Voting for Leave doesn’t make you a racist, xenophobe, or far-right, but supporting it because you want to keep “forriners” out most certainly does.
Voting for Reform doesn’t make you a racist, xenophobe, or far-right, but backing it because you think it’ll “send them all back to where they came from” absolutely does.
Being concerned about immigration doesn’t make you a racist, xenophobe, or far-right, but using it as a pretext to blame all societal problems on immigrants, Muslims and people of colour does.
Supporting economic nationalism doesn’t make you a racist, xenophobe, or far-right, but advocating it because you want to exclude people based on their nationality or ethnicity certainly does.
Advocating for civic nationalism doesn’t make you a racist, xenophobe, or far-right, but twisting it to exclude people based on their race or religion absolutely does.
Supporting strong border controls doesn’t make you a racist, xenophobe, or far-right, but pushing for them while spreading fear and lies about immigrants does.
Fearing economic displacement doesn’t make you a racist, xenophobe, or far-right, but exploiting this fear to foster hatred against immigrants and minorities does.
Waving a flag doesn’t make you a racist, xenophobe, or far-right, but wrapping yourself in it to defend racist and xenophobic rhetoric definitely does.
Supporting law and order doesn’t make you a racist, xenophobe, or far-right, but calling for harsher punishments specifically targeting minority communities certainly does.
Emphasising national culture and traditions doesn’t make you a racist, xenophobe, or far-right, but using it as a reason to exclude others from different backgrounds certainly does.
Supporting free speech doesn’t make you a racist, xenophobe, or far-right, but defending hate speech and incitement against minorities under its guise certainly does.
Advocating for national security doesn’t make you a racist, xenophobe, or far-right, but using it to justify discriminatory surveillance or profiling against specific groups certainly does.
Being outraged and furious about the heinous murder of the three little girls in Southport doesn’t make you a racist, xenophobe or far-right, but using this tragic incident as an excuse to hurl abuse at migrants, Muslims and people of colour most absolutely does.
Racists and xenophobes need to stop trying to hide behind what are valid concerns. The violent orchestrated far-right attacks on our community are trying to hide behind a facade of “concerned citizens who have had enough” and that should not be tolerated. We should never allow the far-right to hijack legitimate concerns to justify their violence, racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia or let them speak for the majority of good people of this country. We must condemn politicians who justify far-right violence by claiming it’s merely a reflection of people’s concerns. This dangerous rhetoric gives cover to extremists and legitimises their actions. It’s time to hold these enablers accountable and demand they stop fuelling the fire of division.
The Bear
@i_iratus
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