This activist asked Twitter about experiences of racism and the replies were shocking

Activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied had asked Twitter users to tweet accounts of casual racism that they had experienced.

People began to discuss instances in which they were jokingly referred to as terrorists, orientalised, while also fetishised over and had their ethnic background mocked or dismissed based on the way they looked.

Many admitted to being ostracised and that they were looked at like "a zoo animal" for looking different.

"When people figure out my ethnicity 'I didn't know you were a terrorist.' Funny," one Twitter user said.

There were many other accounts of Muslims being alienated because of their faith, including the social exclusion of children in the name of perceived practicality.

Some spoke about the way in which perpetrators of racism do not view their hurtful comments as racist because they have friends/spouses/family members of a certain ethnic background. 

Despite it being perceived as a form of playful flirtation, fetishising a person based on their race is not okay and is indeed a form of racism. 

Too often, perceptions of ethnic minorities in the context of romance are viewed from the paradigm of the racial stereotypes associated with them. It then manifests itself into what is thought to be a harmless form of flirting, when in fact it pedals orientalist narratives.

This can also happen in a platonic context. What is seen to be playful is usually far off, and in fact hurtful and racist.

Along with passive aggressions against ethnic minorities, there were also more abrupt forms of racism which remain constant reminders that racism is not dead.