‘There was no-one who looked like us at our local knitting club so we started our own group’

24 comments
  1. God, this is the exact sort of brain-rotting identity politics that creates so much racism..

    ‘Nobody looked like me, therefore I felt uncomfortable to join and didn’t think I’d relate to anyone.’

    Imagine me saying that about setting up a group for White people in Birmingham.

  2. So they wanted to segregate themselves from the inclusivity because the group was mainly Caucasians?

    Maybe I’m reading this backwards, but is this not verging on the side of discrimination and hypocrisy? They called the group “Black Girl Knit Club”.

    What if your a white woman (or even a male?) that want’s to be included. Your not allowed based on race + gender?

    I’m all for people starting new groups to help and include more types of people, but this doesn’t sit right.

  3. I wanted to join a knitting club and everyone was black and it made me feel uncomfortable so I made a “white’s only knitting club” so no black people could join and make me feel uncomfortable.

    Edit: imagine this was the story and how outraged people would be

  4. In an alternate universe, in Accra some white women have started a racially exclusive knitting group only for whites. It was because they wanted to be with “people that looked like them”.

  5. Nothing like a bit of racism in reverse. Because lets be honest they didnt join because everyone else was white.
    Now imagine that in reverse.
    Guess they just dont like white people.

  6. Judging by the comments the article is having the disired effect.

    Operation divide and distract accomplished.

  7. “but for Black people women there are often deeper issues preventing them from taking up a new activity”

    Black people women. Great editing.

  8. Yeah, hm, hopefully there was more to it than “them not looking like us” because that smells suspiciously like racism.

  9. This would be racist if the other way around, so I’ll call it what it is.

    ​

    Racism.

    ​

    I wonder if they would reject potential members based on their skin colour… Seems we’re going backwards.

  10. I wanted to join my local basketball team but it was full of black people, so I had to start my own team

    Imagine this headline…

  11. As someone who has been in a similar situation in work, most the inheritance comments claiming this is reverse segregation and racism by another rollout is nonsense.

    When I graduated in engineering I joined an engineering company where the only non white engineers were staff who the company would bring ievr on one year secondments from India, Philippines and Malaysia.

    I never felt comfortable at work because the culture and social activities were all around drinking or smoking and as someone who does not drink, smoke or go to club and bars I was always marginalised.

    In addition comments were always made which were not purposefully racist but had racial undertones. For example a colleague on a different team referred to a colleague based in Morocco as “the one with the bin ladin beard”.
    And when there was ever any all day meetings and events, where lunch was provided, food was never catered for which met my religous beliefs. Even when vegetarian and vegan food was provided it was mixed with meat foods and cross contamination occurred. The company’s response, its fine you can just take out the meat and this was a senior member in HR

    I later worked at different engineering companies and this practice was the same anywhere where there wasn’t a sizeable number of non white staff.

  12. Er… shouldn’t it be purely about the knitting and not race? I’m very shite about the politics of knitting but i’ve not heard of any racial tensions between knitting groups. Or has the East London Mafia seized control and the Knitting community is at war with itself over the knitting markets?

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    It sounds like the person used it as an excuse to start their own group and using race to promote it.

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