The visible ethnicity of one’s friends

There seems to be a growing insistence on condemning those of us who have no friends of a different visible ethnicity to our own. Here is proof that this condemnation can be seriously misplaced:

  1. In my primary school there was only one child of a different visible ethnicity, Barbara Bish, of obviously recent South African descent. In those days in primary schools, boys only ever mixed and socialised with other boys, and similarly, girls only ever mixed and socialised with other girls. That was the way it was. It had nothing to do with ethnicity.
  2. In my secondary school, all of the staff and all of the pupils were of my visible ethnicity.
  3. At my university, all of my colleagues and all of the lecturers were of my visible ethnicity.
  4. Working in industry, all of my colleagues were of my visible ethnicity.
  5. During my 20 years as an RAF Officer, all of my colleagues in the Officers’ Mess and all of my airmen were of my visible ethnicity.
  6. During my subsequent 10 years on a county HQ staff of the Army Cadet Force, all of my colleagues and all of the Army Cadets were of my visible ethnicity.
  7. In all of the Mountaineering Clubs of which I have been a member, all of my fellow members have been of my visible ethnicity.
  8. Whenever mountaineering in either the UK or the Alps, all fellow mountaineers I have come across have been of my visible ethnicity.
  9. Whenever skiing, everyone I have come across on the ski slopes has been of my visible ethnicity.
  10. Wherever I have lived, all my near neighbours have been of my visible ethnicity.

Consequently, I have never had any friends of a different visible ethnicity, and this can obviously be fully justified, since I have never encountered any face-to-face, except briefly at shop tills.

I know that people of a different visible ethnicity exist, I have seen a lot of them on the television, it is just that I have never come across any of them in real life.

I cannot be the only one able to make this claim.



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