judderman, have you ANY idea what it is like to belong to a minority group?
Assume martians makes up 8% of the population and makes a racist comment insulting a white, native born Brit. The Brit tells his friends and they all conclude - what do you expect from an ignorant, nasty, smelly, robbing, thieving, raping, grooming, kiddy fiddling, dirty, thick, ugly, benefit grabbing, work shy, murdering, animal abusing martian? They're all the same.
So the white, native born Brit feels he is right to feel superior and can ignore the opinion of the martian. After all, it doesn't impact on his life. He is surrounded by thousands just like him, his boss is just like him, the newspaper he reads reflects his views, the government is just like him, the officials are just like him, tv shows are full of people just like him - why should he worry about the opinion of a martian?
And when that white, native born Brit moves to Spain for the sun, cheap fags and cheap booze why should he learn to speak Spanish? The Costa he has chosen to live in is full of bars serving all day English breakfasts, pints of Carlsberg and Guinness - in fact the pubs are called The English Bar, The St George, The Irish Bar, The Thistle, The Welsh Dragon. The newsagent is called WH Smiff and hurrah! there is a Spa selling thick white bread, streaky bacon and Cheddar cheese. No need to bother with those robbing, cheating, Spaniards at all - they are all after your money, and hate you any way for buying all the houses in the village....