RACISM IN THE UK AFTER THE BREXIT REFERENDUM
In
recent years, many incisive events have occurred in the UK. Since the UK left
from the European Union, which was decided in the referendum on 23 June 2016,
the terrorist, xenophobic and racist attacks have increased.
Due
to this terrorists attacks, racist attacks are occurring more often, giving
responsibility to innocent British muslim citizens.
An example of this is one described in the article of Yasmin Ahnmed for the Independent: an angry elderly man approached Hannah Moustafa, a Muslim woman, on the bus and shouted her: “we had enough of your kind, take that off your head (referring to her hijab) or join Isis”.
An example of this is one described in the article of Yasmin Ahnmed for the Independent: an angry elderly man approached Hannah Moustafa, a Muslim woman, on the bus and shouted her: “we had enough of your kind, take that off your head (referring to her hijab) or join Isis”.
In
addition, immigrants from other countries of the EU are victims of these
crimes. In Katie Fosters’ article in the British newspaper The Independent, the writer explains about the rise of xenophobic
crimes after the Brexit referendum. As she points out, already on the same day
of the referendum and in the following two weeks 1546 racial or religious
motivated offenses occurred according to the police forces. Yasmin also
mentions, that xenophobic crimes are so out of control that even white British
people are being attacked.
What however is truly shocking, is that nowadays these kind of abuses are still a daily occurrence. Furthermore, that they occur in one of the most multicultural countries in the world, who’s capital has Sadiq Khans, a British man with Pakistani origins, as a mayor. It feels like as if we as a society are going backwards instead of progressing as we should. That “national pride” used by the criminals is being extended into Europe and even into the rest of the World through the revival of politicians with xenophobic and racist ideas, such as Marine Le Pen in France and Donald Trump in the USA. This issue is worrying because of the popularity that they are winning among citizens. One example for that is the victory of the Republican candidate in the presidential election in the USA, Donald Trump.
As stated on EurActive.com, a website dedicated to EU news and policy debates, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the current European commission expresses his concerns about this matter by saying: “Europeans can never accept citizens being harassed, beaten up or even murdered in the streets of Brexit Britain”.
As a response to these outrages, the anti-hate campaign #BetterThanThat has been launched with the slogan “Britain is no place for crime”. The campaign, backed by Theresa May, prime minister of the UK, has parliamentary support. It involves over 20 organizations working together to reduce xenophobic crimes, like Karolina Kolodziej says in the Huffington post.
It’s very important that these crimes be treated with the appropriate care and that every effort is made to prevent them. People who are part of different collectivities should be able to go out without concern that they may be assaulted. We have to do something rather than just letting that happen because if we really want things to change, we all have to cooperate. We must stand up and fight against hate and make efforts to integrate immigrants instead of letting cultural differences divide us.
Bibliography
By
Soraya Lozano (EPD 11)
What however is truly shocking, is that nowadays these kind of abuses are still a daily occurrence. Furthermore, that they occur in one of the most multicultural countries in the world, who’s capital has Sadiq Khans, a British man with Pakistani origins, as a mayor. It feels like as if we as a society are going backwards instead of progressing as we should. That “national pride” used by the criminals is being extended into Europe and even into the rest of the World through the revival of politicians with xenophobic and racist ideas, such as Marine Le Pen in France and Donald Trump in the USA. This issue is worrying because of the popularity that they are winning among citizens. One example for that is the victory of the Republican candidate in the presidential election in the USA, Donald Trump.
As stated on EurActive.com, a website dedicated to EU news and policy debates, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the current European commission expresses his concerns about this matter by saying: “Europeans can never accept citizens being harassed, beaten up or even murdered in the streets of Brexit Britain”.
As a response to these outrages, the anti-hate campaign #BetterThanThat has been launched with the slogan “Britain is no place for crime”. The campaign, backed by Theresa May, prime minister of the UK, has parliamentary support. It involves over 20 organizations working together to reduce xenophobic crimes, like Karolina Kolodziej says in the Huffington post.
It’s very important that these crimes be treated with the appropriate care and that every effort is made to prevent them. People who are part of different collectivities should be able to go out without concern that they may be assaulted. We have to do something rather than just letting that happen because if we really want things to change, we all have to cooperate. We must stand up and fight against hate and make efforts to integrate immigrants instead of letting cultural differences divide us.
Bibliography
This is a really good subject. In my opinion, it is important to talk about that. I cannot understand how, nowadays, people still can be rude to people because of their beliefs or skin color... We should all have the right to live our life the way that we want and the freedom to be part of a religion, whatever it is. Differences should not divide us, on the contrary, they should bring us together.
ReplyDeleteI total agree with you that racism has increased in recent years due to terrorism but I personally think that racist people have always existed however nowadays they can express that feeling without regrets and knowing that they are not going to be punished by saying their thoughts, there is no consequence. Afterwards all these terrorist attacks, extreme right political parties have increased. I believe that the reason why is because of all the support that those racist people feel they have after the appearance of ISIS. They are actually aware that their thoughts are not owing to it, they have already thought this before. It is just an excuse to indoctrinate people and blame these social groups that are not blame for anything. I still cannot understand how there are people who think that racism no longer exists, that it is something past. Loved your post, good job.
ReplyDeleteMaría Alfonso Sierra,
Group 3 EPD 12.
I totally agree with you that Racism divides countries. Especially when it's about people who are living in a country for generations and are seen as different just because they have other beliefs or origins. It's the sad truth, however, that apart from all the dark things which history contains there are still closed-minded people who continue to spread hate and discrimination, without really knowing the person or what their religion is about. In my opinion, sadly, there will always be people like that. One way to handle discrimination the right way could be education, making people more aware about different cultures and about how important and enriching diversity actually is. Also by looking at historical events, like the second world war more consciously and profoundly in order to avoid people with similar ideologies to gain popularity and spread discriminating ideas.
ReplyDeleteWe can not change people with bad intentions, the only thing we can do is make sure that good ideas are being spread among everyone. Even if discriminating ideologies especially in politics seem to gain popularity (again) in the last years, there is also an opposite development among young people. If we look at the young generation we can see that many young people are used to diversity and it's rather "modern" and "cool" to be open minded than to have discriminating ideologies.
Good work!
Laura Siegel, EPD 11
It seems as though people felt it is no longer unethical to be racist. It is as if people started showing racism as something that is justified... It is a pity, but such is reality in the last few years.
ReplyDelete