Okay non-European tumblr, I’m gonna explain to you why ‘white’ isn’t as simple here as it is in the rest of the world
- Shades of white in Europe range from ‘freshly fallen snow’ to ‘I am frequently mistaken as being from the Middle East’
- White European is a thing. When you fill out a form, under ethnicity, there are several options for white; white British, white European, white other. Because people make that distinction
- There are Europeans who don’t class their ethnicity as their skin colour, but as their nationality. I have family who don’t think of themselves as white, they just think of themselves as Italian and don’t really give much thought to their skin colour
- People here in Britain always question if darker skinned white Europeans are ‘actually white’. I get it a lot myself. My response is always ‘well I’m not anything else, so obviously I must be’
- Despite being white, a lot of Europeans from Italy, Greece, Spain etc, don’t feel white in the traditional sense. We’re not white like white British people. We’re not white like white Americans. We’re our own white. White British is one thing. White Italian is another thing. White Greek is another, etc
- Which is why we have this notion here in Europe of ‘nationality over race’. Being white isn’t as important as where you’re from
- So this really only becomes an issue if you’re an immigrant
- So being white in Europe doesn’t save you from racial discrimination, because sure, you’re technically white, but you’re not white white. Not the right white
- Here in England, Europeans with really blatantly foreign names, such as myself, find it more difficult to get job interviews, because they take one look at our name and don’t bother reading the rest of the CV. A guy I know was actually told by his boss to reduce the pile of CVs he had by ‘chucking away any with a name you can’t fucking pronounce’
- And then even when you do get an interview, half the time you walk into the joint several shades darker than everyone else and feel like you’ve walked into the ‘Swedish supermodel’ clubhouse and you just know you’re not getting hired
This is all basic stuff and it’s very much taken for granted here. Race and ethnicity are not as clear cut, so it can be very confusing for non-Europeans to wrap their heads around. Which is fine. But I implore you to stay in your lane, because when you say things like ‘no white person anywhere in the world ever knows what it’s like to face racial discrimination’, it’s really fucking offensive to all of the European immigrants who are denied jobs, harassed by the police and beaten by racists, because foreign is foreign to these people, and they don’t give a shit if you’re technically white. So when you mean white American, say white American.
This doesn’t just apply to “darker skin” Europeans either (which I’m sure some Americans would argue are POC for some reason or other). Try being slavic in Western Europe. Hell, try being Sinti or Roma in any part of Europe.
Especially in the UK you can be as white as you like but if you aren’t from Britain (or in some cases just England) then you face discrimination. It really isn’t that clear cut in Europe and it drives me mad when people say white people can’t experience racism because that’s such a US-centric idea.
And if you’re from anywhere in South-East Europe then you should prepare for your country to be slandered in every UK paper. Seriously, you can’t turn on the news, go on the internet, read a newspaper, without being told how Romanian, Ukrainian, Polish people are a drain on the UK’s resources and they should be banned from the country. And guess what?
(That’s Mila Kunis. She was born in the Ukraine.)
(Sebastian Stan. From Constanta, Romania.)
(Mia Wasikowska, from Poland)
(Nina Dobrev, who was born in Bulgaria.)
They are white! Just because they are white, it doesn’t mean people from their countries cannot face horrible discrimination, and it doesn’t mean that they can’t be constantly told that they don’t work as hard as people from Western Europe, and that they don’t deserve basic human rights.
So just before you force your ignorance onto people who don’t hold the same views as you due to where they live operating in a different way, just remember that not everybody lives in America.
Here it is guys, the post that finally puts what I’ve been trying to say for far too long into words!
…I didn’t know Sebastian Stan was Romanian.
But as somebody who has lived in England and the US, I can vouch for all of this. The race issues in Europe and the race issues in the US are not the same.
For the last few years, there has been an awful backlash against immigrants from Poland, with some of the same language used that Americans use about “Mexicans” (By which, half the time, they mean anyone from south of the US/Mexico border).
It’s worth understanding that
1. Racism and discrimination are everywhere.
2. They don’t take the same form everywhere.
I have lived in England for over 10 years now, and can confirm all of the above. As soon as I open my mouth people can tell, of course, that I was not born and raised British.
I was yelled at in the street because a lady thought I was Polish. People have pushed their chairs into my parents and insulted them in a restaurant because they were recognised as Germans.
Being white is not that cut and dry over here.
And being “socially” white as opposed to just pale skinned evolves over time. I mean, there have been times in America when Irish and Italian people have not been considered “white”.
READ THIS POST IF YOURE AMERICAN
thank!!!!!!!! the lord!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for this post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All of the above peoples , go to America to transcend their ethnic status as “undesirables” in europe, only to fall for the same violent racism and discrimination they claim they fled from.
i cannot tell you how many freshly immigrated Polish folks came to my neighborhood in NY calling black people “niggers” to our faces. i just had an argument with a polish bitch i thought was a friend, who thinks “America is great, so if the BLACKS dont like it they can take their monkey asses back to africa”.
I was also born in Berlin, i went back to live in my fathers house, the Polish neighbors are so…very “pleased” despite not being citizens, either the men sexually harass me on the daily, and do what men do when ignored, call me a “fucking nigger” , or their women are both jeolous AND disgusted at the mere presence of a black woman.
they face inter-ETHNIC discrimination in Europe. they are all the same race (white), but of different ethnicity(culture). ( plz get this right)
but at the end of the day , they all flee to greener pastures, where they can become the bully, and foam at the mouth, gleefull, at the mere prospect of being able to perform horrors upon black bodies.
the NY times did a whole piece on a young man, who’s family (who are polish) were killed by Neo-nazi’s in England, only to come to the United States,join the KLAN. and kill a black man. for no reason.
“the irish and Italians were discriminated against”. certainly, they got themselves out by becoming faithful guard dogs to the very people who stood on their necks. Police are protected by the fraternal order which was created by and FOR the Irish. what a lovely tale for those seeking to overcome oppression: just start murdering all the darker people, and you too will overcome!
the only thing this post has highlighted for me is that europeans are horrors even to their own. when their are no people of color around, you turn on those more likely to have our features on the continent. brava!
that white on white violence is tearing you apart.
👆 👆
Thank you for saying all what I was thinking while reading through this. I’ve seen the inter-ethnic discrimination and then watched those same affected peoples turn that shit right onto black and brown people.
and most of us are talking about the racism we know. I have never seen a blogger of color say anything to the effect of “no white people anywhere face discrimination” or imply that racism is the same everywhere. I’ve seen them say antiblackness is global, because it is, and that white people everywhere will not let you forget it. even here, there’s this distancing from whiteness that is part of the problem when you present it this way. I’m so glad @saturnineaqua pointed it out because you not-so-white Europeans absolutely CANNOT yell at American people of color about how you face what you face in Europe without at least acknowledging how you escape it in the US at our expense.