bah.

[raven]

I feel like today the whole world is a) wanting, innocently, to know why telling people to fuck off back to Poland and Bangaldesh is racist, they're just saying or b) trying to tell me "bigot" is a slur, I'm looking at you, BBC.

YES I GET IT EVERYONE HATES ME, my parents took your jobs and I took your school places and you're so pretty and so white and I smell and I talk funny and why does this still hurt so much, why.

...I'm kind of drunk and I'm having an anxiety attack this big and I'm going to bed. Nick Clegg didn't do the little immigration thingy spiel on Wednesday but maybe it's because I was sitting there in the front row, right there with my stupid face. I'm voting Labour.

Comments

[stained_glass]

*HUGS YOU SO MUCH*

I feel so sick and hurt when they all start talking about immigration, and I cannot understand it. They go to our mothers and complain about their illnesses after surgery hours and thank them when they work so hard for them, but then immigrants are everything that is wrong with the country, and I do not understand it at all.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

YES. Yes, that. That, that, that. Those little old ladies who come to my mother and are so happy because she makes them feel better! Those women who request to see my dad specifically because he's such a nice man and such a good doctor! There was a lady a while back, who'd come from Bangladesh recently and hadn't dared come to see the doctor because she was so scared that her English wouldn't be good enough, and she came in to see my mum, and my mum asked her to sit down in Bengali and she just sat on the chair and cried and cried from relief. We are good people! We belong here too!

[rhipowered.livejournal.com]

As people who follow me on Twitter know, the immigration thing is seriously, seriously wearing on me. (I don't have the same take on it as you, obviously, and definitely from a privileged position. But even from this position it makes me-the-immigrant feel like a piece of shit.)

Not to turn it into Me Me Me. I just wanted to say that it sucks and I hate the whole damn thing, and that I hate that it hurts you so badly.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

It sucks, it sucks so much, and I didn't think it was all You You You! My sympathies for you, too. :)

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I would vote Labour if I had citizenship that entitled me to do so. :(

(In short I feel you, albeit in a slightly different way...)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*shakes head* It sucks such a lot.

[deathbyshinies.livejournal.com]

I am sorry. Fuck them and their monumental, unbelievable selfishness and stupidity, fuck the people whose country has grown rich and powerful over hundreds of years of colonial exploitation who are suddenly turning green and clutching their pearls at the thought of having to share some of said.

And our situations are totally not the same, and I can't even imagine what it's like to be in your position right now, and I'm so sorry.

They are scared of us, love. They are so fucking scared of us, because we've seen and done things that they haven't, because we know things that they can't, and because all the time, every time they see your face or hear my voice, on some unconscious level we remind them what they did. This is very melodramatic and OTT, but I think some part of me does quite firmly believe it on some level.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

rich and powerful over hundreds of years of colonial exploitation

Yes. The British came to India and said, where we come from is the promised land - and then they were surprised at what happened next. I don't think your experience of postcolonialism is much like mine (and I don't mean to say that either experience has more or less value!), but it's this part where it's the same, I think.

This is very melodramatic and OTT, but I think some part of me does quite firmly believe it on some level.

And I don't know if I believe it, but I would like to. Thank you. :)

[absinthe-shadow.livejournal.com]

Just, yes. It is vile. *hugs*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*squish* Thank you for your post on the subject the other day, by the way. It was not something I knew about you, and I'm glad to know it. :)

[dougs.livejournal.com]

Disclaimer: I have middle-class white British [mostly-]heterosexual educated privilege.

You know what my position is? I want a good doctor, and a good dentist, and a good plumber and electrician and grocer and handyman and library assistant and call-centre-person, and I don't much care whether they're from Formby or Formosa. And I expect to be good at my job if I hope to keep it and I expect to be replaced by someone better if I'm not.

For years I've had a GP from India, and he's brilliant. And a dentist from Buckinghamshire, and she's brilliant too. And I'm delighted to have each of them.

And there was a time five years ago when I really wished immigration was easier in Washington DC, USA... and I recognise how hypocritical I'd be if I wanted it to be harder here.

I just kind of wish that if Gordon was prepared to say "she's a bigot" in the car, he'd have been prepared to say "you're a bigot" to her face, and engage with her and find out what she thinks is wrong, and help her to find out what he thinks is wrong. I think that's one of his failings on this occasion.

[dougs.livejournal.com]

... and I posted (http://dougs.livejournal.com/849924.html).

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

People are so fucked up. It's the same or worse back home. And here, here I get angry for being given a pass as a 'nice' immigrant. Being White and like them and somehow not foreign. I get angry when they complain about 'foreign doctors' , and the ones with insight say 'oh, not like you dear'. Fuck them.

I can't know what it must feel like to hear this shit every day. I hope you know how much better than these ignorant fuck-knuckle oxygen bandits you are. How much kinder, brighter and more alive. How lucky they should feeelto have you here, being awesome AND fighting for justice. How much you're valued by people who see you.

[rhipowered.livejournal.com]

This was what I was trying to say but much better.

[tau_sigma]

I LOOOOOVE YOU. Iona, you are so damn pretty. I kid you not, I was looking over facebook this week, and Anwar spotted your name and said 'you always mention Iona and Colleen, what do they look like?' and I showed him a picture of you and I said 'isn't she pretty?' Because oh my word you are. And your brownness is part of your prettiness, and I know my words can't fix anything, and that I will never know what it is like growing up in the position you have, but I hope that at least it will give you a little warm glow to be told that you are pretty, and loved, and absolutely wonderful.

I have not heard the whole story on the 'bigot' comment thing, I shall read stuff, but my first thought when I heard Gordon Brown was 'trying to move on from calling a voter a bigoted woman' was 'well, maybe she is, in which case tell it like it is'. I think it says something about the media that my immediate thought was that they were probably somewhat wrong.

I am probably going to write lalalalala and draw an elephant. I might cross a box too, but I dislike policies of all three major parties! And no-one else will ever get in! And generally I wish I could just have a negative vote, that would count against a vote for the BNP. That is my main thinking, and a whole 'nother issue, and I shall shut up.

[tieleen.livejournal.com]

I know this isn't a new idea or anything, but -- no vote is always a vote in favor of the party you like the least. It's usually better to vote for the smallest of all evils and then do your best to pretend you were never there.

[foreverdirt.livejournal.com]

Fuck this shit. This anti-immigration crap is sickening and disgusting and wrong, and-- Yeah. I love you, and I hate this.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*wry smile* Love you, too. And, srsly, consider this shit fucked.

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

No. Those people are wrong, plain and simple. Please do not let them influence your perception of yourself as a strong, beautiful woman with something positive to contribute to society at large.

I think just about everyone smells funny, frankly, including myself. And if someone ever comes up with a good explanation for why people think bathing in cologne or cheap perfume substitutes for a bath, let me know. I'm so sensitive to pheromones that I can pick out individuals in a crowd by scent alone, up to half an hour after they've passed.

Given the choice between spending time with you and spending time with someone who said those things, I think the choice is obvious. I have never, ever had an Indian of any gender point and laugh when I fell or stumbled. They have always inquired after my health and helped me up if needed. The same is true for my husband's Middle Eastern co-workers too.

I hope you sleep off your drunk with a minimum of problems and realize that you ARE of value and those people are shits, plain and simple.

*delurks*

[burnmybridges.livejournal.com]

I honestly believe that without the media, who love to use immigration as a tool to create news for their own gain, we'd all be getting on a hell of a lot better and would be a hell of a lot happier. They spend every single waking day stirring the pot, absolutely desperate to intice racial and religious fear and hatred as they try to brew up something seriously nasty.

I live in a small coastal town and too many here - lower class, middle class, upper class - choose to believe everything they read in the papers and everything they see on TV. They don't attempt to rationalise, or think for themselves at all. They've been totally brainwashed and it seems to be far too taxing to put any further thought into the topic of immigration apart from whatever the press has decided to tell them to believe on X day.

Re: *delurks*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

That is an excellent point, and one that people ought to think about more often. IMMIGRANTS SHOCK OMG! sells papers. Sometimes the Daily Mail really does hammer away at my commitment to freedom of the press.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

petal, I love you so much, I'm sorry. *hugs*

[katemonkey.livejournal.com]

Oh honey...

Just know that I'm feeling your frustration and anger and I wish to all the gods that someone would just stand up and say "hey, all these immigrants are awesome. They pay their taxes (even though they can't vote), they're your doctors and lawyers and restaurant owners and shop assistants and farmers and teachers and all the other jobs that you also do, and they're your neighbours and friends and they've helped make this country great.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, yes, especially your last bit: they are your friends, your neighbours, your husbands and wives and partners, your sisters and your family; they are you.

[sunlightdances.livejournal.com]

*holds* Gordon Brown should have had some damn guts and told that bigot why she was wrong.

[tmpe5t.livejournal.com]

seconded. I hate to mention bush junior but in a similar situation where he was heard on a live mic calling someone an 'asshole', at least he had the balls to respond with 'well, he's an asshole'...

[just-the-ash.livejournal.com]

How can you (specifically) fuck off back to Poland when you're not from Poland?

However, MY family is from Poland, at the turn of the last century. Come to the US, and we will smell funny at you and fill you with pierogies and kielbasa.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I have no idea how I can fuck off back to Poland. I've never been to Poland. I would like to, though, apparently awesome people come from there. :)

[ressie-noldo.livejournal.com]

I have been reading lots of things lately, and one of the things I read was a saint's life from the eighth century in which said saint meets these HORRIBLE HORRORFUL demons, and he can tell they're particularly awful because he was a good Anglish man and they spoke in Horrible 'British'. So whatever, stupid people, most of you are immigrants (and not very nice ones, being in the habit of writing about Horrible Welsh Demons) anyway, go away.

Also, I have a story about how this one time my dad hit someone in the face for calling him a bloody Paki, on the basis that he wasn't from Pakistan but he'd might as well be bloody. Which is one of those stories that somehow always makes me feel a lot better. Because I'm a horriblehorrible immigrant too, and I don't like that I'm crap (and I don't like that the tiny amount of honourary whiteness I get from not being an Indian citizen makes people treat me better in the US, because what.).

But you! You are THIS AWESOME. [expansive hand gesture]

[annajaneclare.livejournal.com]

why does this still hurt so much, why.

Because there are bitter, inadequate idiots who assume you somehow strolled into Oxford as part of an affirmative action programme and not because you are really fucking bright and worked your arse off. Fuck them. They are subhuman creeps.

And I saw that 'slur' thing on the BBC and it gave me the dry heaves. Can we yell at the PPC, I wonder, or is it only for privately owned media?

[vikingwriter.livejournal.com]

I can't talk about why it hurts you because we're so not in the same place. So I know zip. But it hurts me (both what's happening where you are and what's happening here in the States) because I look like *them.* And there are people out there who don't and one day they're going to see white skin or green eyes or hear 'American' and see hate and pain and anger. And I'll be lumped in that box with those wankers. And there will be children in the world who will grow up like my grandparents, in fear of "them" and hating "others" and they will pass that hate on to their children and the world will implode on its cyclical nature...

...and then I have to force myself to take a deep breath, do my bit to not be that person and try like hell to remember I'm not alone in the hurt and anger and frustration and desire to throw people out of windows. (Defenistration currently being my favorite word.)

And now I can't remember what I was saying or if it mattered or whatever, but I'm posted this cuz, well, WORD!

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Belated HUGS

This country needs its immigrants and migrant workers. And their descendant obviously. Anyone who disagrees can go to Antarctica, and see how they like not having all the essential services that their kind (1) haven't been providing here either.

(1) I often look at the people complaining most loudly, and try to work out what useful services they've been providing compared to the people they're complaining about.