrants who exclude me from their culture?  How would I feel to be a "native" (there are no real natives left!) in the Caribbean and watching the rich American/British immigrants buying up land and excluding me from their clubs and bars?

These days I only visit places like London as a tourist.  However I recently had to visit a hospital in the centre of London.  During my two hour visit, I did not see a single white English person.  Some staff were not talking English to eachother, many were in burkas or veils or Sikh headwear, the patients were all of other ethnic origin to my own, and it was hard to understand what the doctor was saying to me.  I had not realised I felt uneasy or uncomfortable about it until I went to the X-Ray department and found English staff there, and realised I was much more comfortable.   Does this make me a racist?  I don´t know - it is an uncomfortable thought. 

I believe racism in the US is a unique form, rising as it does from the roots of slavery and born of guilt and power.  Racism elsewhere seems to me to be less about the colour of skin and more about clashing of cultures and resentment of change in our community.  I can understand both but despise it at the same time

it is interesting that people still complain about racism even though their president is black and the first lady is black whos ancestors were slaves.

i think im tired of idiocy written by alameda-like people.

im a racist, have to admit.

im a racist against certain mentality.

 Does that make you a mentalist?

True and not true. I can see it daily around me. Unlike you I live in a very multicultural neighbourhood of Rotterdam, with a 75% not-white-Dutch population. In Rotterdam (only 650.000 people) we have 162 nationalities (out of I believe 196 worldwide!) and yes, in some areas there are many problems based on culture, religion but also sometimes on race. It´s a clash between ´old´ citizens and ´new´ ones, both claiming their ´rights´. A clash between ´we Christian Dutch´ (60% of the Dutch is not-religious! but it´s a nice excuse people think) and other religions, mostly Islam. Many times problems are based on ignorance and not wanting to learn from both sides. Radicalism at both sides is growing, the number of gangs and groups of strong-armed guys is increasing. A clash between living indoors and a culture of living outdoors like in more tropical countries. As a consequence of the history of slavery of my country - which I am absolutely not proud of - there are many people from Surinam and the Dutch Antilles - there you have the discrimination based on color. 

Like you sometimes I understand but indeed I despise it as well, though I have to admit that sometimes I find myself thinking not so nice thoughts - whenever that happens, I say to myself ´stop it´ and I try to see it in larger view but the fact these thoughts occur is worrying enough. And I was not raised this way! What I wonder many times is: Is it logical that I have these thoughts sometimes, due to many problems - only 3 days ago there was a shooting-affair only 50 meters from my house - not the first this year, most loverboys (pimps, not dudu´s!) have foreign roots, most drugrunners have foreign roots etc. - or am I changing in my views towards the right-wing political side?

NB. I say ´foreign roots´ not because I see them as foreigners but because many people from especially Morocco and Turkey even when they are born here and sometimes not able to speak their ancesters language fluently, call themselves ´Turks´ or Moroccons´ instead of Dutch.

(I find it very difficult to write things like this in another language than my own, so I hope I didn´t say anything confusing.)

 is it a new word?

 Like Femmenism?

 two new words today

 Stop going off topic, you bed femmenist mentalist

 did you become a mod?