Racist UK

I'm now wondering how far the UK can stoop when it comes to racism.

I include anti-semitism in the word racism. On today's news from the Westminster parliament, we had the pleasure of hearing Theresa May deny there was a racist agenda in the Home Office against the 'Windrush' generation of people from the West Indies, while at the same time chucking the insult at Jeremy Corbyn that his party is anti-semitic.

It seems to me that the whole of the UK is now being tarred with this brush: it looks as if we're all racist. Since Brexit, every loony in the UK thinks it's okay to demand that 'other' people - the ones they say are not 'British': black people, Jews, EU citizens, asylum seekers - should be deported. People I've lived and worked with from all over the world face being treated as 'foreign', even though they've lived here for decades, worked all their days, paid their taxes, brought up their kids here, invested in the country.

I see reports in the news of racist attacks on people quietly going about their own business by morons probably not intellectually fit to tie their shoe laces but possessed of white faces and a claim to be British. And let's not forget, some racists have black faces too, since racism can be found in every group. Racism is also alive and well in Scotland, so there's no reason for us to be smug north of the border.

I even see posts on Facebook from people who are demanding independence for Scotland in which they rattle on about the financial power of people like Theresa May's man but manage to include among the 'enemy' the Rothschild bankers on the grounds that they are Jews and thus 'alien' or at least 'other' and so a fair target.

Racism isn't unique to the UK, of course. It's happening all over the world: Trump tells people the Mexicans are taking over the USA, that they are all 'illegals' and criminals. He wants a wall to keep them out and wants the Mexicans to build it. Australia has taken to exiling would-be refugees on far islands. Hungary, Belgium, the Netherlands and France have political parties devoted to 'othering' foreigners. Spain's right wing government is now 'othering' the Catalans and the Basques. It's a fashion - a trend - call it what you want: it's payback for the years when Socialism, Social Democracy and occasionally Communism ruled the waves in some parts of the world. The pendulum has swung from one extreme to the other. This seems normal but what can we do against this tide of right wing agitation - assuming we want to do something?

Resist.

I've been blocked on Facebook and twitter by quite a few people I've called out for their racist views. I've also been trolled for calling out racists. Interestingly, they are always anonymous. Fine by me. I don't come on to Facebook to attack other people's views, but I will if I have to. I think we all have to, if we want to hand on a decent world to our kids and grandkids.