Prejudice
Bit of a rant here and I guess some people I will disagree. Go ahead, that's what makes blogs more fun.
I'll open myself up a bit more, I'm an Asian with a beard living in London. What's with the telling us about the beard you may ask. Well as some of us in the UK would have seen the other day, there was a "terrorist" attack by an individual. I'll make it clear now that I strongly disagree with any terrorist and have no sympathy for them.
The problem this creates for guys like myself, that is young Asians with beards is we suffer a hell of a lot of prejudice. I use the London trains a lot for going to uni and general getting about. On Friday when going to uni, of course I was stopped before I boarded a train for a "random" stop & search. Once I was on the train, I noticed an old lady look up at me, give me a dirty stare, then deciding to move carriage.
On the way back, same old story. Stopped again although I got to show my little "Sorry to stop you" ticket and waved it at the police officer before being allowed to continue my journey. I read a paper on the way back so didn't notice any dirty stares.
So why do I & others have to suffer such prejudice? Because I have a beard, am young and am Asian, it therefore means that I have to be put in a box. I don't mind being stopped by police offers as end of the day, it's their job but why the dirty stares?
London and in the UK is often described as a multicultural haven where people of different races can co-exist together. They can but only if people can get over their prejudices.
P.S My beard comes off tomorrow :|
I'll open myself up a bit more, I'm an Asian with a beard living in London. What's with the telling us about the beard you may ask. Well as some of us in the UK would have seen the other day, there was a "terrorist" attack by an individual. I'll make it clear now that I strongly disagree with any terrorist and have no sympathy for them.
The problem this creates for guys like myself, that is young Asians with beards is we suffer a hell of a lot of prejudice. I use the London trains a lot for going to uni and general getting about. On Friday when going to uni, of course I was stopped before I boarded a train for a "random" stop & search. Once I was on the train, I noticed an old lady look up at me, give me a dirty stare, then deciding to move carriage.
On the way back, same old story. Stopped again although I got to show my little "Sorry to stop you" ticket and waved it at the police officer before being allowed to continue my journey. I read a paper on the way back so didn't notice any dirty stares.
So why do I & others have to suffer such prejudice? Because I have a beard, am young and am Asian, it therefore means that I have to be put in a box. I don't mind being stopped by police offers as end of the day, it's their job but why the dirty stares?
London and in the UK is often described as a multicultural haven where people of different races can co-exist together. They can but only if people can get over their prejudices.
P.S My beard comes off tomorrow :|
Total Comments 4
Comments
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Aw,darlin' if you like your beard, keep it. Fuck what any one elses thinks or says. At the end of the day, it's what -YOU- like. I think, my best friends brother got bullied for having a beared, so he shaved it. These days many people are prejudice. They judge someone before they get to know them, 'tis the time's we're living in. One must hold there head's high for what they believe me.
Take me for an example, i'm an Enkian. But because of that, I get called a 'Satanist'. That, in all honesty pisses me off royaly. Not to mention ENKI was -WAY- before The freakin' Bible. But aye. Sometimes,dear, it's just plain ignorance. We're human, we cannot help it, only learn from it. <3Posted 05-25-2008 at 05:49 PM by Oreo_here 
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I'm not particularly bothered with the beard, I start work next week anyway so I'd prefer to shave it now rather than the day before. And I don't particularly care what people think of me.
With that said, people making silly generalisations like "ZOMG - Asian & beard = terrorist" is a bit silly. But yah, such is life.Posted 05-25-2008 at 05:52 PM by Pingu
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I hate it when people say things like this. Like prejudice is something new, a product of our current times.Quote:'tis the time's we're living in.
But as Leona says, it is just ignorance, this strange assumption that every Asian is a terrorist, but it goes deeper than that. Everyone is prejudice against everyone in some way, see a teenager with a hoodie and you cross the road, just incase they stab you.
I do think things are better than they have been, but are considerably worse than they should be.
The dirty looks you can't stop, and i wouldn't worry about as you said it was an old lady, twenty years ago it would have been talking with a Russian accent and twenty before that a German one and two hundred before that French. These things repeat themselves and the victims simply change.
The police thing is a different matter though, you've just become another statistic of the police stop and search policy in London. Just doing their job, hmm, they're pretty much as likely to find something by stopping a white person as they are someone of a minority. So why do they so unevenly search people?
They tried to stop you twice for the 'random' searches, I, young male, usually beared, only difference being my skin colour, have not once ever been stopped.Posted 05-25-2008 at 07:25 PM by Sum
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The sad fact is that it is more likely to be an ethnic minority carrying out such an attack. I have no problem being stopped if it's conducted well. Thankfully, in all the times I have been stopped, the police officer has been fine. Some of my friends/family have had bad experiences where the police officer has acted like a complete arse on purpose and obviously I disagree with that but then it's more than just doing their job, it's their own agenda.
I just think it's sad that people harbour such prejudices.Posted 05-26-2008 at 06:04 AM by Pingu
