A nationwide survey by Opium has indicated that 71% of people from ethnic minorities facing discrimination, increased from 58% in January 2016. Ethnic minorities in Britain are facing rising and increasingly overt racism, with levels of discrimination and abuse continuing to grow in the wake of the Brexit referendum, research conducted among over 1000 people has revealed.
The data comes amid rising concern at the use of divisive rhetoric and propagation of right wing ideologies in public before this week’s European parliament elections, where some leading candidates, including Ukip’s Carl Benjamin and the independent Tommy Robinson, have records of overt racism.
More fundamentally the report highlighted that online racism has more than doubled since before the referendum, to 51%, and there were rises of about 50% in the number or people reporting hearing people ranting or making negative comments about immigration or making racist comments made to sound like jokes.
However, there was a marginal decrease in the number of people who felt they were victims of more tacit forms of discrimination such as being treated with suspicion by police or security guards, being turned down for promotion at work or suffering workplace bullying.
