Adulting - Let's Talk About... Far Right Riots

Episode Date: August 10, 2024

 Hello and welcome to Adulting, and the fifth episode of Let’s Talk About… a broadening of Adulting... where that was about all of the things we never got taught in school, this is almost like seminars on life; where my audience (that's you!), get to chat anonymously about things they couldn't necessarily discuss over lunch with their friends, or feel like they don't have anyone to talk to about whatever it may be.  To get involved, follow me on Instagram @oenone, where every Tuesday we vote on a topic and every Wednesday we dig deep. Let’s Talk About… far right attacks. The submission read: Far Right Attacks, where do we go from here? I am recording this on Thursday afternoon the day after lots of racist, Islamophobic, fascist riots were planned, but in a bittersweet turn of events we saw anti-fascist and anti-racist counter protestors turn up in their thousands and basically block the areas that were said to be targeted. It made me feel very proud of our city and Bristol and Brighton, Newcastle, Nottingham and all of the other places that showed solidarity, however perhaps we, as that silent majority, need to be less silent, show up more, and do more in general to make sure everyone in the UK feels safe and welcome.Again, I wanted to put a trigger warning here to say that there will be messages about racism and the ongoing rise in fascism and if that is too upsetting or distressing then please do switch off now.As we know three little girls Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were murdered at a Taylor Swift themed party, and fuelled by disinformation about the murderer, this horrific tragedy was seized upon by the racists and fascists to bring violence and rioting to Southport, targeting mosques and minority groups, this has now spiralled into fear for so many with the rise of far right and islamophic propaganda spreading like wildfire especially on social media. For this conversation we focussed on the feeling and general environment in the wake of these events as well as talking about where it has come from and what we can do. This is an extremely sensitive subject but I do believe it’s important we talk about it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600. Or visit connectsontario.ca. Select games only. Guarantee void if platform or game outages occur. Guarantee requires play by at least one customer until jackpot is awarded. Or 11 p.m. Eastern. Restrictions apply. See full terms at canada.casino.fandu.com. Please play responsibly. Hello and welcome to Adulting, the fifth episode of Let's Talk About, a broadening of adulting where that was about all of the things we never got taught in school. This is almost like seminars on life where my audience, that's you, get to chat anonymously about things you couldn't necessarily discuss over lunch with your friends or feel like you don't have anyone to talk to about whatever it might be. To get involved, follow me on Instagram at Anoni where every

Tuesday we vote on a topic and every Wednesday we dig deep. Let's talk about far-right attacks. The submission read, far-right attacks, where do we go from here? I'm recording this on Thursday afternoon, the day after lots of racist, Islamophobic, fascist riots were planned. But in a bittersweet turn of events, we saw anti-fascist and anti-racist counter protesters turn up in their thousands and basically block the areas where they were said to be targeted. And it made me feel very proud of our city and Bristol and Brighton and Newcastle and Nottingham and all of the other places that showed solidarity. However, perhaps we as that silent majority need to be less silent, show up more and do more in general to make sure

that everyone in the UK feels safe and welcome. Again, I wanted to put a trigger warning here to say that there'll be messages about racism and the ongoing rise in fascism and if that is too upsetting or distressing then please do switch off now. As we know, three little girls, B.B. King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice De Silva Agua, nine, were murdered at a Taylor Swift-themed party. And fuelled by disinformation about the murderer, this horrific tragedy was seized upon by the racist and fascists to bring violence and rioting to Southport, targeting mosques and minority groups. And this has now spiralled into fear for so many with the rise of far-right and Islamic propaganda spreading like wildfire, especially on social media. For this conversation,

we focused on the feeling and general environment in the wake of these events, as well as talking about where it's come from and what we can do. I know this is an extremely sensitive subject but I do believe it's really important that we do talk about it. A message reads, I'm mixed race, half Pakistani, half British and after seeing everything on the news I've had to cancel my plans for the evening and stay at home. It genuinely feels so dystopian that we even have to consider our safety simply due to the colour of our skin. I was born in London and have lived in the UK for my whole life. I work in the public sector and contribute to the country every day, as does my brown family. I genuinely feel so anxious and sad for every brown, black

person in England today. No one deserves to feel this way when will people realize it's simply luck that they weren't born in an unsafe country and had to migrate i thought that london would be safe but looking at waltham so etc i feel so anxious praying everyone is okay and that this passes soon another message reads i'm a white immigrant here and having lived here since i was three no no one would know unless I told them. I've had multiple instances where I've ended up in a conversation with people who have anti-immigrant views, only for them to suddenly become very sheepish and st the root of the very current violence. I have also had people say, yeah, but not you, you don't count. So they clearly have ideas of good immigrants versus bad immigrants, and I don't think we can escape the fact that it's based on colour. Naively, I never thought I'd live to see what's happening go on so openly, but it's made me realise my white privilege so much more. It makes me seethe. I'm mixed-raced white and black Caribbean and I work in a corporate setting

today in my team meeting people were joking about the riots bearing in mind that everyone on my team is white it makes me so mad that there are people who don't need to worry about these things and may not have anyone to worry about etc friends or family that are people of color but still think it's okay to laugh and joke about it they have the privilege to be able to laugh about something that's really quite scary for others. My poor dad is worrying about going to town at the weekend. I'm terrified for my black and brown friends. It just shows to me that even people who don't agree with riots also don't seem to understand the gravity of the situation. I don't know what my point is supposed to be here. I think I'm just angry and would like people to be mindful. I mixed-based Brit have been training for 5k in Newcastle tonight for months and have been

told by some members of my mostly white running club not to come because it'll be too dangerous going through the city centre imagine not being able to run a fucking 5k because of the colour of your skin in 2024 I'm a solicitor and we've been told that there is a list of immigration law firms individuals who are being targeted by alt-right groups this week. I'm sure you can adduce why this is so concerning in terms of their beliefs as they relate to access to justice the legal system more broadly. Relating to the good immigrant versus bad immigrant point it is now really difficult to get a work visa sponsorship because salary thresholds for eligibility increased by around 50% this year. This means immigrants have to earn way above the

market rate of some of these occupations to qualify for sponsorship and companies cannot afford these increases. I'm a white passing immigrant and this week has been painful. I feel a sense of survivor's guilt at the fact that I'm not in immediate danger, that the anti-immigration rhetoric has totally shaken me. I'm not sure people realise the effort that immigrants go to to be perceived as a good immigrant and the sacrifices that are involved in the process in terms of the erasure of one's identity, history and experiences. And a tweet from journalist and author Jasonason okunday reads can we actually sit for a moment with how insane it is that we're advising people to stay at home or don't be out alone for their safety because of possible racial demonstrations so where has this come from i'm

sure lots of you saw zara sultana mp MP for Coventry South, has been doing some amazing work, some amazing interviews, and really speaking up about how the media is really responsible for inciting some of these views, including countless headlines from newspapers over the years, espousing ideas that immigrants are the people taking people's jobs, that we're overcrowded, all of these conversations around stopping the boats and closing the borders and basically pushing people who perhaps feel disenfranchised or disillusioned by the government, who feel unsupported, who feel like they have been not listened to. They have been encouraged to view people who have come to this country as the root of evil, as the cause of all of their issues, when we know this is not true. If anything,

it's politics and austerity and legislation that is impacting some of these people the most. But again, I think we have to be really careful to not cast aspersions on who is doing these attacks and what type of person is racist and fascist. There was a really good Carla quote, which I shared, that read, racism was not invented by working class people. It was invented by elite academics and perpetuated as part of political policy from the top down, not the bottom up. And so I think that in this conversation, it's also, it's really important that we aren't being classist and aren't accusing anyone demographic well I mean it was white men and women that demographic is true but not any specific class and in fact there was another

really good tweet from the author of the book Poverty Safari which is an incredible book if you haven't read it, Darren McGarvey, which read, quippy middle class folks should remember there's a lot of us from working class backgrounds who also have few qualifications, poor grammar and bad teeth, but aren't foaming at the mouth racists. Maybe focus on the racism rather than betraying your class prejudice. Because I think this is what happens fundamentally is we're always searching for a way to conceptualize or figure out who's doing what but actually racism is pervasive in every single area of the UK from politics to billionaires to the working class it exists in every single facet it's in

the tapestry of our country it's in the DNA of the British colonial system which created white supremacy and racism. And so I think it's really important that we acknowledge that anyone who profits from white supremacy is complicit, even if you don't hold those views, even if you aren't acting in a way that shows that. I think that it's time again that we realise that we are a silent majority that we might walk around and know that we don't hold any of these thoughts or feelings but also what are we doing to make this country feel safe for every single person that lives here another message I received people being ignored by the government allowing them to fall further

into poverty is not a justification for racist actions. I understand what people are trying to say, but as a black woman, I actually think saying things like this are incredibly disrespectful. People of color generally have been ignored by the government since the very beginning, and you don't see us having this reaction back ever. I think this is so true that when we talk about why or how people start to hold such strongly held, such vehemently awful views that we want to like, and it's not in any way understandable. And to say that it is understandable is completely dehumanizing of those people that are impacted by these cruel and dehumanizing opinions. A message I received read, I'm originally from Blackpool where a riot was held this weekend.

I was coincidentally visiting home, so saw a lot firsthand. I'm having so many complicated feelings about these riots because the violence is horrible and the radicalization is terrifying. But I know these people and I know how they've been ignored by government after government allowing them to fall further into poverty no social housing horrific education no social spaces etc so to see all the classism in the narratives is really jarring the only people purporting to support the people who are constantly dismissed by politicians are the far-right agitators who share the narrative that it's immigrants not the rich causing their. I've watched family members who were so lovely and kind fall down these rabbit holes, and it's awful, especially as I'm mixed race, so extra difficult seeing

family members be convinced that immigrants and non-white people are the problem. This is kind of where the conversation seems to end up in this loop where it goes around. And actually, I think we have to be able to put a pin in it before it gets to that point because I think there are lots of junctions along the way before someone ends up being someone who believes vehemently believes in far-right views and we will come on later onto kind of extremism and how that is shared online but I do think that we have such a big responsibility if you're a person with privilege or who is white, to at any point in any conversation with any family member or any person that you come across, to try and talk to people if they hold any small view. is that people might hold slightly more conservative views and somehow that is snowballing into holding the most vicious, nasty, inconceivable views about people of colour, about Muslims, about immigrants. And so I think that we have to catch things before they spiral

and also recognise that definitely that issue of the government we have to hold the government to account and we have to lobby the government for change and we have to lobby our media and speak to our MPs and we cannot make excuses for the fact that there are people in this country who are literally attempting murder and violence and criminal thuggery against people purely because of the colour of their skin. And another reply read, I agree there's an issue, but I actually disagree that there's any reason for this. They're a bunch of racists. At the end of the day, a load of angry men and women with internalised misogyny who are bigoted, violent and blame everyone else for their problems and

just hate and play the victim. Ultimately racists who don't care about anyone but white men. They don't even care about white women, giving this is all meant to be in the name of the Southport tragedy. Another message read, how does the government fix this when they are part of the main cause of this hatred? I feel ashamed to be British right now. How in 2024 is this even happening? How do we stop this? People are scared to even leave their house and I don't blame them. Social media and dickhead politicians fuel are scared to even leave their house and I don't blame them. Social media and dickhead politicians fuel idiocy to people gullible enough to believe them. Again, I'm embarrassed to say I'm British right now and I'm so sorry to any person who has experienced any form of hate or violence. Someone responded, okay, so I do research and policy work

on exactly this. There are things we can do to get out of this, but it won't be easy. Pushing the government on communication cohesion strategy, tension monitoring, re-establishing the anti-Muslim hatred working group, and ending PREVENT, transforming counter-terrorism and policing, committing to halving violence against women and girls, getting the democracy bill in Parliament next year, and improving democratic participation, halving violence against women and girls, getting the democracy bill in parliament next year and improving democratic participation, improving online safety while protecting important rights

around journalism and freedom of expression, tackling hateful attitudes in young people. There is so much to do and loads of organisations doing it. I feel quite hopeless and adrift today but know there are loads of ways we can move forward in response to this someone dm'd me uh in response to that message and they asked would be interested to hear some of the issues with prevent if this person wouldn't mind explaining i've heard it isn't great but want to understand why and they responded the big issue with prevent is it's defined around preventing terrorism by reporting potential terrorists so it encourages people who should be caring and building trust teachers social workers nurses and doctors to suspect and report people the government set the definition of what is suspicious and they've disproportionately focused on islamist extremism over far-right incel or any other

ideologies there's also the issue of there being a big difference between thinking about violence and acting on it and some people argue there is an element of thought policing. For the too long don't read definition Prevent as it stands has ideological bias and it hasn't actually been shown to be successful at de-radicalizing people. It creates mistrust and results in the criminalization of Muslim and radicalized people. I think it's really positive to feel like there's a framework of how we could move forward. But right now, it certainly does feel like we're in the thick of it. And even though it's disturbing, distressing, terrifying, what's happening right now, it's also sadly not shocking. We know that these ideologies exist and we know that people hold these views. And if you use

social media websites like X, formerly known as Twitter, then I don't know about you, but I certainly got pushed a lot more sort of far right content than I used to on those platforms. And so even though we saw the amount of people turning up to these riots, I was still shocked to receive messages from followers talking about how this sort of far-right radicalization has impacted their families. And one message that I received read, my dad is far-right and told me I should be protesting to protect our country, women and young girls. I'm not far-right, but it's scary how the digital world has warped and worsened his views over time. And I asked her if she wouldn't mind kind of telling me where this came from. And she said, it feels like YouTube has really worsened his views. YouTube creates an opportunity

for someone to live in a really detrimental echo chamber where they're only being shown these extreme views. There's also a lack of regulation on false information. He used to love newspapers like The Sun, etc., but now thinks that even those papers aren't right-wing enough and are all covering up and lying to us about the current situation with immigration. I actually moved out of the family home seven years ago because it was so difficult listening to his crazy opinions and it caused me and my sister a lot of trauma.

Yet, now he tells me he wants to protect our country from immigrants to help save our women and young girls. FanDuel Casino Daily Jackpots. Guaranteed to hit by 11pm with your chance at the number one feeling, winning. Which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do. Who wants this last parachute? I do. Daily Jackpots.

A chance to win with every spin and a guaranteed winner by 11 p.m every day 19 plus and physically located in ontario gambling problem call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca select games only guarantee void of platform or game outages occur guarantee requires play by at least one customer until jackpot is awarded or 11 p.m eastern restrictions apply see full terms at canada.casino.fandu.com please play responsibly right at the beginning of my instagram stories, I had a message which read, I kind of don't want to talk about this because it's distracting from the real issue of misogyny and male violence. To which I responded, after those three poor little girls were murdered,

the reaction from those disgusting people because of misinformation and racism meant we weren't able to honour those little girls. And yes, at that very moment in time their violence was a bit of a distraction and misogyny and violence against women and femicide is a very real issue as racism is a very real issue and so many people feel unsafe and are unsafe due to racist thugs and far-right fascists and so now because they're rioting and committing criminal thuggery and attempted murder and the specific targeting of black and brown people, we can't not talk about the fact that the UK has a massive racism problem, and that a lot of it comes from social media, and a lot of it comes from newspapers and fear-mongering about immigration, and a lot of it is simply built into the bones of our society, as the British Empire was the

largest colonial empire in history, and white supremacy is threaded into the way people view the world because of that. And a response read, two issues can be discussed in tandem, and in fact, racism and Islamophobia is even more prevalent when discussing misogyny, as women of colour tend to bear the brunt of it and this is where this whole thing becomes so confusing I guess in a way because so much of what these far-right believers are espousing is that they want to protect women and girls and yet so much of their actions is just proven to be racist violence. And women and girls are constantly under attack from men. And sometimes, often, it's the same men who espouse these racist views. And so this kind of conditioning and indoctrination that some of these people are receiving to believe that they are these saviors of women and that the way to do it is by being racist and violent is just kind of like unconceivable and

unbelievable. And it's this rise of incel culture and the far right and very misogynistic ideas that men are able to protect women when they are the ones that are hurting and harming and killing women. The statistics around femicide are so alarming. And actually, I was talking with a man the other day about how it is all men, actually, or every type of man. And I was looking at the statistics. So just some global stats. This is from womankind.org.uk. Globally, 81,000 women and girls were killed in 2021. Around 45,000 of them, 56%, died at the hands of an intimate partner or a family member. That's from UN Women. Every single day, 137 women and girls across the world are killed by a family

member or intimate partner from the femicide census. The most dangerous place for a woman is the home. It's estimated that around the world, a woman or girl is killed every 11 minutes in her own home. That's from the UNODC. Six women are killed every hour minutes in her own home that's in the unodc six women are killed every hour by men around the world most by men in their own family or their partners that's from weforum.org 45 of all abortions are unsafe and could lead to complications including death for these women and in some cases abortion is essential care yet bans or lack of access lead to over 800 maternal deaths daily which are preventable that's from the cgwm just the reason i was sharing those statistics is just and i'm sure all of you guys know this but the frustration of hearing these men who are putting

black and brown people in harm and making them feel fearful and terrorizing them in the name of helping women is just disgusting and disgraceful because as I've said from those statistics it's normally if a woman is violently harmed or murdered it is by someone that she knows within her family home. Another message read I used to volunteer supporting asylum seekers myself and a couple other young women would spend afternoons at a male-only hotel running sports activities and i've never felt so safe or respected in a male-dominated space before asylum seekers have been through so much horror and trauma and it's devastated that they are treated so horrendously in this country as it goes the enemy doesn't arrive here by small boat they arrive by private jet

and another message incredibly frustrating that the far right like to cherry pick their issues i've had more harassment and derogatory comments from white men than any other demographic and yet the minute the violence incites from another race or culture they're suddenly up in arms and it's a case of we need to protect women and girls of course by causing moral harm and by being domestic terrorists when they typically have no respect for women another message reads i think we do need to look into why people are racist and have now become so extreme it doesn't mean understanding or coming around to their views which are completely abhorrent but it comes back to the points raised about education and the media we live in a country where clearly more people are racist than many of us have hoped but the

slide from conservative views concern about immigration to fascism needs to be understood because there is a pervasive attitude in our society which allows these views to be aired and encouraged resulting in extreme islamophobia and we need to understand that journey to try and re-educate, I think. Kind of goes back to people saying, how do you talk to those who have been indoctrinated by Andrew Tate, et cetera. Another message, I'm really worried my dad is going to get like this. He thinks it's ridiculous that they're rioting, but also said I should look into why they are racist and that they feel left behind in their own country. It feels like he's teaching on

the edge of being extremist and I know he's absorbing so much bullshit and misinformation on social media. It makes me feel worried for the future of our relationship. When I was posting these stories, I was also talking to a friend of mine who is a black woman and she expressed her upset and her feeling of feeling triggered and horrified at the complicity of white women in terms of these people who are talking about their family members who are perhaps leaning towards having this extremist views and I did kind of say I was like I don't know what you do once they're already there like once they're at this point of extremism how do you get someone back and she was like but I just think more should be done like this shouldn't be allowed

to happen because you're basically then just letting someone out in the world who is a danger to me and other people like me and so I think we do have to really take that responsibility on if we can if something is happening like this in our life but obviously it's like difficult to know how do you speak to someone because obviously I'm sure you will have in the past tried to have conversations about these things and it can get really emotional and it can be really difficult to get your point across actually and I know there's a book that I read years ago called The Righteous Mind I can't really remember if the author of that is maybe problematic now but the idea was kind of about the best way to get someone to see your point of view is actually to not engage emotionally and to try and listen to their point of view and and allow them to speak and respect their strongly held views and then try to

talk them around I understand it's difficult but I do think especially now if we have anyone in our lives that looks like they could you know be looking at the wrong thing, is we have to take it upon ourselves to try and work out how we speak to them in a way that is going to encourage them to realize that that is not the place to be looking for answers. And I did actually have a response which read, for another perspective, I've spent two years talking to far-right activists in another European country, and facts are usually not what gets people into or out of the far-right. We found that a sense of community, social activities, and a feeling of having a purpose or achieving goals was why folk got into it. Far-right parties actively isolate folks from their social communities, and this reinforces initial feelings of isolation and anger we don't have to agree or affirm misinformation racism etc in far-right folks but those of us with personal relationships with them could consider how they

can be separated from these closed and isolating social communities and so i think that's a really important thing of because these views are held so emotionally and it becomes such a part of someone's identity and it gives them that sense of purpose that making anyone feel shame or ostracized or isolated for their views even if we think their views are like extremely shameful and disgusting is maybe only going to push them even farther away so I think that if there's one thing we can do for certain is if you are a white person and you are in proximity to someone who is starting to hold or has held any kind of view then now is the time to maybe try and research

on how you can speak to them and how you can encourage them gently and kindly and include them more because I guess the fear or the responsibility then if they go too far is that we are then allowing black and brown people to be in danger and we do have the space and the privilege to try and prevent that from happening if and when we see it even in really small spaces and I think that that is definitely one thing we can do. I'm going to try and get some counter protests. I'm hoping that these things are going to be shut down because everyone that I've spoken to in my life who's directly affected is really scared and just saddened and upset. And it's a horrifying thing to live through in this day and age and to see it happening

and I think that we can't ignore it and we cannot just hope and pray that it goes away it's a really difficult conversation to host and I hope that I've kind of covered a lot of the opinions and points of view that were sent in and most of all i just want to um send love to anyone who is scared or impacted and i hope you're okay and thanks for listening and i will see you next week bye fanduel casino daily jackpots guaranteed to hit by 11 p.m with your chance at the number one We'll be right back. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600. Or visit connectsontario.ca. Select games only. Guarantee void if platform or game outages occur. Guarantee requires play by at least one customer until jackpot is awarded.

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