The Student Room Group

Old People Being Racist!

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Original post by Octopus_Garden
Eenie meenie mo is very old, and there are dozens of versions. Unfortunately the racist one (which is a very modern version- the rhyme has versions predating that one) made it into print first, and then became very widespread.

And since then people have been trying to preserve the accustomed rhyme-scheme of the racist one, without using the offensive word. Some of the attempts are more obvious than others. Tigger? For crying out loud! That's too close to the original. We use tiger over where I live.

Interesting, I hadn't realized that the n-word was the original.
At p/s-school I we used the word "fisher".
Happens almost every time I visit certain old people. I like to think about what will be viewed as unacceptable in the future. People who still have attitudes from 50 years ago will naturally come out with 'inappropriate' things (as we view them) but give it another 50 years and I imagine there'll be a new raft of things that our kids will facepalm every time we come out with them in public, and give us an 'ooh, you shouldn't say that' face.

Probably stuff we do every day, there's always someone on the lookout for something else to ban. Perhaps walking past a pigeon without saluting it will cause offence to the pigeon. Not that racism should have been kept around, but I'm fairly sure that our grandchildren will be discussing this on whatever passes for TSR 2060 and telling their friends how terribly '-ist' their grandparents are.
Yes my family is incredibly racist. My mum is starting to say less and less racist things lately though, but I don't know if it's because she knows it'll lead to an argument with me or if it's because I genuinely changed her mind. I think it's probably halfway.
Reply 43
Since when was it limited to old people?
Original post by keromedic
Interesting, I hadn't realized that the n-word was the original.
At p/s-school I we used the word "fisher".

It's not. Sorry if I wasn't clear. The rhythm could even pre-date modern English, and is international. But the words vary. According to my beloved wiki, there's even a German one. The nasty set of words was put to it in 19th century America, which is rather recent in its history.
Original post by Octopus_Garden
It's not. Sorry if I wasn't clear. The rhythm could even pre-date modern English, and is international. But the words vary. According to my beloved wiki, there's even a German one. The nasty set of words was put to it in 19th century America, which is rather recent in its history.

Oh right, I apologize for misunderstanding your words. The error was with me!
Reply 46
Original post by Dragonfly07
Yes my family is incredibly racist. My mum is starting to say less and less racist things lately though, but I don't know if it's because she knows it'll lead to an argument with me or if it's because I genuinely changed her mind. I think it's probably halfway.


I have the same problem with my dad. He's gotten marginally less racist lately since we've gotten Bangladeshi neighbours but he's still ridiculously homophobic. Half the time I think he does it because he knows it annoys me.


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Reply 47
I know this lovely old man who out of habit more than anything, refers to people who are other than white as 'coloureds'. I don't think for one minute he is bring racist at all.
she should hook up with me
My step-step-grandad (My step-dad's step-dad) is the worst of it, calling all darker people 'darkies' etc...don't get him started on the post office -_- But I don't blame him, he's really old and was bought up in the country. Besides I doubt he really means it in a nasty way.

My great gran (or great, great? One of those) was funny. She passed away before I was born, but she was quite close to my mum, and one day they out shopping, she was really quite senile by then. She used to live in India when she was quite young where should would be waited on by Indian servants etc, and they went in to a little corner shop, where she asked the shopkeeper where his master was! My mum was mortified and apologised to the shopkeeper, but even they recognised she didn't mean any harm, it was just old age. I think old people just come from a different time, and I can't help but be more leniant with them.
Reply 50
I don't get why people are so offended by racism. Personally when faced with it I just laugh it off and be done with it.

I've had experienced it on a bus before by one nasty old wench, she didn't like anyone standing in front of her but there was no where else to stand, she said something deemed racist and every single White passenger in the bus chastised her, even to the point where the bus driver stopped the bus to order her off the bus. I bet if this happened today there'd be a video on it on YouTube but this happened in an era where PC had slowly started to creep in but mobiles never had a camera and 1 hour talk time was a lot. I told the driver to let the lady be as she is just a harmless old lady and he continued on the journey. Plenty of passengers were appalled I didn't insist she be kicked off the bus but the way I looked at it her being kicked off the bus doesn't accomplish anything, you can have all the rules, regulations, policies and governmental advice and it still won't change if someone doesn't want to change.

I have quite racist parents and they have no problems expressing their dislike for certain races. I don't really do anything about it as it isn't going to change anything, it's best instead to simply not respond to it or simply give them a one word response.

As for myself, I prefer some races and nationalities over others and I don't consider that racism :smile:
Original post by Lord Harold
My friend was telling me how his 96 year old grandma was watching Ready Steady Cook, and remarked how 'it is scary that people like that might be touching your food' whilst pointing an accusing finger at Ainsley Harriot, when my friend enquired about what she meant by 'people like that' she said 'you know the blacks.' Needless to say he was disgusted, have any of you got any similar stories?


Reminds me of that Little Britain sketch. Tbh, I always find quiet racism like this funny, it's just so unjustified.

Being half Oriental, I notice that Asians are generally more racist than most others but it's probably just how they were raised. British people tend to be really tolerant, I guess because they come from a society with so many different cultures present, so it's always pretty unexpected when they say stuff like this.
(edited 10 years ago)
Not surprised
Reply 53
Original post by Jjj90
I just think... if you're disgusted at what a 96 year old woman think about race; somebody that was born during the first world war, somebody that will have been older than many people on this site before Martin Luther King was even born... you need to get a grip.

In a way you are condoning racism. By that token, you would accept all the actions of racists pre-MLK, including Lord Moseley and indeed Hitler, I am however sure that you don't!
I can abide elderly people who still use slightly old fashioned and now un-PC words, such as 'coloured', because they know no better, however to express disgust at the fact a black person may be cooking their food, is crossing the line of uninformed, casual and innocent racism, common among most elderly people!
Original post by Lord Harold
In a way you are condoning racism. By that token, you would accept all the actions of racists pre-MLK, including Lord Moseley and indeed Hitler, I am however sure that you don't!
I can abide elderly people who still use slightly old fashioned and now un-PC words, such as 'coloured', because they know no better, however to express disgust at the fact a black person may be cooking their food, is crossing the line of uninformed, casual and innocent racism, common among most elderly people!


agree with this

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Reply 55
Original post by vendettax
Those comments will affect no one. You could've not brought it up, but you did, now you've made black people insecure.


The hell, it's not like we're a race teenage angsty girls who cry at every "mean" or "unfair" comment we see on the internet. If you could stop viewing black people as delicate China cups, that'd be great.

On the subject, my extended family seemed to be very offended when my sister married a white guy.
(edited 10 years ago)
To be honest, it's not worth getting annoyed at elderly people being racist, not to say that it should be condoned though.

From my experiences the Daily Mail is a bad influence on the older generation, plus they're slightly old-fashioned of course.
Reply 57
Your friend got a bad case of ageism.
Reply 58
I wouldn't get all pent up about it, she'll be dead soon.
Reply 59
I think that racism spans across all generations, it's just that older people are less a accustomed to concealing it while younger people are better at keeping their opinions quiet. When I'm alone with other white people, it's quite surprising the amount of people our age have racist views.

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