Id say no we are not generally more xenophobic as a nation. More that the knuckleheads that dish out this abuse have been more emboldened to do so, but they are just as xenophobic as they were prior to the Vote - the only thing that has changed is that they mistakenly think that their bigottry is acceptable now.
i think that this will be a temporary spike and things will settle down again soon enough, once certain people relocate their brains.
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Yes.
The racists have become more brave - perhaps many of them feel they have support.
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The xenophobia has been rising since 2001, aided by our own news channels.
If weāre being honest, weāve all seen people being openly racist on social media. Iāve dumped relatives from my roster because of it. Iām down two uncles and a father in law, all before Brexit.
Itās probably best to see Brexit as just another jump, a significant one mind, in tension that has been building since 9/11.
If folks are experiencing an increase, the sad fact is that those ignorant and xenophobic twats have alsways been like that, but as you suggest, Brexit seems to have given them a mandate in their eyes to spout such shite because āthats what they voted forā - its why I remain so fucking angry about it. It has nothing to do with accepting democracy, but everything to do with the social implications - some seem to think it is now acceptable to spount hate and ignorance. + despite years of austerity and misery for many, we now have a lurch to the right with May and the Tories increasing their popularity to 40% v 26% labourā¦
Yes there are many who voted Brexit for more principled and their perspective honoriable reasonsā¦ but tehir vote allowed the biggots and xenophobic twats to have this louder voice. Ignorant xenophobes, like all bullies have alwyas shouted loudest and now we are hearing them back in full swing.
What is even worse is that with every IS attack in Europe, their voice gets louder.They are too fucking stupid to recognise that this divison and xenophobia is exactly what IS want to to fire upā¦ as more become suspicious and fearful of all muslimsā¦ they hope more muslims will join themā¦ a sad fucking world we live in right now and one of the reasons why making a show of unity was much more important than worrying about some trumped up commission of freeloaders. Brexit was always going to deliver this shitā¦
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That is my thinking. They could have seen the size of the Leave vote and thought there are more out there like me than I thought!
There were some callers on the phone in this morning actually suggesting that foreigners should go back to where they came from. When it was suggested that they might actually be British and born here that didnt seem to make a difference. The callers seemed to be middle aged and older. Brexit seems to have gived xenophobes a license to express their hatred or distrust of Johnny Foreigner.
The far right got exactly what they wanted from the referendum.
PR?
Kent is full of absolute cockney wannabe racist fucktards as a general rule. Like a bigger slightly less putrid Pompey.
Not just Kent sadly.
This kind of shit doesnāt help eitherā¦The Daily Mail of courseā¦
This was posted by a āfriendā on Facebook the other day, he thought they should be more gratefulā¦I pointed out that they were probably pretty depressed before they arrived here. He never answered and nobody posted any kind of reply so perhaps it put this kind of DM shit in perspective.
I think thereās a subtle but important difference between racism and xenophobia.
A female friend of mine has been expressing several rather more āquestionableā sentiments recently since the Brexit vote. It might have partly been to do with the fact that her side won, it might also have something to do with the fact that on a recent trip to Abu Dhabi she was spat on by a local shopkeeper and had leery men taking photos of her ankles.
She isnāt racist in the slightest and as a popular girl has plenty of friends from a wide range of backgrounds, but has no qualms whatsoever about saying things like āour cultures are different and just donāt mixā etc.
Would she have said something along those lines pre-Brexit? Iām not so sure. But Iām equally unsure as to whether people who have had those kinds of troublesome experiences should be socially shamed to the extent that they arenāt keen on sharing them.
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Then the racists have to have a light shone upon them and charged, I would say there maybe is a rise of reporting and verbal assaults, where and from whom has to be acknowledged. If this is an exercise solely to attribute possible blame on a rise of racist attacks on one group than that in itself is reverse racism, there will always be racists and bigots, its not confined to one group ie indignenous British white, it covers every corner of our society.
Cultures and religion shouldnāt also play a part, weāre a democracy after all and the best thing about it is freedom of speech and the right to offend and be offended within reason and the law.
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We might have freedom of speech but I dont believe that we have the right to offend do we? If that was the case no one would be charged for hate crimes.
Does the Muslim faith and an open Western democracy mix? Are they compatable without offending a culture or part of a religion? Unless we simply live parallel lives and tolerate each other then no, acceptance isnāt anywhere near tolerance.
I have grave doubts we can live openly if we canāt question a culture, religion or custom in a democracy. Questioning a practice that is out of place within the indigenous populace is not racist its perfectly valid, honour killings or arranged marriages for example, even though legal marrying your cousin, these are alien to us and are they want we want to genuinely tolerate in our society? Thats hardly inclusive is it? It works both ways.
You can question it of course, itās when you start discriminating against people because of that it becomes an issue.
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Offence is a hate crime? They are totally different, why would you jump to that conclusion, coming to that conclusion is worrying to say the least.
And yes we do have the right to offend, that right has been targetted for years by the people who worship at the altar of political correctness, remember years ago if you questioned immigration you were thought of as a weirdo or racist.
Oh yes we do.
Hate crime legislation is a mistake, in my view. There are better ways to deal with this, and more specific crimes that people can be charged on if theyāre threatening or menacing someone.
The right to offend? Thereās no point having freedom of speech if you canāt do that.
I wholeheartedly agree.