Britain; in the Age of Brexit...

I have been wondering about this question ever since the referendum stated that Brexit was, of course, going to go ahead. What did these people think that Brexit was? Was it going to be exactly what people voted for or something entirely different altogether? And, at the age I was - I was old enough to vote but probably not smart enough to understand what people who voted 'leave' were actually voting for.

The rhetoric reflected the situation: immigration. Immigration was the main talking points amongst regular people who voted 'leave' and then took their opinions to social media afterwards. However, this differed from the rhetoric I heard from parliament at the time in which the Brexit deals were going to be more about trade, foods, the value of the £ - and with hearing that, my heart sank.

It would still be another four and a half years before Trump Supporters stormed Capitol Hill in a coup d'etat and the pandemic was not anywhere in sight for anyone just yet but I could see that there was already a great disparity between what the people of the 'Brexit' vote were saying and what their leaders were talking about. The general consensus of the people was that illegal immigration was a bad idea - lumping in refugees with them as well. These were the people crossing the seas in boats made of rubber trying to escape the rising Syrian Civil War. These were the people who had their homes broken down by UK and US Forces and when they require a new home to live in, the UK tried to hold its doors open, accepting responsibility. However, to the people of Britain - this was seen as a bad move in the wrong direction.

How can I say this?

The way immigration into the UK is spoken about on social media varies between two different clusters. One is the "we have space, welcome to our country" cluster and the other is "I don't care who they are, get them out" cluster. This means that the discourse is not actually on the status of immigration but actually upon the fact that Britain itself, is becoming a more diverse and multicultural country.

For people like me (a British-born Indian woman) this would see massive advantages such as: finally seeing people who look like me in the streets and in my daily life in general. But, for the general White-British public, this seems to be a frightening aspect. This shows that none of the talk is actually about the immigration policies itself but is actually about the fact that there are more people like me here. Whether they be Indian, Pakistani, Egyptian, Romanian, German, South African, Sudanese, Somalian etc. these are all my people regardless of race or religion.

Conclusions I made from this section were that though the politics surrounding Brexit had some talk of controlling mass immigration, the public seemed to talk about immigrants - whether legal, illegal or refugee - as if they were some sort of criminal disease looking to usurp the country and its resources. By this point, I was terrified and I will tell you exactly why.

Imagine you see me walking towards you down the street. Do you see a British woman? No, you don't. You see a small brown woman. You don't even see an Indian woman. You just see a woman who is brown. Now, to most people this would not matter and possibly makes no real difference in the grand scheme of things whatsoever. But in the mind of these people who have been poisoned with the rhetoric of men like Nigel Farage, Paul Joseph Watson, Sargon of Akkad and many others - this can seem threatening. This can seem like something that is not supposed to happen in a majority-white country.

Do I think all White-British people are like this? No. The vast majority don't care. But there is a growing majority who are now finding spaces to cluster, to fest and to encourage each other's activism on social media platforms who not only see me as a threat but go out of their way to attack people like me either verbally, culturally or racially.

And I am scared.

I am not scared for my person. I am not scared for my being or my racial roots, my religion or my culture. I am scared because this is not the Britain I know. This is not the country who has a flag with so much historical meaning. This does not represent that country and it never will. But the fact that it is growing and growing means that there is a fright within me that this behaviour will soon become normalised. No, it probably won't be accepted by a majority, but it will not be argued with or debated or discouraged. It will be allowed to fester there without being reprimanded for its backwards mindset. And one day, when I am dead and gone - my great-great grandnephews and nieces may have to deal with a country that no longer wants them around and actively sends them back to the country where they match each other's skin colour like a shade chart on a paint can. That is a future for them that I cannot bring myself to take.

In the near-present times...

During 2020, the pandemic took hold of the country and I was surprised to see how many people were pulling together and helping each other. No matter race, religion, colour etc. everyone was just trying to be there for everyone else. I was taken to hospital for my throat only to find that an elderly white British woman looked at me and said, 'it'll be okay' as I was taken for an endoscopy and I was visibly a bit shaken. She didn't care about who I was, she just wanted to calm a young person before they went into the X-Ray room for quite invasive treatment. The point is that during the pandemic, nobody cared about who was who and where your family came from and why.

Or so I thought...

When I logged back into social media, it was probably mid-2020 and I had not been on since around the start of 2019. I would catch up with common friends from America, talk to people who had met me in real life in London and received me very well and I would, most of all, try to find out what was happening in my own country, cities and towns. In the space of just a few years, another cluster of discourse was created: 'there's a pandemic and you're still letting them in...' I for one, did not know that wars stopped because of a pandemic (because they didn't) and I didn't know that Lebanon wasn't going to be obliterated because of a pandemic (it was obliterated) and I had no idea that Damascus had stood still because of a pandemic (it was still falling). But it was not just these, but a lot more that were being complained about. We had a new 'problem' on the racial agenda for these people and it was just one country in particular:

China.

Pictures bearing the numbers of Chinese migrants entering Britain on a weekly, monthly or even annual basis are being published all over the internet in which these people basically explain that though the virus has come from this country, the migration to Britain is still accepted. This is obviously not taking into account that both Beijing and London are two giants of business, commerce and are responsible for many economic decisions across the globe and the same can be said about going from London to China.

Unfortunately, the other side of the rhetoric from these same people seems to surround the fact instead that Wuhan has managed to get rid of the virus so that the 2021 New Year's Celebrations could go ahead with crowds of people attending. Whilst in London, nobody was allowed to attend and the celebrations were reduced from the normal greatly. Again, this did not take into account that Britain were slow to react to the virus and therefore, simply allowed it to spread.

And then this...

Accounts on Twitter are mainly consistent with spreading these racially charged and insensitive rhetorics. Accusing not only the Chinese of allowing the virus to spread, but accusing people who have migrated whether illegally, legally or via a refugee system - of being content with spreading the virus. However, at the same time, they argue that the virus is not as 'real' as everyone is making it out to be - a paradox which they seek to explain through their very own racially insensitive rhetoric once again.

On Twitter, I have seen many the same reason for the racial discourse around why this deadly virus is nothing more than a hoax by the government or some even higher order. Conspiracy theorists have argued that the virus is here to wipe out White British and White American people as the virus is rampant in those countries. However, at the same time that they say this, they also state that the virus is brought in by people migrating to the country.

When you think about this, it doesn't make very much sense. Naturally, if a population has a higher amount of white people, more of them are going to die of a virus, however the percentage of people dying to the percentage of people there are of a particular race in the country does not match what these people are saying since far more BAME people have succumbed to the virus. The truth is, in fact, that this virus is a threat to everyone everywhere and spreading this misinformation as a truth breeds hatred.

But what about now?

In 2021, I have already seen my fair share of racial divide and insensitivity brought along by hatred for the other. Claims that the influx of migrants whether legal or otherwise has caused a mass increase in all forms of crime have been circulating creating a wildfire effect throughout the realms of middle-aged white British social media accounts. Claims that cultural enrichment does not work and diversity is not good for the country as the BIPOC people living here (whether born here or otherwise) do not want to involve themselves with the white community and be like them is a mindset that dates back to the ideas surrounding the other and the 'savage'. The claims that white-British culture is superior that hold no ground in the grand scheme of things are in full circulation and so - the want to 'civilise the savage' - and idea from Imperial Britain, is now as rampant as it was during the reign of Queen Victoria.

On the claims that BIPOC people do not want to integrate I will say that when we are actively pushed away like this, we will naturally find our own kind in our homes. This is why you will find groups of BIPOC people together, no matter their colour, race or religion. Personally, I have been a first-hand witness to this and have chosen to befriend my Arabian allies since they too, have also had similar experiences.

The truth is: if we are being blamed for crimes constantly, being pushed away from the mass group, being told that we are not 'British' though we are born and brought up here and even being told to 'go home' - I cannot possibly imagine why these people would think we would like to be a part of the culture that they are pushing. We are a part of British Culture, because British Culture is diverse and inviting, it is a great culture with amazing literature, arts and sciences and we study those daily. We will not perpetuate a culture that only suits those who want to discriminate against us because hate only breeds hate.

Is there really a migration problem?

The answer is no. There isn't. Migration is only a problem for those who are afraid of the acceptance of something different. They usually cite the languages as being one of the 'starter problems' - the fact that these people do not usually speak English or do not speak it well enough to function. Unfortunately, I was not aware that someone escaping a war zone with some little kids and no food or water had time to attend their local English class at the same time. (Of course, that was sarcasm).

The real problem is the rising rate of racism related to the recent departure of Britain from the European Union.

One of the tweets I saw with a disturbing number of likes and retweets was from someone who supported Brexit so much, they had it in their display name. In their reply to the Bosnian crisis in which the refugees and migrants (most from Africa and the Middle East) were living in freezing cold conditions and bathing in open streams there, in general danger of catching hypothermia and contracting pneumonia, this person stated and I quote verbatim: "It's much warmer in the Middle East. Or in Africa. Perhaps they could go there, where people speak their language as well?"

Cruelty at its finest. No care for the lives or wellbeing of their fellow man, woman or child, but just a general concern for the fact that these migrants might be wanting to get to Britain. It should also tell you about the hardship they suffer in doing so. They come to the country, crossing many other countries for ages in want of a better life. They get a slightly better way of life only to discover that the people in Britain are not appreciative or concerned for their life and do not care whether they live or die. I would not be too happy about this either.

I will now share with you various stories from the media in which I have seen harrowing comments. I will also share the comment with you so that you can make up your mind on these people who deny others the right to move country freely and without fear or persecution:

In a story about spending, a news article claimed that benefits were being claimed in the billions by migrants. It did not state which migrants and it did not state why (naturally, the percentage of people coming from war zones are going to be higher in the requirement for things like medical care because some of them probably have internal or external long-lasting injury). The replies were constant, short and most of them told the government to sort out the influx of migrants entering the country. But there were posts such as this one which made the most emotionally insensitive of replies without taking contextual information into account at all:

"This is the first time in World history that a country paid for its own invasion..."

"Stop giving these f***ers money and houses and they will soon stop coming"

"Parasite scum like this have invaded my town on the take money because they’re “European”. Flush them down the toilet into the sewer where they belong."

Another article claimed that the police were focusing far too much money, attention and time on people who were flouting the rules of lockdown rather than dealing with the 'real' issues. Unfortunately, at the moment because people are not taking the virus as seriously as they should - lockdown flouters should be fined and told to go back inside their houses. I think that personally, the police are doing the right thing by fining them. They are making lockdown longer for everyone and allowing more people to die. Here is what Twitter had to say about these events that were reported:

"Not until they stop the Islamic illegal invasion by sea"

"How about crackdown on the illegals flooding our country, instead of harassing innocent people sitting on park benches" (Priti Patel was tagged in this response).

Is it just about articles though?

In the grand scheme of things, it is not just about the articles - it is also about the various ways in which race and religion are spoken about on these platforms by people who clearly have no learning or background in the subject and take these things for basic face value on what the media is putting out about them.

As we all know, Islamaphobia is rampant and is possibly higher than ever in the minds of the white British people. The retention of patriotism for the white British seems to come with the general want to eliminate, insult and smear other religions, races, cultural groups and anyone who is not a part of themselves. This is a direct result of what Brexit initially dealt with as the 'immigration problem' put under the microscope at the beginning of this article in which fear-mongering was the main cause and effect of the vote. Instead, the votes were actually not very much to do with that at all. Yet, even realising this is the case - these white British people continuously and barbarically make racial and religious insult the normal state of mind for the new patriot. This should not be allowed. Take a look at what I found on Twitter to support this:

Islam is sick, This is the Danes seeing Cultural enrichment in its full glory but cannot do anything about it, shocking.

There should be no pandering appeasing or apologies for their pagan ways

They don't want to upset the cult so will not criticise anything they do...

There is no reason why Somalians should be here

This is not the government I voted for, they are not keeping there promises to get all these people out off Britain. Time to do what you said you would get Britain safe for the British people...

Somalians are savages, they bring the ways of their s***hole country to ours.

We really really don’t need or want this filthy immigrant scum in the country. Deport immediately

They're not privileged, they can't even hold a job even if they got one, I've seen it with my own eyes. They can't keep up. [on the subject of Black People]

We will never have privilege in this country again, too many ethnics...

No attachment to this country. No emotional connection. No cultural connection. No desire to connect. No wish to integrate. No work ethic. No plans for a future in the U.K. [when discussing migration]

So please, tell me - is Brexit good for this country? When the people have been told one thing, the government do another and the people have banded together in their uneducated want for a whiter, less 'ethnic' Britain - who is at fault here?