Sponsored by
Ben's World: Ducking out of having a racist friend on Facebook
Ben chats to a taxi driver who makes frequent use of the phrase 'I'm not racist but'
Racism is bad.
I know, I know, I'm always willing to come out with controversial statements on these pages.
So here you go - racism is bad, it's dangerous, and if any of my mates start straying down that path I always try to pull them up on it with a slightly pained look and "Well, I'm not sure I'd agree with you there mate..."
And on that note...This weekend I was up in Yorkshire - Bingley to be exact.
I'd been to Bingley Music Live, where the marvellous Public Image Limited had been playing. And as I left the venue in a taxi, I made small talk with the driver.
"Good evening mate?"
"Yeah, always good business when the festival's on."
"What's Bingley normally like then?"
"Yeah. I like it. But there's too many Pakistanis."
Mmmm.
It's always a tricky one that. Getting out of the taxi and walking wasn't really an option. We were some way along the road, and I would have been lost on my own.
But not saying anything didn't seem to be a great answer either.
So - why not? - I decided to argue the toss with him.
I didn't want to be too aggressive, and he found himself using the phrase 'I'm not racist but...' a few too many times.
And in the end I think we found a middle ground, where he was happy to grumble about 'the youngsters of today' (apparently young people aren't polite enough, whatever their race). And we both thought it was a bit poor when people don't learn the language of a country they move to - but were happy to apply that to English expats who move to Spain as much as immigrants to England.That chat reminded me of another girl I met in Leeds many years ago. Lets call her Sara.
I'd been visiting my mate Alan, who lives in the city, and sat next to Sara on the bus home.
She was brilliant. We talked about love, life, predictive text on mobile phones ("It's shiv!"), all sorts.
She had a boyfriend, I had a girlfriend, but that was kinda nice because it meant we could just concentrate on having a laugh.
She lived in London, and I got off to join the X5 at Milton Keynes, but we swapped numbers, and used to text every now and then. She even added me on Facebook.
And then it went a bit wrong.
Because Sara started using Facebook to invite me to various groups like 'Nick Griffin for PM' and 'I'll be voting BNP at the next election'.
As I might have stated already in this article: Mmmm.
Sara and I got on pretty well. But not so well that I felt I could phone her up and tell her why I found her politics really offensive.
Nor did I really know how to phrase an email to her if it was going to be headlined 'Thanks, but I try not to have racist friends'.
Plus she'd started changing her profile pictures to things like the BNP logo. Alright, so it wasn't quite a picture of Hitler, but it wasn't something I felt comfortable with.
So I deleted her as a Facebook friend and have never spoken to her again.
Whether I was being grown-up or a coward I've never been quite sure.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Bedford
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
