“The coronavirus is an excuse for, rather than a cause of, hateful behaviour – It is a fuse that activates pre-existing prejudices and stereotypes. Many people have decided that they can now manifest them with impunity. Before our eyes, the social norms are changing – what is allowed, what is acceptable” notes Prof. Rafał Pankowski, a Polish sociologist and political scientist.
There have been reports of a rise in hate crime in Poland against people of Asian origin, following Covid-19, as there have been in the UK. However, in addition, other minority groups including refugees, Muslims and LGBTQ+ communities have also been targeted. Cases of discrimination were collected by “Never Again”, an NGO which combats hate speech in their new report “Virus of Hate: the Brown Book of the Time of Epidemic” which can be read in full here: the_virus_of_hate
As Gazeta Wyborcza reported in April, “Wiadomości” TVP aired a news piece blaming refugees for spreading coronavirus. “In the Greek refugee camp, Coronavirus was detected. As many as 20 immigrants from the Middle East are infected. The residents are full of fear, because there is no shortage of escapes.” – said the creator of the material Maciej Sawicki. The Berlin correspondent of TVP Cezary Gmyz, in turn, re-posted on Twitter a comment by the far-right AfD party accusing Muslims in Berlin of deliberately spreading coronavirus (because they were supposed to gather in front of the mosque).
In Wrocław, Salesian priest Leonard Wilczyński stated in his sermon that the coronavirus epidemic is “God’s punishment for living in sin: for homosexuality”. Warsaw priest Sławomir Abramowski wrote on Facebook that “the biological bomb that spread the plague in Madrid was a demonstration by many thousands of genderists”.
As Professor Pankowski explains the pandemic has resulted in a “global crisis of social trust and values, disorientation, anxiety. In these conditions not only xenophobia but also conspiracy theories are developing dangerously.”
In the UK a survey by psychologists at the University of Oxford showed that nearly half of people in England believe in conspiracy theories related to Covid-19. The results showed that one fifth of English people blamed Jews or Muslims for Covid-19. The research suggested that people who believe in Covid-19 conspiracy theories are less likely to comply with government guidelines on social distancing rules, thereby “contributing to the spread of the disease.” The full report can be read here.
The rise in Covid-19 conspiracy theories, both on and off the internet, is dangerous. We all need to be aware that hate crime will increase as a result of this, and there will be a need to challenge it. At the end of the pandemic, confidence in social trust and values must be re-evaluated, and worked on.
FE Week have written an article about the importance of tackling hate crime in colleges. They report that hate crime has almost tripled in the past four years with 460 offences recorded in colleges. The most common form of hate crime reported was racism.
“Last month, Home Office minister for countering extremism Susan Williams told the home affairs select committee that hate crime directed towards South and East Asian communities had increased by 21 per cent during the Covid-19 pandemic. Police have also estimated a threefold increase in such incidents against Chinese people between January and March 2020, compared to the previous two years.”
The article discusses the importance of tackling the root causes of hate crime, educating the perpetrators, providing resources, having a zero bullying policy and being aware of what is going on in the world.
“Mike Ainsworth, director of London services at Stop Hate UK, a national organisation that supports education providers through its helpline and training services, said their work has shown that racism, homophobia, religious intolerance and disability hate “remain problems in places of further education”.
He added that the number of cases reported are a “significant underestimate”, with many students (particularly foreign nationals, those with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ community) reluctant to come forward.”
You can read the blog here.
It is now 7 weeks since lockdown started in the UK due to Covid-19, and hate crime has become more prevalent. Sky News have reported that more than 260 offences against Chinese people have been recorded in the first 3 months of 2020. This is more than 3 times the number of cases reported in the previous 2 years (375 hate crimes throughout the whole of 2019, and 360 offences in 2018). These cases have been due to Covid-19 hate crime including assaults, robberies, harassment and criminal damage against Chinese people.
The Metropolitan Police have produced videos to give information that is relevant to all communities about their rights to be protected from hate crime linked to Covid-19. You can view these here in Mandarin, Cantonese, Thai, Japanese, Somali, Indonesian and Vietnamese. The English version is below:
To report a hate crime related to Covid-19 you can do so safely online here.
Matteo Salvini was the Deputy Prime Minister in Italy until the end of last year. He has been held responsible for a lot of the far right anti-immigration hate in Italy and has also been reported as saying he wanted a “mass-cleansing” of the country. Shortly after becoming Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Salvini announced his intention to conduct a compulsory census of Italians in order to identify and deport Roma people from the country.
On 12th February the Italian senate formally authorised a criminal case against Salvini, This is due to Salvini allegedly depriving 131 asylum-seekers, who were on board the Gregoretti coastguard ship, of their liberty, by not allowing them to disembark. He will now be tried for kidnapping.
Unfortunately Salvini’s right-wing views have had support both in Italy and in other areas of the world. In 2018 Salvini ‘s party, The League, formed a global network of supporters. Some of The League’s supporters are in the UK and have organised a dinner at a restaurant in Liverpool for 28th March 2020, which has caused outrage amongst residents of Liverpool. The advert implies that Salvini will be present. However, since it was first published, Salvini has denied this, saying that he will not be present, and that: “What is happening there is not a rally, but a dinner among supporters of the League in Liverpool – they are going to eat fish and chips.”
The Mayor of Liverpool, Steve Rotheram, said “division and hate” was not welcome in Liverpool and “the only audience he’ll find here is one that won’t be shy in telling him what they think of fascists like him.”
Liverpool has a strong history of opposing far-right visits to the city and standing up for what is right. They have had a 30-year boycott refusing to sell The Sun newspaper after the Hillsborough disaster. We expect this event will not be ignored and that, if it does go ahead, there will most likely be protests and rallies.
We wrote our own blog post about an increase in hate crime incidents in Sheffield since Brexit, and the importance of supporting our international friends and students. Now, the Big Issue have also reported that EU members have been subjected to hate crime in Brighton & Hove and London amongst other places.
The crimes appear to be happening after members of the public hear people speaking in other languages apart from English. There is a lack of acceptance of different cultures by some individuals, and this is making people feel unsafe. The UK is a vast multicultural country where hundreds of different languages and dialects are spoken. We need to be proud of our multicultural community and celebrate the diversity that enhances our every day lives rather than persecute those who are different. Just because Brexit has happened does not mean other languages should disappear in the UK. The ability to speak more than one language is increasingly important nowadays and the people who live here who can do that should be appreciated more.
Perhaps the British public should learn from, as the Big Issue recall, the story of protesters in Warsaw. “After a man on a number 22 tram in Warsaw punched a university professor for speaking German to a visiting German colleague, protesters rode number 22 trams in Kraków speaking foreign languages and reading aloud from books in German and Russian.”
In November last year, Priti Patel proposed new legislation which will target the gypsy community.
Today am I announcing the Government’s plans to consult on criminalising the act of trespassing when setting up an unauthorised encampment in England and Wales. I recognise the distress and misery that some unauthorised encampments cause to many communities and businesses across the country. Currently, this kind of trespass is a civil matter and the powers available to the police are limited.
The legislation suggests that the police should be able to immediately confiscate the vehicles of “anyone whom they suspect to be trespassing on land with the purpose of residing on it”.
The Guardian reported:
Patel’s proposed laws belong to the most dangerous of all political categories: performative oppression. She is beating up a marginalised group in full public view, to show that she sides with the majority. I don’t know whether she really intends to introduce these laws, or whether this is empty electioneering. In either case, she is playing with fire. Already this month, three caravans in Somerset have allegedly been torched by suspected arsonists. Travelling peoples have been attacked like this for centuries, and sometimes murdered. In 2003, a 15-year-old Traveller child, Johnny Delaney, was kicked to death by a gang of teenagers in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.
The consultation acknowledges that there is nowhere else for these communities to go, other than the council house waiting list, which means abandoning the key elements of their culture. During the Conservative purge in the late 1980s and early 1990s, two thirds of traditional, informal stopping sites for travellers, some of which had been in use for thousands of years, were sealed off. Then, in 1994, the Criminal Justice Act repealed the duty of local authorities to provide official sites for Roma and Travellers.
If this legislation goes ahead it will most likely result in an increase in hate crime towards gypsies. Those committing hate crimes will feel they can justify their crimes as they will believe the government is supporting them through the legislation. A lot of people will lose their homes and culture as well as state protection meaning they won’t be able to report hate crimes. This could result in a very dangerous case of persecution. The consultation is currently open and you can contribute here. It closes on 4th March 2020.
The news of the Coronavirus has been causing panic and worry across the world. The virus started in China in a city called Wuhan and has sadly caused deaths in the city amongst the most vulnerable members of the population. People are worried about the spread of the virus and the country is taking precautions to keep everyone safe. One of the ways they are doing this is through encouraging people to wear surgical face masks.
Chinese people have been wearing face masks for decades as a way of protecting themselves from pollution and viruses. If someone is ill they also wear a mask to protect other people from catching it and spreading the illness further. This is sensible and respectful to humanity as a whole. In Sheffield there are around 10,000 Chinese nationals and many of them are students at Sheffield Hallam University and The University of Sheffield.
It was reported last week in Sheffield, by The Sheffield Star, that a Chinese student had been a target of hate crime as a result of wearing a mask. The post-graduate student from Sheffield University was walking up West Street alone in broad daylight when she was verbally abused and pushed by three people. The student was wearing a protective mask at the time following advice from Chinese media to keep her and everyone else safe. The student has decided not to prosecute but is hoping the incident can educate others.
The coronavirus is worrying but, just because it started in China, that does not mean that Asian people across the world should become targets of abuse and hate crimes. Remember a surgical face mask is protecting other people, as well as the person wearing it.
On 31st January the UK left the European Union. The UK is still in Europe and still abides by the UK Equality Act 2010, but it seems some individuals are finding this hard to understand. As members of the human race we should respect each other and celebrate our different backgrounds and cultures. Diversity makes our lives more exciting and enhances our experiences. However there seems to be an increase in people taking the opportunity of Brexit to give them free rein to preach hate and racial abuse.
We need to be aware of these crimes and to call people out who do this. We need to defend our international friends. In the past few weeks there have been some worrying incidents of hate crime in pubs and bars in Sheffield as a result of Brexit, which have affected students at Sheffield Hallam.
One Hallam student, who is originally from Spain, was talking to her mother in Spanish on the phone in a local bar, and was told by a bystander that she should only speak English. No one stepped in to support her, but thankfully she managed to defend herself. However she should not have had to.
A different Hallam student from Bulgaria was also in a pub drinking with friends from different countries. A man in the pub thought it was appropriate to say racist comments to the group. This was frowned upon by the bar staff but unfortunately they did not evict the individual.
Sheffield is a city of sanctuary with a history of welcoming new arrivals and being multicultural. This sort of behaviour is not what we expect to see or should accept. Sheffield has two universities with many international students and has won awards for the safest UK city, and this needs to continue. Everyone should feel safe and welcome in the UK. Brexit was not an excuse for right-wing propaganda to take hold in our culture. If you hear friends making comments or see someone being abused, please step in, take them away from the situation, show them that Sheffield still has caring people that welcome them.
Recently in the news is Uni of Sheffield’s attempt at tackling racism on campus and in Halls. They plan on hiring students to be “race equality champions”. This seems like a potentially good idea, however their execution of it is lacking.
Their plan is to tackle so called “microaggressions”, which they so happen to give a list of examples. Are microaggressions really the type of racism that needs addressing? Is there not something more pressing? A report from last autumn stated incidents of name-calling, physical attacks and racist material on their campus, shouldn’t this be dealt with first? The idea is to open communication surrounding racism, not to control free speech. This response to the idea that universities can be oblivious to hate is a step forward but is it focusing on the right issues, especially when microaggressions are mostly unintentional.
It’s not like Hallam hasn’t had problems, so should Hallam take the same initiative and have our own “champions”? Is there another way Hallam could tackle racism? Should students be paid to tackle racism or should it be something any decent person should tackle for free?
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