Everyday Racism

[poliphilo]

The guy has come to replace the boiler. The new boiler will be 31% more efficient, he says. He arrived on time and spent the first 20 minutes telling us about his friend the boffin and how his friend the boffin once made a artificial heart valve and how his friend the boffin used to fine tune motor bikes.

I thought, I don't know why you're telling us all this but maybe it's a ploy to put us at our ease. A technique.

Then he asked us- apropos of nothing- if we'd been "invaded".

I thought Ailz fielded it adroitly. She said we got on very well with our neighbours and since they were mostly muslims we didn't got bothered by drunks wobbling up and down the street on Friday nights.

It sort of killed the conversation though.

Comments

the idiot american asks...

[frumiousb.livejournal.com]

What's a boffin?

Re: the idiot american asks...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Boffin is slang for scientist- a bit old fashioned, but still in use.

Re: the idiot american asks...

[cataptromancer.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, a "boffin" character played a key role in a recent story arc of the webcomic "achewood" (the story itself indulged in quite a bit of meta-U.S.-fetishization-of-English-Culture).

Re: the idiot american asks...

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

A scientist or geeky type person who does complicated things with technology. The word's a little quaint now as I suspect the younger generation have adopted the US "geek". But boffins are not quite the same as they tended to do messier stuff in labs, or at least in potting sheds.

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

He definitely meant it in a racist way- and not about cockroaches or something?

I watched 'This is England' last night. Did you see that yet? Great movie- a hard watch, but very good. All about racism.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

No doubt about it- he was talking about immigration.

I haven't seen This England- that's the Shane Meadows movie about skinheads, right?

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

Yes it is, with the picture of the little skin-head on the front. It wasn't what I expected though- it had heart, and the young lead actor did a great job. It tried to see both sides of the coin- while of course not justifying anything. I recommend it.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I've never heard "boffin" before. I see the definition in your comments but it sure is an odd word.

"Invaded". Being an immigrant myself, albeit a privileged one, comments like that still hit a bit too close to home.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Britain is a nation of immigrants. Most of us have ancestors who came in from overseas in the past two or three hundred years.

[cataptromancer.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Not to mention the whole medieval waves of immigration thing.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed that TV show a year or two back where they tested the DNA of various white racists and found they had Jewish and African and Slav ancestry. Yes!

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

Bravissima Ailz!
Nothing more to say - racists are jerks.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

What gets me is how they assume you're going to agree with them. If I had dodgy views on this that or the other I'd keep them to myself.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I would have thought he meant aliens from outer space.

What is a boffin?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid he meant people from the Indian sub-continent.

Boffin is slang for scientist. The word is old-fashioned but
far from obsolete.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Good for Aliz!

We have a lot of that nonsense going on in my neighborhood as well. A neighbor from around the corner has started trying to get the corner store across the street from my house shut down. I cannot see any reason other than it is run by Muslims. It is putting me in an interesting position, since the guy around the corner is gay (as, of course, am I). But, this is ridiculous, since I have a much better relationship with the guys at the store than I do with that old busy-body drunkard around the corner.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Who in their right mind wants to close down a corner shop? Corner shops are invaluable. What excuse is he using?

I'm intrigued by the icon. Western heroes/badmen, right? I'm thinking that's Wyatt Earp in the centre with Billy the Kid looking over his left shoulder. Are those the James boys to his right? As for the military man I'm going for Bloody Bill Anderson. What's my score out of 5?

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

He wants to close it down, he says, because it "attracts a bad element". That is, it serves the people in the neighborhood who do not have cars, which are, strangely enough, mostly black. But I do not have a car as well, and I depend on that store to make my life livable. So, it is pure racism anyway you look at it, as well as probably intended as a backhanded insult to me.

The icon is a picture of a band called Chariot. I don't know anything about the band, but I liked the picture because it had them all dressed in various Victorian era garb, which, in America is actually "Old West" or "Civil War" era.

Unfortunately, I am not sure what Chariot was thinking when they did the picture, but I think you have made good guesses. I would agree with them.

I chose it because I am in this Victorian Gothic kind of mood lately, and since I am an American, I thought it would be kind of cool to reflect that. Also, the guy in the center is looking out, but he is surrounded by all the other guys reflecting different aspects of the era.

I am a big fan of the Victorian Gothic novel. There is a school in Scotland that I would love to go to and get a Masters Degree in Gothic Literature.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I did a paper at university on Sheridan le Fanu- which involved reading one or two novels that most people haven't.

I've always loved the 19th and early 20th century ghost story. Le Fanu, Oliphant, James, James, de la Mare...

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Me too. People think I am nuts, but that's ok. They are probably right.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Like... what happened when the Brits decided to invade India...? at least we did a proper invasion, with soldiers and all. The immigrants who then came over here were not really trying hard enough.

Wonder what he says to them when he goes to fix their boilers?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He was saying he does a lot of jobs for "those people" and some of them are "all right".

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

The "nice ones, though", as my own parents used to call black people they liked. Ages ago...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Phrases like that are a giveaway.

Another is, "Some of my best friends are Asian/black/gay, but..."

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Right on! I always sensed parental disapproval at my being involved in the Civil Rights Movement, though they were never very outspoken about it. Mostly they talked about how it was too bad that "everyone" wasn't a good as Dr. King. They were not so quiet about me being involved in anti-war protests, though. God bless them, they meant well, but were in a different place than I was. Now, so many years later, Ma and I agree on major issues. She is no longer afraid of black people or people who speak other languages, and she is absolutely opposed to the current president and his policies. She backs me on my current war protests as strongly as she used to oppose me during the Vietnam thing.
Times change, don't they?

[mokie]

The immigrants who then came over here were not really trying hard enough.

They need flags.

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

I like Ailz's answer. I plan to use it myself next time the immigration issue comes up, after revising it to fit the profile of our own Hispanic "invasion", LOL! I get on very well with the neighbors, since there are no arguments with people who do not yet speak the same language. Or something like that. Actually, I find the Hispanic woman very warm and loving neighbors, and generous to a fault. We swap words -- I give them an English word, they give me a Spanish one.
Same thing with the Chinese contingent that live in my elderly building. No language in common, but genuine affection - and word-swapping.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Our neighbours are mostly from Pakistan.

It was the Pakistani chap from three doors down who put us in touch with Warmfront- the government agency that gave us the grant to have the boiler replaced.

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

I can relate -- it was the minority people, and also other whites who live below the poverty level who told me about a lot of benefits available to retirees that I had no idea about. (Sorry about the grammar). So now I share my own experiences with other new retirees who are struggling to make ends meet. It turns out that if we know where to go and if we take advantage of social programs aimed at helping elderly people, we can live quite comfortably, albeit not luxuriously.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The social progtrams are usually there- but a lot of people never find out about them.

[oakmouse]

Ailz is too cool for words!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

She's the best.

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

I hereby title Ailz with this Native American name:
"Wise Woman Teacher-of-Many". I used to know how to say it in Lakota, but forgot - getting old, you know?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

She says she's highly flattered. :)