I have experienced racism as a white female throughout my life. My (Welsh) friend was racially bullied horribly at junior school by the black and asian girls in her class (she was one of about 10 white kids in the school) adn the teachers openly admitted there was nothing they could do to stop it because they would be seen as racist. As a healthcare professional, working in a very diverse area, I have found little racism (but I think that might be because I'm genuinely interested in the things that make our cultures different, plus I work in primary care and get to know my clients well). However, I was caring for a woman recently whose husband was being very difficult. She needed to stay in hospital; she wasn't well enough to go home. Her husband started saying things like 'it's different for us black people, we know about being well, she is fine, I just know, we don't need your machines'. She was telling him to shut up. In the end I said 'Sorry, but if we had the equipment available and didn't use it just because you were black, we could never justify that if something went wrong'. He took the point and stopped being an idiot. It annoys me that people are scared of others just because they were born in a different place in the world; but it annoys me more that some seek favours and special treatment because of the same reason, playing the 'race' card to get what they want.