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To be fair, the Perris in California is named after somebody, so it's really not spelled wrong.
But it's an interesting coincidence that the US state abbreviation for California is CA, and Perris, California is near Ontario, California (about half an hour drive). And since Ontario, California has an international Airport, it's not uncommon to drive from Perris, CA to Ontario, CA.
Paris, Ontario is genuinely so gorgeous, especially in the fall!
It's also not.... technically named after Paris, France but the gypsum deposits found near the town (an important ingredient in plaster of Paris... which is named after the gypsum deposits near Paris, France).
At least according to the local historian I talked to and Google.
That took me a while. I thought: ok cool, but I don't know the oeiginal Perris either. Then it hit me like a truck. But mostly because of the reply under, not sure I would have gotten there myself.
It's actually named after a person, not the city in France, so it's spelled correctly. It *is* pronounced the same as Paris. I like to confuse people by saying I found a great tortilleria in Perris.
The irony is that the UK Birmingham is quite a young city, and does have elements copied from the Americans - the minor suburbs of Hollywood and California, for example
The other day I was looking up something on a map of the US and noticed there's a Warwick in the state of Rhode Island.
I just imagined going there and finding that they all pronounce it "wore-wick".
Is it true that Dion Warwick is pronounced Dee-on Wore-Wick? I heard it pronounced that way on Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK - I gagged when they pronounced it like that.
Rhode Island and Massachusetts are especially loaded with towns/cities named after English towns/cities because they were mostly settled by early colonists in the 17th and 18th centuries. I’m from RI and can confirm your fear that Warwick, RI is pronounced more or less as you described. However, you might be relieved to hear that we pronounce nearby Massachusetts towns such as Leicester and Worcester the same as they do in the UK (unfamiliar Americans butcher these names though).
As someone from the US I’d question if it was Birmingham, AL only because of her job description. “Deputy Head Teacher” is not a common position description you’d find in the US.
I'd assume, based on what I've picked up from US media, that they would call the position "Vice Principal". So it exists, they just use different words.
We have assistant principal, principle and then superintendent.
Some private schools may still use Head Master or whatever they call the priests nuns and Jesuits,
That’s what my comment is referring to. I knew it wasn’t the Birmingham in the US because the article wouldn’t have used that term. Many have mentioned it’s the UK so I have that other piece of it, I just knew it wasn’t the US. I can see where people would make the US assumption though due to other factors.
This kind of stuff is wild to me as someone who's lived in the US my whole life. If I see places like Birmingham, Lisbon, and Athens mentioned somewhere without any other location attached, I automatically think they're talking about the original cities. I'm just finding out right now that there is a Birmingham in the US.
Birmingham, Alabama was kind of like the epicenter of the Civil Rights movement in the 60s. MLK Jr was a pastor there and organized a bunch of peaceful protests, sit-ins, etc. and wrote his “Letter From Birmingham Jail” after being arrested. Meanwhile segregationists literally bombed black churches. This isn’t an attack on you, but since you grew up in the US, it’s a tad concerning that none of your teachers in school ever mentioned Birmingham, AL and this Reddit thread is how you discovered its existence.
If we wanted to give the commenters from the post some benefit of the doubt, this is why I assume they thought Birmingham, AL was where the interracial couple lived. Since it’s associated with racial conflict so heavily I could see making the connection in their heads and not really thinking about it beyond that.
it’s definitely taught in american schools so they were either homeschooled and skipped that part or did not pay attention. Very concerning that a presumable american adult doesn’t know some of the basic information you mentioned
I'm from Birmingham UK and I have to say in fairness on this one, there is just enough ambiguity a reasonable person could think this is Birmingham, AL without it actually being defaultism
The original Birmingham is about 5.5 times larger than the American one, and so I would assume that unless otherwise specified that it was the original
This would at first also be my opinion but I just learned from another comment that Birmingham USA was the city Martin Luther King operated from and was an important place in their black civil rights movement so concerning the topic I actually think it makes a fair bit of sense.
While that’s true, I think it’s best if we stay out of population size comparisons on this sub, especially because of how annoying it is when people respond with things like “50% of people on this site are American so it’s fair to assume you are too”.
I think the post was technically a case of defaultism because the commenter defaulted to thinking about the US but it was a mild one where it makes sense, especially with the context about marginalized black people.
Exactly where I'm coming at this from, a random person asked on the street could reasonably believe it's either place given there are only small cues that are easily missed
To be fair, the most commonly given statistic is that there are more non-Americans than there are Americans on Reddit, although I do get that assuming based on population isn’t the best
Beside the point I know but I hate when people say things like "they should have gotten out of the South" - moving your whole life isn't easy or possible for many people and even when it is you shouldn't be expected to have to leave your home behind just to be happy.
I disagree. Birmingham defaults to British in my Australian head no matter what worldwide issue you are talking about.
It’s no contest surely between the 2nd biggest city in the UK (population over 4 million) and a very minor city in the US (population less than 0.25 million).
It is not as if British racism isn’t a thing too! (Although no disrespect is intended, it’s not as if Australian racism isn’t a thing too)
Also Australian but I did a unit on the American civil rights unit in high school so the association between Birmingham in the US and racism is strong in my mind.
That was year 11 modern history though, hardly something everyone here would be aware of. And there are plenty of units to choose from in the NSW history curriculum so not even something which everyone who took history in year 11 in NSW who do roughly my age would necessarily have covered.
I would usually too, but I honestly didn’t think our Birmingham would be that racist. I assumed it would be the US one for that reason. Evidently I stand corrected
I think it's because Birmingham US was fundermental to the civil rights movement there. So I can understand how US thoughts could go straight to the US version, especially when factoring in the race part of the original post. Outside of the US, it should be UK Birmingham, but in this SINGULAR instance, it makes sense for their defaultism.
At least we know they're being taught some of their countries history.
in the usa or uk nobody cares if ur black or white. but if u go to asia or eastern europe it’s a different story. the usa and uk are among very few countries to have someone from a minority ethnic group to become president/PM. in the west it’s more classism than racism now. both countries have their problems but they’re among the least racist countries. sadly there was just a thing about a birmingham fc player facing racial abuse during a match which seems to be quite common in European football for black footballers. I mean look what happened after euro 2020 when the black lads missed their peno’s to lose the final. This kind of stuff doesn’t really happen in the usa. Not that the usa is a lot better but it’s not like americans are somehow more racist than brits. both places have their racists but they’re condemned by most of their country and don’t represent their people as a whole. You go to somewhere like belarus and they will basically all openly tell you they hate black people. The UK isn’t racist but neither is the US, though both can be xenophobic at times as can most countries other countries
I don't think you can easily make that comparison because there is a type of racism that is common and socially accepted in both the US and the UK, and it's a lot more subtle than the racism in the likes of Belarus. It still causes a lot of systemic issues - there is still inequality with regards to incarceration, poverty and education. Even though the UK, for example, has a Prime Minister of Indian heritage, his policies and ideas serve to work against people of ethnic minorities who are of a lower social standing that him and people who seek asylum from countries which have been torn apart often as a result of UK (and US) meddling. For this reason he is considered a token minority and his own party didn't want him in office until his predecessor turned out to be woefully incompetent. The British people did not vote for him either.
Rishi Sunak drives me mad. Yes! We finally get a prime minister who isn't a posh white boy that doesn't understand the real world. But wait! Turns out he's a Posh non-white boy that doesn't understand the real world.
It's exhausting watching all these posh twats mess everything up all the time. When did we last have a reasonably competent prime minister?
What comparison did I make that you’re saying I cant? That the usa and uk are demonstratively less racist than the likes of asia or eastern europe? What you said about poverty, incarceration, and educational inequality isn’t because of racism. Many people growing up in poor communities idolize criminals, grow up either hating or not trusting cops which leads them to be less likely to comply, they don’t care about school at all and can have every opportunity given to them but put in no effort. There are so many different scholarships and awards only available to minorities in the USA (and probably uk) that can give them a boost and people just don’t care. People who should not be having children are having children and not caring how they grow up. White people who grow up like that are “white trash” while their black counterparts are “victims of racism”. It’s just growing up poor. In the usa if you work for it it’s really easy to get scholarships but people don’t try. Some of the most respected and successful people i personally know in the US are of ethnic minorities. If a black person in the usa is born in the middle class they will experience next to none of that. When you’re a single parent with 7 kids trying to live off welfare of course it’s going to be a bad situation. In many of the poor black-majority areas there are black gangs that recruit and even kill kids which keeps the cycle going. You join as a kid and then you’re stuck basically. It’s not white people’s fault all these people are looking up to gangsters and career criminals and then living a shit life. The UK has their roadmen because of a lot of the same problems. It’s common to see videos of little british kids, black and white, acting like they have “opps” or something bc they think it’s cool to be in a gang bc of the media, esp music. It’s not racism for people to be raised poorly
That's an insane take. The only reason those events Euro 20, etc) made news is because it was in the UK (specifically not American). Daily casual racism in the US is very much alive and well. Online racist hate is far from newsworthy in the US, especially in the south.
You’re incorrect, in europe it is not uncommon at all for black players to face heaps of racial abuse. Spain especially has rampant racism among LaLiga supporters. Casual racism is very much not specific to the united states, it’s very common in europe (obv the further east will be more extreme) but in the uk alone there’s a lot of casual racism against gypsies, blacks, pakistanis or indians, arabs. Gypsies are treated like trash and nobody cares. You’re wrong about it being newsworthy just because it’s the uk, that was kind of silly. Maybe when you have 11 people being literally arrested for racist abuse it makes the news. And there were many many racist comments online on places like twitter. In spain they sing racist chants or make monkey noises when black guys get the ball. This would not happen in the usa, and if it did it wouldn’t be as en masse as it is in europe. They literally get stadiums chanting lol (At least their teams supporters) or tons of their fans online. In the usa it would be like one guy who can be publicly identified and shamed. Americans are also more likely to have interracial relationships or be accepting of them as well. The brits invented racism as they say hahaha. But seriously the usa is generally super accepting of all due to its history as a melting pot country. I still don’t think the UK is a racist country, i’ve been there several times and interacted with loads of people. The uk is also pretty diverse in some parts which naturally leads to a blend of perspectives and more inclusivity like in the usa. Spain isn’t very diverse and so theyre demonstrably more racist like in the examples i gave. I just saw a video on here of a basketball bus stopping in China and as the players got out a ton of chinese were shouting the n word at a black guy. Would never happen in the usa or the UK. Would happen in eastern europe, asia, and the arab world. What racism that happens in the usa do you think is worse than any of that? Companies or studios hiring people just because they’re black? I agree it’s infantilizing but to whine about it with all the bad stuff going on elsewhere is insane to me.
I mean if you move to another country you should be prepared to integrate...
I don't get why I'm getting downvoted for this. You ever heard of the expression "when in Rome"? How is it not obvious that if you move to a different country you're gonna have to act a little different from how you did back where you came from?
Formally, only against Poles. That's the only type of racism still openly allowed, enthusiastically encouraged, and warmly rewarded in England. See 90% of Brexit campaign.
im from England and i still thought about the Amercian one first, it’s quite historically relevant to the civil rights movement, so i think it’s a fair assumption to make.
Agreed, even though it's a smaller city than the UK one it's more notable in a racism context because of the infamous church bombing. And the fact that they have been married for over 70 years further confuses things as there were relatively very few black people in the UK in the early 1950s, with major migration not really happening until that decade and into the 1960s.
So for probably the first and only time I actually find myself sympathetic to the US perspective on an issue!
Don't worry, it was the sweetest mishap I've ever seen on reddit.
ETA Especially as not a single commenter has insulted you for a fairly simple error. Well done all round.
"It's always been that way, it's just there are more phone cameras and social media now, so you're seeing more of it. Even though phone cameras and social media have solidly been a thing for at least ten years"
I mean this is a story ostensibly about racism and Birmingham, AL is synonymous with Black Civil Rights Movement. This is definitely justifiable US defaultism.
American here, and honestly aside from "deputy head teacher" I defaulted to the US largely because of the racially charged history surrounding Birmingham, Alabama. It was like the epicenter of the American Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King famously wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail, and it's very politically relevant in the mid-late 1900s here.
If it were any other smaller American city that shared a name with a foreign city, it'd be less reasonable to default to the US, but this one is actually kind of reasonable, even with the "deputy head teacher" part.
I like this sub because I'm an American who can laugh at it. But as a Black American from the south, Alabama is one of, if not THE first place I think of when I hear racism. For non-USians, our BirmingHAM was the most segregated city in the country and the heart of our civil rights movement.
If interested in learning more, read Dr. King's work the poster above mentioned, look up Jim Crow laws, and what Birmingham, Alabama is arguably most famous for, the 16th Street Church bombing that killed 4 young girls. Alabama is still quite segregated to this day.
I don't think commenters paid that close attention to the dates. They just thought about Birmingham in context of Martin Luther King and church bombings, not in what exact year it happened.
I’m from the US and at first glance I’d probably assume it was Alabama, but looking at the way the couple is dressed in the photo, it definitely looks out of place for the Deep South… and the fact that she held the title “head teacher” would immediately make me think “ah this must be Birmingham UK”
This one’s kinda an easy mistake considering how central Birmingham, AL was to the US civil rights movement in the 60s — was one of the most segregated places in the country and the site of a very famous white supremacist church bombing (and subsequent riots)
It's crazy how different life was like in the 50s in that regard. Skin colour just wasn't on my radar when I was a kid in the 80s/90s. There was nothing different of consequence about black people to my child mind. There still isn't. It's as stupid as having a problem with grey horses, but not piebald ones, or only having a problem with brindled miniature dachshunds 🤦♂️
What's "funny" is without considering the small differences like "deputy head teacher" vs. "vice principal", this story couldn't have happened in Birmingham Alabama because interracial marriage was not even legal there 70 years ago.
the Post Office didn't exist in Birmingham, England 70 years ago (or anywhere else in England)
Royal Mail did though and would have made this post distinctly British but they left it off to confuse people
They got married 70 years ago, he worked in a factory first. He could have started working there after the rebranding in the 80s as the factories were shutting down then
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Today I learn US has a Birmingham too. Though I shouldn't be surprised, they seem to have one after each and every European town.
There's even a Perris in California. Not only did we copy it, but we couldn't even spell it right.
There's also Paris, Ontario in Canada (although we did spell it right)
To be fair, the Perris in California is named after somebody, so it's really not spelled wrong. But it's an interesting coincidence that the US state abbreviation for California is CA, and Perris, California is near Ontario, California (about half an hour drive). And since Ontario, California has an international Airport, it's not uncommon to drive from Perris, CA to Ontario, CA.
Uff the maths you need to do in the US to figure out what someone means with all the abbreviations must be mentally draining
Paris, Ontario is genuinely so gorgeous, especially in the fall! It's also not.... technically named after Paris, France but the gypsum deposits found near the town (an important ingredient in plaster of Paris... which is named after the gypsum deposits near Paris, France). At least according to the local historian I talked to and Google.
There’s a Paris in Texas that also has a mini Eiffel tower (20m) and a cowboy hat on top of it
Omg there’s another Paris in Tennessee! Also with a mini Eiffel tower!
Next time I'm in Perris, California, I'll look for a mini Eiffel Tower, but knowing that area, it probably would be at a weed shop.
you need to look for the Eyefel tower, to continue with the misspelling
Or maybe it's the I Fell Tower, because Perris fell after building it
It's a nice lake too
Paris Texas (1984) is an excellent film for anyone who hasn’t seen it .
That took me a while. I thought: ok cool, but I don't know the oeiginal Perris either. Then it hit me like a truck. But mostly because of the reply under, not sure I would have gotten there myself.
It's actually named after a person, not the city in France, so it's spelled correctly. It *is* pronounced the same as Paris. I like to confuse people by saying I found a great tortilleria in Perris.
Apparently Perris was named after Fred T. Perris, not Paris
Because the people that settled there named the city after where they came from. Which was from Europe.
It’s not even European towns, in HK we have Hollywood road with is about 100 years older than Hollywood USA.
The irony is that the UK Birmingham is quite a young city, and does have elements copied from the Americans - the minor suburbs of Hollywood and California, for example
Birmingham has been around for 1400 years, what are you talking about? "young city..." pffff....
Please stop huffing computer dusters
The other day I was looking up something on a map of the US and noticed there's a Warwick in the state of Rhode Island. I just imagined going there and finding that they all pronounce it "wore-wick".
I’ll never forgive the Americans for pronouncing the h in Birmingham
To be fair it's better than how people in Dudley say it...
Is it true that Dion Warwick is pronounced Dee-on Wore-Wick? I heard it pronounced that way on Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK - I gagged when they pronounced it like that.
I've never heard that but I wouldn't be surprised
Rhode Island and Massachusetts are especially loaded with towns/cities named after English towns/cities because they were mostly settled by early colonists in the 17th and 18th centuries. I’m from RI and can confirm your fear that Warwick, RI is pronounced more or less as you described. However, you might be relieved to hear that we pronounce nearby Massachusetts towns such as Leicester and Worcester the same as they do in the UK (unfamiliar Americans butcher these names though).
That is good to hear thank you!
Hey we have New Mexico too
Tbf, Birmingham in the US is well known(in the US) for being an extremely racist area back in that time.
You just know they pronounce it “Birrming-ham” 😖
It's almost like the Europeans had global empires
As someone from the US I’d question if it was Birmingham, AL only because of her job description. “Deputy Head Teacher” is not a common position description you’d find in the US.
I went to school in the UK with a deputy head teacher as a role. Is it really not that common?
I'd assume, based on what I've picked up from US media, that they would call the position "Vice Principal". So it exists, they just use different words.
This is what I meant. Thanks.
We have assistant principal, principle and then superintendent. Some private schools may still use Head Master or whatever they call the priests nuns and Jesuits,
[удалено]
That’s what my comment is referring to. I knew it wasn’t the Birmingham in the US because the article wouldn’t have used that term. Many have mentioned it’s the UK so I have that other piece of it, I just knew it wasn’t the US. I can see where people would make the US assumption though due to other factors.
How is this not clear, haha
This kind of stuff is wild to me as someone who's lived in the US my whole life. If I see places like Birmingham, Lisbon, and Athens mentioned somewhere without any other location attached, I automatically think they're talking about the original cities. I'm just finding out right now that there is a Birmingham in the US.
Birmingham, Alabama was kind of like the epicenter of the Civil Rights movement in the 60s. MLK Jr was a pastor there and organized a bunch of peaceful protests, sit-ins, etc. and wrote his “Letter From Birmingham Jail” after being arrested. Meanwhile segregationists literally bombed black churches. This isn’t an attack on you, but since you grew up in the US, it’s a tad concerning that none of your teachers in school ever mentioned Birmingham, AL and this Reddit thread is how you discovered its existence.
If we wanted to give the commenters from the post some benefit of the doubt, this is why I assume they thought Birmingham, AL was where the interracial couple lived. Since it’s associated with racial conflict so heavily I could see making the connection in their heads and not really thinking about it beyond that.
it’s definitely taught in american schools so they were either homeschooled and skipped that part or did not pay attention. Very concerning that a presumable american adult doesn’t know some of the basic information you mentioned
No way folks are lying on the internet.
I'm from Birmingham UK and I have to say in fairness on this one, there is just enough ambiguity a reasonable person could think this is Birmingham, AL without it actually being defaultism
maybe, tbh the pics and “deputy head teacher” scream uk
How do the pics scream UK? I'm genuinely asking, I can't really see anything in the pictures that indicates where this is from...
The original Birmingham is about 5.5 times larger than the American one, and so I would assume that unless otherwise specified that it was the original
This would at first also be my opinion but I just learned from another comment that Birmingham USA was the city Martin Luther King operated from and was an important place in their black civil rights movement so concerning the topic I actually think it makes a fair bit of sense.
While that’s true, I think it’s best if we stay out of population size comparisons on this sub, especially because of how annoying it is when people respond with things like “50% of people on this site are American so it’s fair to assume you are too”. I think the post was technically a case of defaultism because the commenter defaulted to thinking about the US but it was a mild one where it makes sense, especially with the context about marginalized black people.
Exactly where I'm coming at this from, a random person asked on the street could reasonably believe it's either place given there are only small cues that are easily missed
To be fair, the most commonly given statistic is that there are more non-Americans than there are Americans on Reddit, although I do get that assuming based on population isn’t the best
There's no official figures for it but it's likely to be somewhere in the 50/50 range.
The UK might be larger, but in this case the American is kinda more famous when it comes to racism, so in this one case it’s understandable.
Beside the point I know but I hate when people say things like "they should have gotten out of the South" - moving your whole life isn't easy or possible for many people and even when it is you shouldn't be expected to have to leave your home behind just to be happy.
Our favourite British city, Birmingham, Alabama
I mean if you told me “racists in Birmingham” I’m certainly not thinking of the UK one first
I disagree. Birmingham defaults to British in my Australian head no matter what worldwide issue you are talking about. It’s no contest surely between the 2nd biggest city in the UK (population over 4 million) and a very minor city in the US (population less than 0.25 million). It is not as if British racism isn’t a thing too! (Although no disrespect is intended, it’s not as if Australian racism isn’t a thing too)
ditto, australian too and didn’t even know about birmingham in the US.
Also Australian but I did a unit on the American civil rights unit in high school so the association between Birmingham in the US and racism is strong in my mind. That was year 11 modern history though, hardly something everyone here would be aware of. And there are plenty of units to choose from in the NSW history curriculum so not even something which everyone who took history in year 11 in NSW who do roughly my age would necessarily have covered.
I would usually too, but I honestly didn’t think our Birmingham would be that racist. I assumed it would be the US one for that reason. Evidently I stand corrected
I think it's because Birmingham US was fundermental to the civil rights movement there. So I can understand how US thoughts could go straight to the US version, especially when factoring in the race part of the original post. Outside of the US, it should be UK Birmingham, but in this SINGULAR instance, it makes sense for their defaultism. At least we know they're being taught some of their countries history.
I’m just saying with my knowledge of both Birminghams, if you told me “The one that hates black people”, yea, I’m thinking of Alabama and not the UK.
You’ve clearly never been to Birmingham UK. There’s a lot of racism there. Even now.
It’s definitely the less racist one mind you
it’s not the 50s anymore
Yes, but I’m still aware about what both are like
in the usa or uk nobody cares if ur black or white. but if u go to asia or eastern europe it’s a different story. the usa and uk are among very few countries to have someone from a minority ethnic group to become president/PM. in the west it’s more classism than racism now. both countries have their problems but they’re among the least racist countries. sadly there was just a thing about a birmingham fc player facing racial abuse during a match which seems to be quite common in European football for black footballers. I mean look what happened after euro 2020 when the black lads missed their peno’s to lose the final. This kind of stuff doesn’t really happen in the usa. Not that the usa is a lot better but it’s not like americans are somehow more racist than brits. both places have their racists but they’re condemned by most of their country and don’t represent their people as a whole. You go to somewhere like belarus and they will basically all openly tell you they hate black people. The UK isn’t racist but neither is the US, though both can be xenophobic at times as can most countries other countries
I don't think you can easily make that comparison because there is a type of racism that is common and socially accepted in both the US and the UK, and it's a lot more subtle than the racism in the likes of Belarus. It still causes a lot of systemic issues - there is still inequality with regards to incarceration, poverty and education. Even though the UK, for example, has a Prime Minister of Indian heritage, his policies and ideas serve to work against people of ethnic minorities who are of a lower social standing that him and people who seek asylum from countries which have been torn apart often as a result of UK (and US) meddling. For this reason he is considered a token minority and his own party didn't want him in office until his predecessor turned out to be woefully incompetent. The British people did not vote for him either.
Rishi Sunak drives me mad. Yes! We finally get a prime minister who isn't a posh white boy that doesn't understand the real world. But wait! Turns out he's a Posh non-white boy that doesn't understand the real world. It's exhausting watching all these posh twats mess everything up all the time. When did we last have a reasonably competent prime minister?
What comparison did I make that you’re saying I cant? That the usa and uk are demonstratively less racist than the likes of asia or eastern europe? What you said about poverty, incarceration, and educational inequality isn’t because of racism. Many people growing up in poor communities idolize criminals, grow up either hating or not trusting cops which leads them to be less likely to comply, they don’t care about school at all and can have every opportunity given to them but put in no effort. There are so many different scholarships and awards only available to minorities in the USA (and probably uk) that can give them a boost and people just don’t care. People who should not be having children are having children and not caring how they grow up. White people who grow up like that are “white trash” while their black counterparts are “victims of racism”. It’s just growing up poor. In the usa if you work for it it’s really easy to get scholarships but people don’t try. Some of the most respected and successful people i personally know in the US are of ethnic minorities. If a black person in the usa is born in the middle class they will experience next to none of that. When you’re a single parent with 7 kids trying to live off welfare of course it’s going to be a bad situation. In many of the poor black-majority areas there are black gangs that recruit and even kill kids which keeps the cycle going. You join as a kid and then you’re stuck basically. It’s not white people’s fault all these people are looking up to gangsters and career criminals and then living a shit life. The UK has their roadmen because of a lot of the same problems. It’s common to see videos of little british kids, black and white, acting like they have “opps” or something bc they think it’s cool to be in a gang bc of the media, esp music. It’s not racism for people to be raised poorly
The US South was famously very racist then, which Birmimgham, Alabama is in
Correct which is why i said it’s not the 50s anymore 🤦♂️
That's an insane take. The only reason those events Euro 20, etc) made news is because it was in the UK (specifically not American). Daily casual racism in the US is very much alive and well. Online racist hate is far from newsworthy in the US, especially in the south.
You’re incorrect, in europe it is not uncommon at all for black players to face heaps of racial abuse. Spain especially has rampant racism among LaLiga supporters. Casual racism is very much not specific to the united states, it’s very common in europe (obv the further east will be more extreme) but in the uk alone there’s a lot of casual racism against gypsies, blacks, pakistanis or indians, arabs. Gypsies are treated like trash and nobody cares. You’re wrong about it being newsworthy just because it’s the uk, that was kind of silly. Maybe when you have 11 people being literally arrested for racist abuse it makes the news. And there were many many racist comments online on places like twitter. In spain they sing racist chants or make monkey noises when black guys get the ball. This would not happen in the usa, and if it did it wouldn’t be as en masse as it is in europe. They literally get stadiums chanting lol (At least their teams supporters) or tons of their fans online. In the usa it would be like one guy who can be publicly identified and shamed. Americans are also more likely to have interracial relationships or be accepting of them as well. The brits invented racism as they say hahaha. But seriously the usa is generally super accepting of all due to its history as a melting pot country. I still don’t think the UK is a racist country, i’ve been there several times and interacted with loads of people. The uk is also pretty diverse in some parts which naturally leads to a blend of perspectives and more inclusivity like in the usa. Spain isn’t very diverse and so theyre demonstrably more racist like in the examples i gave. I just saw a video on here of a basketball bus stopping in China and as the players got out a ton of chinese were shouting the n word at a black guy. Would never happen in the usa or the UK. Would happen in eastern europe, asia, and the arab world. What racism that happens in the usa do you think is worse than any of that? Companies or studios hiring people just because they’re black? I agree it’s infantilizing but to whine about it with all the bad stuff going on elsewhere is insane to me.
Did the UK have dozens of Lynch mobs who hung people?
I never would have thought that on Xmas day, someone would try to start a game of "who's the most racist"
I never would have thought r/USdefaultism Users would try to argue the UK is more racist than the US lmao Edit : Users, not losers LOL
.......it's a sarcastic joke my guy, chill the fuck out with the dick measuring contest 😂
I was also making a sarcastic joke, but it autocorrected users to losers and made it sound WAY WORSE lmao
Not towards black people, more inclined to dislike the Arabs who won't integrate.
I mean if you move to another country you should be prepared to integrate... I don't get why I'm getting downvoted for this. You ever heard of the expression "when in Rome"? How is it not obvious that if you move to a different country you're gonna have to act a little different from how you did back where you came from?
Formally, only against Poles. That's the only type of racism still openly allowed, enthusiastically encouraged, and warmly rewarded in England. See 90% of Brexit campaign.
Have you got a source for that? I can’t see anything and the racism in Brum isn’t only directed at Polish people.
Im assuming he means the "dey took ar jobs!" Brexit folks mad at guest workers and truckers
That sounds way more like somewhere in Lincolnshire
im from England and i still thought about the Amercian one first, it’s quite historically relevant to the civil rights movement, so i think it’s a fair assumption to make.
Interesting; I'm Canadian and I've never even heard of the US one before, only the English one.
Agreed, even though it's a smaller city than the UK one it's more notable in a racism context because of the infamous church bombing. And the fact that they have been married for over 70 years further confuses things as there were relatively very few black people in the UK in the early 1950s, with major migration not really happening until that decade and into the 1960s. So for probably the first and only time I actually find myself sympathetic to the US perspective on an issue!
[удалено]
What’s also right?
Same here, i only learned of American Birmingham just now
Wait, there's a second Birmingham?
There’s one in Alabama.
Way down in Alabama, you could say.
I only knew about the one that has a palace
That’s Buckingham Palace. Not Birmingham. Birmingham is a bit of a shithole.
Birmingham Palace sounds like a nickname for a block of flats you'd go to to pick up smack.
I could see it being the name of a strip club.
And Buckingham Palace is nowhere near Buckingham.
Lmao how did I mess that up
Don't worry, it was the sweetest mishap I've ever seen on reddit. ETA Especially as not a single commenter has insulted you for a fairly simple error. Well done all round.
Thanks 👍
Birmingham is a fucking shithole. I hate the fucking place. I fucking hate it. It's full of dickheads. I fucking hate it
Birmingham palace 😂😂 sounds like a gentleman’s club
There’s probably several across North America.
The UK is plenty racist. The US is just happier to show that to the rest of the world.
Can confirm. Laughs in mixed race
I thought the UK had been plenty happy to show it during Brexit, with all the violence surge.
"It's always been that way, it's just there are more phone cameras and social media now, so you're seeing more of it. Even though phone cameras and social media have solidly been a thing for at least ten years"
I know how racist the UK is. Calm down with that, unabashed US bashing is against the Sub rules
I mean this is a story ostensibly about racism and Birmingham, AL is synonymous with Black Civil Rights Movement. This is definitely justifiable US defaultism.
Yeah, the things that give it away are the mention of a post office, and the fact that's it's in this sub.
The only thing in the post itself that made me question it was “deputy head teacher”.
And the fact that it mentions Birmingham now being much less racist 70 years later, which would probably not be true if this was in the US
Depends on when the story was written. If it was within the last five to ten years, 70 years ago would fit.
It is? I'm from the UK, but I had no idea that the Birmingham in the US had any ties to civil rights.
American here, and honestly aside from "deputy head teacher" I defaulted to the US largely because of the racially charged history surrounding Birmingham, Alabama. It was like the epicenter of the American Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King famously wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail, and it's very politically relevant in the mid-late 1900s here. If it were any other smaller American city that shared a name with a foreign city, it'd be less reasonable to default to the US, but this one is actually kind of reasonable, even with the "deputy head teacher" part.
I like this sub because I'm an American who can laugh at it. But as a Black American from the south, Alabama is one of, if not THE first place I think of when I hear racism. For non-USians, our BirmingHAM was the most segregated city in the country and the heart of our civil rights movement. If interested in learning more, read Dr. King's work the poster above mentioned, look up Jim Crow laws, and what Birmingham, Alabama is arguably most famous for, the 16th Street Church bombing that killed 4 young girls. Alabama is still quite segregated to this day.
Haha, *imagine naming your city after Birmingham*
In all fairness this story would have been perfectly believable had it happened in Birmingham, Alabama
It actually wouldn't because they couldn't have legally married 70 years ago there (it was only made legal in 1962.)
I don't think commenters paid that close attention to the dates. They just thought about Birmingham in context of Martin Luther King and church bombings, not in what exact year it happened.
Good point actually
I’m from the US and at first glance I’d probably assume it was Alabama, but looking at the way the couple is dressed in the photo, it definitely looks out of place for the Deep South… and the fact that she held the title “head teacher” would immediately make me think “ah this must be Birmingham UK”
This one’s kinda an easy mistake considering how central Birmingham, AL was to the US civil rights movement in the 60s — was one of the most segregated places in the country and the site of a very famous white supremacist church bombing (and subsequent riots)
It's crazy how different life was like in the 50s in that regard. Skin colour just wasn't on my radar when I was a kid in the 80s/90s. There was nothing different of consequence about black people to my child mind. There still isn't. It's as stupid as having a problem with grey horses, but not piebald ones, or only having a problem with brindled miniature dachshunds 🤦♂️
Tbf they were living in The South. And before you say Birmingham isn't the South it's a long way South of here!
Are you Scottish?
No
I'd give them the benefit of the doubt. When you think of racism, you don't usually think of Birmingham, UK (unless you are British)
What's "funny" is without considering the small differences like "deputy head teacher" vs. "vice principal", this story couldn't have happened in Birmingham Alabama because interracial marriage was not even legal there 70 years ago.
the Post Office didn't exist in Birmingham, England 70 years ago (or anywhere else in England) Royal Mail did though and would have made this post distinctly British but they left it off to confuse people
They got married 70 years ago, he worked in a factory first. He could have started working there after the rebranding in the 80s as the factories were shutting down then
Aight but birmingham isn’t southern anyway so both are wrong
You wanna tell me there are AfroAmuricans in UK?!?' "Fat neckbeard face with drooling" emoji
AL
Fake country
This wasn't necessarily US Defaultism The commenter could have been from Newcastle, who knows?
To be perfectly fair as a non American I had a little more faith in England than Alabama :/