Is continental Europe more racist than the UK and Ireland?

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Do you think continental Europe is more racist than the UK and Ireland?

Honestly, I think it is. In the UK, born in the UK are accepted as British. In continental Europe, that isn't the case. For example, in Italy, if your skin isn't white you'll always be treated as an immigrant even if you were born in Italy, speak fluent Italian, are Catholic, and are well-integrated into society. You'll be blamed for "wokeness" and "political correctness" even if you're not a liberal. I also noticed that in continental Europe, if you have dark skin, people assume that you're Muslim even if you're from a country devoid of Muslims, but in the UK people don't do that. One more thing I noticed is that continental Europeans do not distinguish between people of color born in Europe and immigrants, while the British and Irish do.

I feel like it might have something to do with the fact that the UK and Ireland are probably the only countries in Europe where far-right politics haven't become the norm. Young people in the UK and Ireland tend to be left-wing, while young people in continental Europe tend to be far-right (and often more conservative than their parents).

From my position living in Continental Europe for 57 years I think people in UK, Ireland and the rest of the richer part of Western Europe are in general pretty much alike when it comes to the level of racism. You could argue that the Brexit vote was won by the Brexiteers on rhetorics about stopping the immigration. Does that make UK more racist than the EU countries? No, they Brits fell for a bunch of pied pipers. That can happen everywhere. Let me just mention Trump.

Continental Europe is too big and diverse a place to give one answer for. Some parts are much more chilled about things than others. For non chilled see the Balkans, especially Serbia.

Also the UK has quite a different attitude depending where you are. I am in the south and I rarely hear anyone say anything about race (i am not trying to pretend there arent people here with strong views on it). I have some friends in the North East and at times it feels like race dominates conversation up there. Even though there are few 'outsiders' living up there. They are terrified of anyone that doesn't look and sound like them.

What Biscuitman said. Europe...even the one nation of the UK is diverse and impossible to generalize about.

Former Communist Eastern Europe is less "woke" and less self conscious about bigotry than western europe. Thats safe to say. And its much more tribal. I have read that in one corner of Rumania (Transylvania actually) the ethnic Hungarians and the ethnic Rumanians all hate each other, but both groups claim that "we both hate the Gypsies more than we hate each other". The east is poorer, and long isolated from western cultural trends.


Western European countries had overseas colonies in the third world. And still get migrants from the former possessions. France gets a lot of Muslims from North Africa. Britain gets a mix of Muslims and non muslims from the Indian subcontinent. The Balkan countries of Eastern Europe were the subjects, rather than the rulers, of various empires (Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Nazi, and Soviet Warsaw Pact satrapy). Being under the thumb of others gives you a different mentality than having others under your thumb. If you're the later you have a certain luxury to choose to be ...oppressive of nice.

France also has lots of West Africans, not to mention people from overseas possessions that are still part of France, like Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Reunion. The latter three are overwhelmingly Catholic. Then again, you don't hear much about France's black community - I've met plenty of Americans who didn't know that there were black people in France. I actually feel like you rarely hear about non-Muslim people of color in Europe - the Muslim immigrants get all the coverage.

I read somewhere that Southeast Asians (Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians) are considered a "model minority" in France, much like Chinese in the US.

Yes. Both France and Britain had large empires. And both get migrants from their former colonies from endless lists of global regions.

The Vietnamese kicked France out of Indochina in 1954, but yes...they and Laotians and Cambodians all make "model migrants" (hard working, low profile) in France. After the Fall of Saigon in 1975 you began to see "French and Vietnamee cuisine" on restaurant signs near Washington DC...founded by Vietnamese refugees.

Unless one had access to a police database that cited criminally racist incidents, any answer would be entirely subjective.

As an American, I have not particularly enjoyed the condescending attitude by some Brits who have referred to me as a "colonial." Americans have not been British colonials since the revolution of 1776. The further observation by some Brits that I'm not a "real colonial" given my Asian ethnicity, is in and of itself, quite racist insofar as one's ethnicity should not be tied to one's nationality.

I was after all born in the States. Outside of Hong Kong, I have never visited China. I don't even speak Chinese.

On the other hand, I once narrowly escaped being mugged by a group of neo-Nazi Dutch skinheads in Amsterdam. Having escaped this gang by literally running to a crowded public area where there were lots of witnesses, one of these pursuing skinheads sketched a Nazi stiff armed salute after giving up the chase. As he rejoined his friends, he shouted, "Ausländer raus!" (foreigners out).

From a statistical viewpoint, these experiences cannot be objectively considered given the overly small sampling size.

This isn't the case.

In France, Le Pen only got about 1 in 4 first-round votes from under-34s.

In Germany, in the last election, the Alternative fur Deutschland came sixth among under-25s and fifth among 25-34s, doing better among their parents (and then worse among the 70+s).

This article is trying to make the point that lots of young people are voting for far-right parties... but if you look at the actual numbers quoted:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... ght-europe


Yes, those numbers are up - but they're up from very low bases, in countries with multi-party systems and fractured votes. Young people in continental Europe tend to not be far-right.

One thing to consider: Many countries in Europe have laws against hate speech, so people there are less likely to admit they're racist than they are in the U.S.

I think some people in the US who's exposure to Europe is from the major countries, would be shocked if they saw how some countries in Eastern Europe were like on this subject

Admitting to racism isn't hate speech.

As others have suggested, comparison of manifestations of racism in different European countries is truly apples to oranges.

Then you have North America, South Africa, and Australia, that have their own thing going, but at least that wasn't covered by the question. I'm not going to worry about Asia. Not my fleas, not my circus.

In my experience it's very easy for people in Europe that would like to express racist views to do that without breeaking a law against hate speech.

The UK is a varied place.

Northern places with low levels of immigration or people who are of an ethnic minority, might be more hostile to the idea of, or the presence of so called foreigners.

Whilst in London, people are generally more accepting of immigration and foreigners, since immigrants and people of ethnic minority are more commonplace.

A lot of people outside of the UK generally don't know much of the UK outside of London, so London is the go-to as a cultural reference, which might confuse some people.

What kinds of things *would* violate such laws?

If you hold racist views towards an ethnic group and refered to them as “human animals”.