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.

[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.

[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...)

[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.

[absinthe-shadow.livejournal.com]

Just, yes. It is vile. *hugs*

[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!

[stained_glass]

That is such a sweet story! My mum used to know a smidgin of Punjabi when she worked clinics - just "Hello" and then lots of different bodily fluids... But the same patients who bring a present for their lovely doctor will slag off the Irish or Catholics or [insert minority group of your choice here] or complain about having to see Muslim registrars (when those registrars are taking them on as extra patients, so that everyone gets to see a doctor) with the same breath.

We do - and frankly anyone who is not an Ancient Briton can shut the fuck up. Britain would be totally unrecognisable if all the people who since 2000 had to leave, let alone since 1950 or 1900 - and GNNNARGH it is too late and I am too tired and no one should have to cope with this bullshit.

[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.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

It makes me very happy that your mum knows the Punjabi for the various bodily fluids. Very, very happy. :) (Remind me to tell you, when I see you, how my mother once tried her Punjabi on a patient and it all went brilliantly and hilariously wrong.)


Gnaaargh. You're right. Totally, totally bullshit, and this time I really AM going to bed, and I shall try to get up to ChCh to see you tomorrow. *nods*

[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.

[stained_glass]

Go to sleep, a cuisle - it would be wonderful and awesome to see you tomorrow - it's been weeks and weeks! Don't let the bastards grind you down. *squishes* and *HUGS*

[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.

[stained_glass]

Time for a "IN UR NHS TREATING UR PATIENTS" icon? I remember all your shitty visa-stress and THERE'S NOT ENOUGH CAPSLOCK FOR THE RAGE.

I get angry when they complain about 'foreign doctors' , and the ones with insight say 'oh, not like you dear'. Fuck them.

NOT ENOUGH CAPSLOCK (totally not surprised though)

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.

*applauds and shouts "Hear, hear!" and prostrates self*

[dougs.livejournal.com]

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

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

It so is! Especially for Iona's mum, your mum and every other conspiciously non-Brit who looks after people, while knowing they can talk about them in this way.
(I can only attribute my neglect of said icon to the fact that I need sleeeep, and brain not working. (Only, like, don't tell my patients, ok?))

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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'...

[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.

[stained_glass]

The problem with what you are saying is that you are viewing immigrants as commodities. The ones that work, and who are GOOD at their jobs, well, they're just fantastic, how brilliant, I see no difference between a brown person who is good at their job and a white person who is good at their job. Bully for you.

But you are very silent with regards to other immigrants - those, from your emphasis on GOOD immigrants who are GOOD at their JOBS, who are the BAD immigrants. The ones who are not good at their jobs, or don't work at all. Someone whose legs were blown off by a landmine. A woman so traumatised that she is unable to work. A woman who speaks four languages and has a PhD from Baghdad University in Classical Arabic, had to leave because she was a Kurd, and is struggling to learn English. The mother who chooses to stay at home with her newborn baby. Are they still "brilliant" enough to be allowed to stay in the country?