Racism in the UK

three years since the leave vote, BREXIT is continuing to have an impact.

By Ananda de Morais

My name is Ananda de Morais, I'm 19 and a student in London. I originally come from Brazil. I moved here when I was 8, so I've lived most of my childhood here and all of my teens.

Earlier this year I was racially attacked by a white-British woman at a bus stop who continuously told me to “Shut the f*** up” told me that “This is why we do not want people like this in our country.” She then proceeded to hit me.

“This is why we do not want people like this in our country.”

A country which I’ve spent most of my life in. When this happened to me, I was shocked, and amazed that people still had this mind set in 2019.

“We don’t want f** all the make up, and all the s, f* off and take her with you”

How anyone treat another human like that? As most people who immigrated to the UK before Brexit will be aware that racist incidents have had an increase since the Brexit vote. But surely now, three years later things will have died down? What I decided to do was look at “Has racism been more acceptable in the UK due to Brexit?”

According to official government figures in 2015/16, 49,419 accounts of racial hate crime were reported and that in 2016/17 62,685 accounts of racial hate crime accounts was reported, this is 13,266 for in just over a year but what happened over that year? Brexit. Since voting leave in the Brexit election in 2016 the percentage of hate crime involving race and religion has only increased.

This is a very big change, and was it actually because of Brexit?

With the database I found it shows that racism has only continued to increase after 2016 which was when Brexit vote took place and we decided to leave. Not only racial abuse has gone up but also abuse against religion.

There has been some very controversial posters during the Brexit campaign and one of the most criticised launches was Nigel Farage's breaking point poster. Many believed that the image on the poster was bound to fuel racial hatred.

Ananda de Morais, Journalist, author

Infographic showing hate crime rates.

Nigel Farage and the best known poster of the Brexit campaign.

And just like me, Fatima, 20, from London has also been a victim of racial abuse recently. Although for her, it’s only changed since the vote.

“I never really thought much about it, at the time of the vote I was underage so I couldn’t yet vote but if I could I would’ve certainly voted remain. As of now it hasn’t really changed too much, except the racial abuse I received.”

“I was out shopping with my friends; we were just joking about when we accidentally bumped into this couple who all of sudden started shouting abuse at us. We had said sorry already before they even opened their mouths, but they continue to say horrible things to us, telling us to go back to our countries, calling us other very horrible words that I don’t even want to say.”

The police should be doing something about this but last year Sara Thornton, head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), warned,

“Investigating hate crime risks distracting police from their core role of handling emergencies, solving violent crime and burglaries and neighbourhood policing”

The Met policy have put up a page on their website about hate crime, telling people the type of assaults there are and how you can report it.

The increase in hate crime might have some correlation with Brexit, on the other hand might also be an increase in hate crimes being reported since now the citizens are more aware at the fact, they can report hate crime and something might be done about it. Now you can actually report hate crime online, which is amazing. So, if you ever feel like someone has been racist towards you, you can report it quickly online or if its urgent ring 999. https://www.gov.uk/report-hate-crime

We are still waiting for the UK to officially leave the EU and without that not being finalised this sadly looks set to continue and maybe even get worse.