u/SquareEconomist1992

I will always defend Brum because it's my home city, even though I don't live there anymore. But I visited a town called Stamford today, and my jaw dropped when I entered the town... It is the most stunning English town I've been to and it's what I wished every other town in England was like, preserving their old buildings and history and keeping the streets so so so clean! I didn't see a single dropped litter. Brummies just don't have the same level of pride (as a collective of course, I'm making a generalised sweeping statement here). ​​

I will defend brum and will always try and point out it's positive points, but the recent visits have gotten me so fed up and tired of the laziness of locals, especially with the littering and bad behaviour, antisocial noise levels on public transport, inconsiderate behaviour, even the bus services are shit compared to other cities, the buses won't turn up and the nxwm bus company will just ignore and be dismissive when I make a complaint. There seems to be a small vocal minority that care about preserving old brummie buildings, but everyone is okay with them being destroyed to make way for newer development just so they can catch up with London and Manchester, lol which Birmingham never will unfortunately.

After seeing this impressive town today, I don't feel I can defend Birmingham anymore. You can blame the council all you want, but at the end of the day, it's the local communities responsibility to change their situation. ​​​​And no point blaming minorities, as I've witness these problems​ in every part of Birmingham. ​

The is post is regarding the recent scandal of the Cambridge Professor who was caught out lying and plagiarism.

Reddit and the wider news channels have had non stop updated stories on him. The posts on reddit get hundreds of comments. I mean it's wrong what he did, but let's not act like it's getting more coversge because it's a black academic.

A lot of the comments are constantly white people crying about how minorities get unfair privileges ​​and they've been seeing this go on for years and blah blah blah. It's so tiring. They're ready to clutch at straws to play victim. ​

Unfortunately I think this is the perfect story that racists want to prove that they're also the victims of racism and minorities getting unfair privileges. ​

I've been wanting to visit this museum for years but it just has temporarily closed on the Birmingham Museums website.

I think it's having maintenance work of some sort? - does anyone have any idea what's going on and when it's likely to open again? ​

I just had a really scary experience that has left me shaking.

I was walking in the East Midlands, and​ completed a 6 hour hike using a guidebook, on my way back home I decided to use a different route using alltrails and my OS map.

I saw a sign and it had arrows pointing in all directions, I proceeded to go left and could see on the OS map there was no footpath sign however on alltrails there was a footpath sign however it ended with the other part starting after a space. Despite this I decided to proceed as im a very experienced walker and have had difficulties before but managed to overcome them.

I continued to walk and couldn't see any further signs and it became quite wild. I was about to turn back but after my long hike I just wanted to get home. I approached farm buildings and could see sheep on my left enclosed, all of a sudden they ran in my direction and start baaing. I approached the farm and it had a gate with chains around it, and at this point I realised I mucked up and it was private farmland I was in.

I decided to turn back and all of a sudden I hear a loud tractor noise and see a tractor heading down. I stepped to the side and decided I was going to ask the farmer for advice as alltrails was showing I could walk through the farm buildings and reach the road through a footpath. ​​​​​​​​​

The tractor stops and this really rough looking woman starts effing and swearing at me. "What the f*** do you think you're doing here". I told her I was following the footpath directions but must have got lost . She was furious though and wouldn't stop, "get the f*** out of here." I told her I'll head back but she yells at me that I don't know how to f****** read a map so how will I know where to go. I try explaining I saw the footpath sign at a crossing and she yells at me that there isn't anything there. Then she asks me why I walked here when there are signs saying private keep out-there were absolutely 0 signs saying this or else I wouldn't have dared cross any further. Then she accuses me of opening gates to get here -again there were no gates. She asked me where im heading to, I tell her the village name, she asks for my map and snatches it off me, continue to curse and gives me a lecture about how to get back. Then she looks at me in the eyes and tells me "don't you f***** dare cross this farm building, and you're lucky it was me you ran into today."

I don't doubt for a second what she meant with the last part of the sentence, it would have been worse with any man who lives there with her, such as a husband or son. ​​​I was so scared, especially as a brown man in the current climate​. Usually I'll give people a piece of my mind when they're being rude, but I was so terrified, in an isolated place with such a confrontational and angry person, I just kept quiet and quickly walked off when she was done. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I learnt my lesson to stick to the OS maps, as alltrails can be unreliable at times, although it was frustrating that the council put up a footpath sign pointing in the direction of her farm buildings. I had another experience last year where a woman driving out of a caravan site was telling me I couldnt walk there, the footpath sign was right next to us and there were other people also walking in and out of there.

I've never had such a horrible experience before, other walkers are lovely, but I find farmers and landowners seem to carry a huge chip on their shoulder at times. It's obvious I'm not there to burgle their farm or cause a problem as I've got my walking books and map in my hand. ​​​​​​​

Please be careful guys when you're navigating out there, especially to any minorities, it's just not worth the danger! ​​

I've observed that a lot of (not all of course but a many) Pakistan born Pakistanis don't bother to learn English when they come to England.

They use the excuse that there are insulated communities in England, but I find it really off putting, how they expect me to conversate in urdu/punjabi/pashto with them and have this complex that they don't need to learn English.

Even in my own extended family I have relatives who cannot hold a conversation with me in English, and I'm look at as the freak for speaking to them in English.

I don't see this in Arab or Indian communities, so why do you many (not all!) Pakistanis always do this? 🤦🏾‍♂️ ​​

H​onestly, I find this is the sub where I feel the most understood. I feel like I can post without being dismissed or gaslit. I feel inevitably in every other sub it will be catered to a white centred approach.

It's a shame but some of the large subreddits catered to black/brown people such as most of the subreddits for each country are atrocious and heavily moderated. I'm not sure whether im allowed to name any names so i won't on this post. There's also another subreddit for Asian men that unfortunately constantly spews anti black sentiment, and they have to mention black people in every breath whenever they talk about racial injustices happening to them from white people.​​​​​ Its so sad to see the colourism minorities hold.

I also like some of smaller black subreddits like blacktravel, but I'm brown so refrain from posting on there as I feel it's not my place to post my opinions speaking over a black person, but I love reading about other people's experiences and opinions on that sub, as I can relate so much. ​​​