There have been some violent and terrifying scenes across England and Wales in the wake of the Brexit vote. With a certain kind of Brexit voter, the suppressed racist, feeling they’ve been granted a license to take their hate out onto the streets. Cheerleading this shameful parade of ignorance, is Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper.
There has some disturbing malice shown to Eastern European, Western European, brown and black people in Britain in recent days. As Emily Apple reported for The Canary on Sunday:
An album is being collated on Facebook of racist posts and reactions which have happened since the UK voted to leave the EU on Thursday. And it is heartbreaking.
Entitled “Worrying Signs”, the album consists mainly of social media posts exemplifying the hideous racism which has been legitimised and allowed to flourish since the vote.
Here are just a few examples out of over 100 in the album – and there are many more out there:
Our neighbour is a deputy head and she said there were Polish kids crying because they were scared that they were going to be deported.
— Nihal Arthanayake (@TherealNihal) June 25, 2016
https://twitter.com/JeremyCliffe/status/746724340171931648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/abstex/status/746741380739907585
This evening my daughter left work in Birmingham and saw group of lads corner a Muslim girl shouting "Get out, we voted leave". Awful times
— Heaven Crawley (@heavencrawley) June 24, 2016
https://twitter.com/MWillJones/status/746661466720317440
But this moves past the anecdotal. There is now early statistical evidence that hate crimes in Britain have spiked in the wake of this vote. As The Independent reports:
Reports of hate crime have risen 57 per cent in the aftermath of the EU referendum vote, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
There were 85 reports of hate crimes to True Vision, a police-funded reporting website, between Thursday and Sunday compared with 54 reports over the same period four weeks ago.
So, how did The Sun respond to this growing and un-nerving situation? By gloating and cheerleading of course. With headlines like this:
No doubt, it was readers of The Sun – so incensed by the Polski Sklep in the high street – that decided to distribute threatening messages like this:
https://twitter.com/polandmary21/status/747543460710748160
There is a direct link to incitement and action when it comes to widespread xenophobic and racist attacks like these. The level of degradation and desperation inflicted by Austerity has made Britain – England and Wales in particular – a powder keg, ripe for the flame of racist incitement to blow the whole thing sky high. It is beyond irresponsible, and beneath contempt, to encourage and license such hostilities. But since when did the Murdoch press give two hoots about such things?
Featured Image via Twitter
