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General News Rise in Racism in Uk after Brexit and Trump

Discussion in 'Current Events, World News, & LGBT News' started by sandrew255, Jul 4, 2016.

  1. sandrew255

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    There has been a lot in the news and on social media this week about a rise in racist abuse across the UK since the referendum result was announced. I have seen some horrific abuse reported, and also some comments refuting that there has been any increase - that it is all media hype.
    Have any of our members in the UK or elsewhere noticed anything?
    I also saw a photo of a poster that was blatantly homophobic. Should non-straights living in the UK feel threatened?
    Mr Trump says he is the friend of the gays, and yet intuitively I feel that he is energising voters who I would suspect not to be gay friendly.
    Is there a similarity? Am I right? Are US citizens concerned that the progression of civil liberties could be reversed?
    I'd be interested in your thoughts - I know that there will be strong views on both sides, but I'd like to hear them whatever they are. I'd rather make my mind up based on personal experience that believe the narrative I am fed by the media!
     
  2. Invidia

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    Some of my thoughts.

    I don't think racism in general has increased in the UK after Brexit. The UK was plenty racist before Brexit and it's plenty racist now. I do believe it's media hype from the anti-Brexit side of things. They're just milking this to get as much cash out of it as usual.

    One photo by one poster? Was is something special? There are many of those daily. Non-straights should feel threatened to the extent that it is in their best interests to understand that they are, materially, the underdogs, wherever they are. Focusing on the positive and trying to close your eyes to that will not change not (that's not to say to quake in your shoes 24/4, just that it's good to know that you're a target for society's bs).
    Trump is the friend of no one. I don't think he hates gays, nor do I think he likes gays. I think he just doesn't give a flying sexual session about them; if being homophobic will further his success, he will be homophobic, and if being open to gays will further his success, he will do that.w
     
  3. doinitagain

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    I guessed that this would happen once the leave vote came. I remember someone saying that they wanted to go back to a time before we joined the EU (or EEC as it was then). That was the 1970s. I grew up in the 70s and I certainly wouldn't want to go back there!
    With the rise in hate crime, we aren't going back to the 1970s, we're going back to the 1930s.
     
  4. sandrew255

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    Brilliant!
    Thanks for your comments.
    Personally, I haven't witnessed any change, but I feel as if it could be true, to the point that today I went to my local Polish store to buy my lunch - a sort of pathetic neo-liberal way of giving my tacit support.
    Invidia - I felt like that 20 years ago, but was starting to let my guard down!
    Doinitagain - we are similar ages - so I get what you say about the 70s. On the plus side, I feel that the under 25s have had such a different life experience to us, that it will be hard for future anti-gay lobbyists to be taken seriously. It feels like it has become such a non-issue, whereas in the 70s it was pretty major, don't you think?
     
  5. HerLoyalOne

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    I know people who have personally been victims of harassment by racists since brexit. There has definitely been an upswing, and the police have released statistics showing this is indeed the case, not just media hype.

    Given that the vast majority of the media were pro-brexit, I find it hard to believe that they would now by hyping up the negative fallout of that in any case - if anything I have observed the opposite, with most tabloids (esp. the Daily Mail, The Express and The Sun) trying to downplay the bad, and sweep it under the carpet.
     
  6. sandrew255

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    Thanks HerLoyalOne
     
  7. Invidia

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    This is just an assumtion, but I would be very surprised if things would drastically change in only some days - and also, if it's an upswing I would suppose it might die down. I wouldn't rule out that it can have tangible consequences in many different ways in the long run, though.

    HerLoyalOne, the media isn't one organ. The anti-Brexit ones can now be using Brexit to earn money in their way, while the pro-Brexit ones do it in their way. That's how media usually works anyway.
    I'm sorry about people you know having been harassed, by the way.
     
  8. Aberrance

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    This past Saturday there was an 'anti-facist' march in my city. Apparently the neo-nazis are getting the balls to come out and play, speak their mind. I've seen videos and Facebook comments regarding the incident and it's so scary how many brexiters are legitimate racists. People using the argument 'this city voted out' (we were 53% leave) and that means that they're entitled to speak their racist minds? Yes, there are more anti-facists and anti-racists than the opposing groups but the fact that there are people out there marching FOR racism. It's pathetic, it's pretty terrifying actually that this is happening in my own god damn city. I've always wished that I was white, now more than ever.
     
  9. Reciprocal

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    The effect on me now is that at school today I was called a racist because I supported Brexit and am concerned about immigration. I'm sure I'm not the only perfectly decent person this has happened to. Racism hurts everyone.
     
  10. Flowey

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    Oddly it only makes me want to go to the UK more, just to see first hand the chaos. But, given that anything can be seen a hate crime, even Farage's smile, I doubt it is as serious as the media claims.
     
  11. RGEm

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    There has been an increase in racism, but after a couple of days there have been more and more people standing up against them - there was a clip the other day and it was somebody being racist on the tube or something, (it was some form of public transport) and pretty much everybody in that area got really pissed at the racist person and they (the racist) were kicked off.
     
  12. Synesthesia

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    I don't think it's so much increased as it's allowed some people to think their views that they already had are more tolerated. It's still a vocal minority, and the media does tend to sensationalise things a bit. Not to excuse some of the bs I've been reading about though.
     
    #12 Synesthesia, Jul 4, 2016
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2016
  13. SillyGoose

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    They had a Britain first March where I live and everyone was shouting racist scum.. We have a large ethnic diversity with a majority Muslim population in my town so it was the wrong place for a Britain first capaign.. I believe there is a lot of racism occurring
     
  14. Daydreamer1

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    I'm not from the UK, but I have a feeling racism has always been there, but Brexit has given them an excuse to make their asshole status clear.
     
  15. Invidia

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    Is that really relevant though? What matters more, I say, is proportion. Historically and systemically, racism favors whites above all, and discriminates against the rest (regional differences occur).

    ---------- Post added 4th Jul 2016 at 08:23 PM ----------

    Source? Where are you from? I'm curious, as I'm kind of reminded of a scandal a while back where the same claim was made but the real number was 22% Muslims.

    ---------- Post added 4th Jul 2016 at 08:25 PM ----------

    Aww, that's understandable actually. I could say "don't say that", but then again, I'm white and privileged in that regard, so I don't know what it's like. We can get through this together though! The fascists won't have the last laugh if I can have something to say about it.
     
  16. gravechild

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    *sigh* Y'all bitches are mixed with Britons, Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans (among others). How are you going to be racist towards immigrants? -_____-
     
  17. SillyGoose

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    So true
     
  18. Reciprocal

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    Hey, no need to jump down my throat like that! I was just offering another perspective that some people might not think about: the impact on Brexit supporters that aren't racist. Sure, it isn't nearly as big a deal as the discrimination and violence that other groups of people have faced; however, I still think it's relevant and worth pointing out. Sorry if you're offended.
     
  19. Invidia

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    Not offended. I just see this too often as a way to deflect frankly more important issues in the big picture. Thus I wrote to refocus the discussion.

    ---------- Post added 4th Jul 2016 at 09:20 PM ----------

    Hey, it's my right to be racist! Don't you dare question my free speech! Muh freeze peachez matter a lot to me, you see. ;__;
     
  20. Canterpiece

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    It's always been racist, it's just become more focused on recently. I saw quite a bit of increase in offensive remarks being thrown around coming up to the election, but...those prejudices have always existed. To step away from direct racism for a moment, and to approach it from a more indirect way then I guess you could talk about the north-south divide that people have been talking about recently. I know that people tend to have their prejudices against Southerners and Northerners, and this can create a bit of a divide, particularly in more traditional people and their families.

    I think we all know the stereotypes surrounding the two, and I've grown up hearing "Southerners this...southerners that...they don't do X,Y,Z "correctly" or whatever. I've also had people refuse to speak to me because I'm apparently "too common" (in accent) to bother to converse with. Others have told me I'm too posh. Make up your damn mind. :lol:

    There has been talk where I live about if the country were to divide (like Ireland with Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland being separate) but...I don't think that's going to happen with England? I heard something about the majority of London wanting to join the EU again, and some want the North and South to be separate. I don't really know, I am but a child still after all and I don't fully understand politics just yet. But who does?

    Anyway...

    Back to racism rather than regional divides, or rather back to negative views on certain religions. There has been a lot of bias against the Muslim community recently. Some people are even starting to use the word Muslim almost like a swear word...old women on the bus near me sometimes whisper whenever they say the word, almost like they're not supposed to talk about it. People almost fear the word, but I think this has more to do with recent attacks than Brexit. People seem to think all Muslims are like that, but they're not.

    Unfortunately with Brexit there have been cases of people breaking into Mosques and yelling abuse and telling them to "leave", not to mention closed petitions and people protesting the building of Mosques in general. This has mainly been caused by misunderstandings of what Brexit actually means, and people have been using it as an excuse to be assholes.

    And this, well this is the problem with racism. Anyone remember that time when some of the KKK members took a genealogy test? I remember hearing about that, and one of them was 11% black or something. Basically, racists are hypocrites because we are all a mixture to some extent.

    I remember watching a video where a sample of people were picked at random and asked about their family history, and what nationality they would hate to be. Then they spat in a tube and waited for their results, and for each person their family history was a lot more complicated then they had thought. Which was awkward because some of them had definite biases towards certain nationalities, and it turned out in some cases that they were actually quite a high percentage of that nationality. Goes to show that maybe we don't know our family history as well as we think we do.
     
    #20 Canterpiece, Jul 4, 2016
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2016