It's been 10 days since Britain voted out in the Brexit referendum. Since then the UK has been gripped with the continuing fallout. From a prime minister resigning, currency fluctuating, to now three parties consumed in bitter internal fighting. Among the number of things to have happened is the rise of outward racism. One might think following the referendum this outward aggression would be directed predominantly towards Eastern Europeans and people from the continent. Yet among the many reports of insults and racial abuse across the country British Asians are also the victims of this. And it seems that ordinary people and celebrities alike are the targets of them.
In Saturday’s issue of The Daily Telegraph, BBC presenter Anita Anand wrote about the very issues now faced by British Asians across the country. Her piece in The Daily Telegraph starts off with her recalling an incident aged five of a large sign with an official insignia which acted a kind of ‘lighthouse’, a saviour from getting people lost, the sign was graffitied overnight with words ‘Pakis Out’. Following this she didn't live like a ‘lighthouse’ but rather invisible and safe.
Over 30 years from that incident but as Britain voted out and she tells of her friends who have faced racist taunts. Statistics from the National Police Chief’s council have indicated a 57% rise in racial hate crimes post Brexit. The reports surfaced also immediately with her BBC Radio 4 colleague Sima Kotecha tweeting about being called a Paki in Basingstoke and her shock. Her friend, film producer, Nisha Parti was at a zebra crossing in London when the van approaching sped up instead of slowing down, the driver lend out of the window shouted ‘Fucking Paki’, a word she hadn’t heard for nearly 30 years. Nisha wonders if this why he didn't stop for her.
24 year old Chayya Syal from Bromley who had a middle aged man sat opposite her on the train home, there were two other Asian girls in the carriage, she said. He looked at us and kept saying ‘Dirty immigrants.’ Anita also says the plight of racism affected even her most optimistic friend. Atiya Gourlay who lives in Brighton and has broken her leg recently. Atiya says “On Tuesday, my sister was helping me hobble down Western Road, a man walked towards us and tried to trip me up. He hissed something, but my brain just wouldn't accept that he called me a ‘Paki’
In her article, Anita says ‘In the heat of the referendum battle some ghastly things have been said and sometimes put on posters. The boiling rhetoric during the campaign has left us all scalded, no matter which way we voted. A nasty minority, who previously felt the pressure to behave in a civil manner towards those they secretly detested, have been given the licence to let loose.’
Over the weekend on 2nd July radio host Trish Adudu received more racist abuse, only this time over Twitter. The radio host of BBC Coventry and Warwickshire was still recovering from racial abuse heard at a car in Coventry City Centre as she tried to defend an Asian student who was racially abused by a passing cyclist. The cyclist turned to her and called her a ‘Nigger’. West Midlands police have been alerted and are investigating the latest abuse against Ms Adudu and have urged the Asian man from the car park to step forward.
A statement by Operation Black Vote said “The rise in racial hatred and xenophobia demands a National Hate Crime Strategy. Less than two weeks post the EU referendum, Britain has returned to a level of racism, violence and fear not seen since Enoch Powell delivered his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968. A key element of the Brexiters campaign negatively targeted immigration and migrants, thereby legitimising the racial abuse and violence we are now seeing on a daily basis. We demand the Government urgently commit to the development of a comprehensive National Hate Crime Strategy which can both offer protection and provide public confidence and reassurance. It must be made clear that as a Government, and as a nation, we have zero tolerance for all forms race hate.”
