If you are a “black” person residing in the UK this point of view makes a lot more sense. I do suggest researching topics like: Imperialism, Colonialism and Hereditarian European Identity formation.
The United States has a different social structure than other Western countries. In the US we are sixty -seventy years behind other Western countries in topics like anthropology and sociology.
In the US habits of socialization are different than in other countries. This of course is what socialization is.
In the US capitalism and the land use system were developed on the concept of the inferiority of non white people and the superiority of people socialized to be white. So the dynamics as it relates to power, class and capital are completely different.
Our economy was built on a social structure of slavery and it continues into the present day. Now it encompasses people socialized to be white as well. In the US you will see all ethnicities partaking in a capitalistic indentured servitude framework. Where they sell their labor to a few overseers who take the profits from other people’s labor who don’t own the land or inherited capital to extract other people’s capital. But in the US because we have a history of people being socialized to be white traditionally occupying the owning and overseer class. You will see many race based dynamics play out. For instance in the US white restaurant servers don’t like waiting on African Americans because it is an act of lowering themselves to a subservient position to who they perceive should be in a lower class than them. They use the excuse of tipping without considering that eye rolls and a hostile attitude is unlikely to extract a tip from anyone of any ethnicity.
I have befriended many people with less melanin production from Europe and they are not socialized to be white in the same way like they are in the US.
It is not in fact all people with reduced melanin production that display racist behaviors but in the US the majority are socialized to be white. Which in America means something different than in other parts of the world.
From my understanding to be socialized to be white in Europe is not to rely on your skin color to legitimate your claims to anything. It is to take your place as a global citizen with an open mind. In the US being socialized to be white is completely different. It is to remain close minded and to act out ethnocentrism. It also produces the result of relying on your skin color to legitimate your own authority and skill level. Rather than learning and growing your knowledge base to actually back that up.
I have considered moving out of the US for this very reason. The racial dynamics here are ridiculous with a capital R. I frankly don’t have time for this race myth nonsense to affect my life because of the geographical region I happen to inhabit.
Of course someone’s melanin production is not indicative of one’s over all behavior that literally is racism.
But one’s socialization absolutely affects one behavior. In Europe they aren’t socialized to associate white and black in the same way. So thus I really have no qualms with most Europeans. You still have your close minded people everywhere. But if we are dealing with majorities than no I don’t think most Europeans were socialized in America. So I don’t correlate their behavior with American white socialization.
You specified the UK so I can definitely sympathize it’s your position in a totally different area and totally different socialization experience.
America is infecting other parts of the world with their racism and early 1900s based anthropology.
For instance in America they still pander to myths of race as real anthropological concepts instead of just using ethnicity.
The highest office in the land still produces what is called a US National census and in it they distribute propaganda. They split people into races and make people check boxes pretending we are all a different race from each other. Race theory was debunked in 1950, 1952 and again in 1998. By the UN and the American Anthropological Association. So when I say we are 50–70 years behind Europe I mean this literally.
I have 5 “white” friends and acquaintances from 5 different countries in Europe who are first generation immigrants and two still live there. They aren’t racist. But out of the white people I know they are the only ones because the rest of the white people I know are from the US.
