I see no racial hatred in what I’ve read at all. Some stereotyping yes. The original Asian/African comment,which obviously hit a nerve with the OP, was made by a Londoner - I spend a lot of time in London and an awful lot of time avoiding seemingly homicidal cab/hire drivers who cannot drive for toffee, or choose to make no effort to drive safely or show basic courtesy to other road users. Whenever I manage to catch a glimpse, guess what? 90 odd percent of the time they are of Asian descent. Therefore if I was asked, from my experience, to name some of the worst drivers on the road I would have to say “Asian taxi drivers”. That’s not racism. That is an observation.
The word ‘racism’ itself makes no sense to me - there’s one race - human and we’re all in it.
I see no racial hatred in what I’ve read at all. Some stereotyping yes. The original Asian/African comment,which obviously hit a nerve with the OP, was made by a Londoner - I spend a lot of time in London and an awful lot of time avoiding seemingly homicidal cab/hire drivers who cannot drive for toffee, or choose to make no effort to drive safely or show basic courtesy to other road users. Whenever I manage to catch a glimpse, guess what? 90 odd percent of the time they are of Asian descent. Therefore if I was asked, from my experience, to name some of the worst drivers on the road I would have to say “Asian taxi drivers”. That’s not racism. That is an observation.
The word ‘racism’ itself makes no sense to me - there’s one race - human and we’re all in it.
Except London cabbies.
This is one of the most sensible posts on here and its bang on…
Asian or African or whoever, taxi, bus, tipper driver are not bad drivers because they are Asian, african, etc, etc, they are just bad drivers…
The comment I was unhappy about was because somebody mentioned ’ race ’ as one of the reasons that their are bad drivers,
Nobody is a bad driver because of their race, they are just bad drivers arnt they ?
Trying to explain that to some people on here is a uphill battle…
You don’t ride a bike do you? If you do you would have the triple crown on here what with race, royal mail & cycling being such popular topics.
As for me I’ve met people of all colours & hues, races, creeds and religious bents. One thing ive learned is that it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference which group you are in, if you a tool you are a tool. End of.
Point I was making was there’s a massive difference between observations/generalizations and discrimination/hatred. Thankfully there’s none of the latter that I can see anywhere in this thread or the ‘worst drivers’ one. If someone wishes to generalize 2 whole continents into the bad driver category then let 'em. It’s not discriminatory or hateful.
somebody mentioned ’ race ’ as one of the reasons that their are bad drivers
Really? I can’t find that bit, only their global origin - I think this is what others have referred to as you ‘playing the race card’.
I’m sorry if you interpret this as more negativity, which it ain’t meant to be, but you do seem to read things which aren’t written which could lead people to think you’ve an axe to grind.
Skip/tipper drivers.
Old duffers that live by the seaside(my grandad!)
Asians.
Africans.
There’s a fine line between racism and freedom of speech, I don’t see any racism in that reply.
By the nature of the poll every option has to be a generalisation, so why should Africans or Asians be any different to any of the other groups of people mentioned.
Sorry but this is something about nothing in my opinion.
It was myself who commented after the post mentioning African, Asians was posted. I perceived it as a racist comment. If there was an explanation such as Asian drivers because of the way they… It would have been more in context with the thread. However it went something like this taxi drivers, cyclists, Asians, Africans. The poster also only having a coue off posts to his name I saw this as maybe trolling and trying to achieve a reaction in which he was successful. Postman pat gloss over it, it may have been said as a dig to people’s colour or ethnicity it may not been but as there was no explanation to his reasoning for pointing the finger at certain groups you will never know. Don’t loose sleep over it.
kr79:
Good job you ain’t a tipper driver most on here think there the lowest of the low.
And thank goodness you don’t drive for Stobarts… and/or ride a bike, they seem to get a lot more criticism than the Royal Mail!
Seriously though, don’t you think most criticism is from people who have maybe had bad experiences with RM drivers, or who have seen bad driving by African/Asian drivers?
That’s not to condone their comments, but like anything, people’s perceptions are based on personal experience. Most of us can make the assumption, that not every RM driver or African/Asian is a bad driver. Personally, I don’t think it’s a racist comment, any more than all the comments about Eastern Europeans, or Irish drivers, but I’m old school, and can’t subscribe to the “I’m-a-minority-therefore-I-must-have-been-offended-by-something” attitude. Christ, if I took offence at all the stuff I’ve been called/accused of in my life, I’d be a quivering wreck, living in a cardboard box, on an uninhibited island!
How many times have you formed an opinion about one particular theme, and then branded the entire segment with your opinion! It’s human nature.
Oh, and have you tried not being so sensitive? If the people accusing Royal Mail drivers of being the spawn of the devil had named you personally, then you’ve got reason to feel aggrieved. Either that, or deep within your psyche, you actually agree that RM drivers are a danger to other road users. (That was a joke by the way!)
I used to collect a load from a food factory in Bedford. The workforce was predominantly West Indian and Asian.
The Asian loader was always complaining about the the West Indian contingement, calling them lazy and crooked and constantly referred to them as ‘blacks’ (usually he used the name of Guy Gibsons Labrador )
When one of the West Indians loaders was on duty , he would venemously berate the Asian workforce for being amongst other things, dirty arrogant and lazy. Both parties made racial statements about each other.
Me as a white lad was probably called all sorts of things by both lots, I hate to think what would have been done if I had used any ‘racial’ observations and comments about them to the wrong ears.
I lived & worked in England for a while , & lost count of the times I was called sheep shagger all in “good humour” of course, you just got to let it go over your head (mind you we do tend to be good runner’s, well dont want to be left with a scruffy one , look you )
The whole thread is about generalisation and stereotyping, from the type of vehicle you use, what you use it for, your age and your ■■■ even the company you drive for, why should ethnic background be excluded from that if it is treated in the same way and with the same respect as all the other generalisations?, unless your saying that ethnicity is something special and shouldn’t be treated as the norm, and included like every other generalisation?
I didn’t see any thing any more disrespectful in that thread towards anyone that wasn’t being said to another group, I certainly didn’t see anything racist either over or undertones. With all due respect sir, with tongue in cheek discussions like that one, where everyone is having a go at everyone, in a respectful manner, going in all guns blazing only serves to devalue the real problem of racism that does exist, a bit of fun on a internet forum for truckers is not the place to fight your battle, but if you were too, I suggest doing with banter and humour, and taking the blinkers off and seeing not every time ethnicity is bought into a discussion, where its not getting positive comments, doesn’t mean its racist, it means it is being drawn into the same banter going on with all other groups, that not racism that’s integration- something the Army has done well with over the years- every squaddie gets a nickname and bantered with, wether its from your job or your ethnic background - not a word of it is meant hurtful, to get a nickname and be involved in the banter means your accepted.
We have rules here on acceptable posting, a lot stricter than many other websites on the same subject, that post does not deliberately degrade , subjugate or demean any one or any single group, and there for fails to be racist - in the context of the post it is a valid comment - along with all the other valid comments about other groups of people that you don’t seem to have an issue with.
Race in that thread is not being treated differently than any thing else, surely that’s a good thing even in a negative thread?
I have just made a comment on another forum when it was announced that the Police had set up a gay police officers association, we already have the black police officers association, but we wouldn’t be allowed to have a heterosexual white police officers association. That is racism and sexism at work
African
Asian
American
European
Australia
These are your only choices, and I would say that the safest drivers come from the bottom 3 continents on the list. That isn’t racist and I have experience of driving on four of those continents
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