Sophie McNaughton from Moon Child invited me to write a guest post about the United States and racism. She lives in Scotland and having followed the news from the U.S. had begun to wonder if the country was being demonized (or in her word, demonised) or if what she was reading and hearing was accurate. If you’re not already up to your eyeballs with what I think, follow the link and read it.
Notes from the U.K.
Exploring the spidery corners of a culture and the weird stuff that tourist brochures ignore.
Notes from the U.K. 
Reblogged this on Praying for Eyebrowz and commented:
Please read and think. Sometimes a new perspective makes all the difference. And check out notesfromtheuk.com. It’s one of the best blogs out there.
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Thank you, NanaN.
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You did a fabulous job finding a focus in such a behemoth of a topic. I’m really proud to have you as Our Voice in Britain.
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Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I’m not up to the job. Honest. I’d rather be the wacko ranting by the roadside than the responsible voice inside the meeting.
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I saw you’d liked me at my blog(not sure how you got there, but thank you) and, having read your guest piece on racism, think we might be on the same bus. Many years ago I was required to fill out a form which wanted to know my race. I, being a smart arse, wrote “human.” Yes, it’s a bit glib, but I notice forms now ask for “ethnicity” or somesuch.
I hope our bus has a full tank cos it’s a long road….
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I’m not sure how I found your blog, but I think you’d liked a comment I left on–oh, some third person’s blog. One of these days I’m going to lose my way in the blogosphere and never find my way home. However I got there, I was glad to have stumbled into it. Because yes, it is a long road and it’s good to have company. I like your response on the form. Ethnicity is a good substitute for race, but I haven’t gotten myself to the point of using it in conversation–or in casual writing. It sounds, somehow, so prim. But maybe that’s just because I’m not used to hearing it.
When I first moved to the UK, I used to regularly see forms that asked for “Christian name,” which makes me bristle and want to insert an essay on the tiny little box. Now I see “first name,” or maybe it’s “given name,” much more often. I suppose that sounded prim at first to people who were used to seeing “Christian name.”
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Snap! I say family name and given name.Much more sensible and less offensive.
Getting lost in the blogosphere? Oh, yeah,I need a compass.Then again, I’ve so much good stuff…
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Oh my goodness! You. Nailed. It! I’m almost at a loss for words! This piece is exactly what I put up with. The feelings of Trayvon, Tamir, Michael Brown. All of those cases resonated with me. I am going to address it with an upcoming post.
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Glad to hear it, Jarrod. Send me a link, will you? I’ll post it on Notes.
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Sure thing! I’ll write and send it tonight.
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It took me a long time to write my thoughts down, but here it is. Let me know what you think. I’m always open to discussion.
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This is a thoughtful post and well worth reading.
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I sound like a broken record, but I really appreciate it :-)
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And if I had any small part in kickstarting your post, then I’m going to puff myself up and strut around a little.
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Totally do so! I’ve had plenty of these conversations. Facebook is a bad place to discuss race. When I read your post, it was like “Finally someone gets it!” I got inspired lol.
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Thanks for saying that. It’s been a rough morning. A scare over my eyesight (still worrying but not a panic situation) not to mention a cat who’s not eating makes this the perfect time for someone to say something that nice. I hope the conversation your post generates is thoughtful. It fully deserves that.
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