What is racist about it? I don't see any racism in that statement.

He was simply stating that he was more comfortable around other white collar criminals.

The statement does not suggest that Romanians are gangsters, just that there were Romanian gangsters in that prison. I think I would have found "black gangsters" acceptable in that context too. "Jewish gangsters" would have surprised me because it doesn't fit the stereotype I have of Jews. But I don't think I would have found it racist.

Don't be angry at the messenger. He's explaining how the separation happens. Not talking about it doesn't make it better.

I was surprised to learn about it as well, but historically, Jewish gangsters were notable figures in US organized crime: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish-American_organized_crim...

Could it not be that he was speaking from first hand evidence of the people he was locked up with?

could it be that if bloomberg says the same about US minorities, it is called racist, but this is not? odd folk

He's not identifying a minority and labelling them criminals though, he's identifying other criminals that come from a particular minority.

All Romanians != Subset of Romanians in UK prisons.

He also mentions gangsters. It's quite within the bounds of what he's written that Romanian criminals in UK prisons that aren't gang members might also not want to associate too closely with the gangs.

Is identifying someone by their nationality racist?

not at all, but singling out a single ethnicity out of a massively mixed prison, quite is. particularly when it falls in the line of dailymail propaganda. or is racism racism only when against certain groups and not all?

He didn't single them out. He mentioned actually mentioned drug addicts first (which are most likely English) and then the Romanian Gangstars. I would imagine they either stood out in his mind or he happened to be in the same wing of the prison. If I met a Romanian Gangstar it would definitely stand out in my mind.

Also labelling criminals from Romania as Romanian is simply a statement of fact. If they were Japanese Yakuza or Chinese Triads I would expect him to call them Japanese and Chinese respectively.

Could you please stop?

I agree with you. If it said "black thugs" everybody would go crazy over it. (I believe both things should be okay to be said)

I suspect you've missed a subtlety about the situation. If there was a black population, and I've referred to them all as "black thugs" then that's racist. If there's a subset of the population who are thugs and black, and I refer to them as black thugs then that's descriptive.

Like, if he said "the a Romanian programmers gather outside at lunch to smoke", that's not racist if that's what the Romanian programmers do, it's simply descriptive.

Sure, sometimes there's an underlying motivation of unnecessary racial discrimination behind why someone points out a fact, but facts aren't racist of themselves.

People in the UK are usually referring to people that come from the country of Romania when they say Romanian. The ethnic meaning I don't think is used much over here.

I mean, the parent's argument is weird, but yeah, you've missed something: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanians

you're not from the UK or Europe are you?

There are a lot of eastern european criminals who come to the UK to do business. I'm not saying its good or bad I'm just saying its part of life in the UK.

Yeah, as in literally Romanian Gangsters.

The irony of this troll's stance is that he's parroting the 'woke slogan spewing twitter user' he's so critical of.

And yes, I did just assume troll's gender.

.

I really should know better than to engage with trolls, but I did find it amusing how keenly he's shooting himself in his feet.

It's difficult to even have a balanced conversation about this without tabloid types trying to exploit the situation to cause divisions.

Historically these gangs have been a problem here. They have used fear of racism as a cover for their activity.

This is from the Independent. The right wing media have even more reports and they are, as you would imagine, slightly hysterical (and not in a funny way).

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/grooming-gangs-a...

I think the point there is not that there are a lot of them (how many raping gangs is a lot?), but that they are predominantly of those origins.

Where did you see "racism" in that comment?