in 1969 after a tumultuous application
process involving two vetoed
applications by France the United
Kingdom became an accepted member of the
European Union this decision was upheld
in 1975 when the British public voted
67% in favor of a unified European
community in the wake of World War two
unification therefore became a strategy
for political power and more importantly
British survival in a tense and changing
global climate fast forward now to June
23rd 2016 when the UK voted to reverse
41 years of membership in the European
Union with a leave vote of 51.9%
to 48.1% essentially after the 2008
financial crash pared itself with
skepticism over power transfers from
Parliament to Brussels the public’s
concerned over bureaucratic meltdown and
border control pushed then Prime
Minister David Cameron to promise a
referendum although some argue that the
referendum was purely a way to appease
other political parties on the right
this monumental decision will likely
stay in Britain’s future with an intense
mark of disagreement over how the
country both functions and supports all
citizens residing in the UK and in the
broader EU as a British citizen myself
who voted to remain in the EU this past
June
I found myself drawn to the other side’s
campaign’s racial use of language
now I’m when it boils down to it I’m not
just upset that Britain chose to leave
the EU I’m angry about the tactics they
used to get there using the ideology
that immigrants were sucking resources
from the National Health Service as a
way to promote white society the leave
campaign showed one group as more
deserving because they were in some way
more British than their non-immigrant
peers now pairing this idea with a
strong sense of national identity this
ideology played on fears that the fruits
of one groups hard work would be taken
from them by people they had willingly
accepted into the country but were for
whatever reason seen as less British due
to their origin this sentiment could not
be seen more clearly than from Michael
Gove statement in The Times because we
cannot protect our borders public
services such as the NHS will face an
unquantifiable strength further in a
study conducted by the independent
research organization if sis Maureen
where 1000 British citizens were asked
the question out of every 100 residents
in the UK how many do you think were
born in EU member states other than the
UK regs Eaters responded that they
believe 20% of UK residents to be EU
immigrants now the actual figure is just
slightly less than 5% so in my opinion
this narratives can best be explained
through the idea of identity stories so
what is an identity story basically when
good and bad narratives become
objectified in material form people buy
into and then create societally
acceptable identities take for instance
the identity story of being a good
neighbor this allegory goes as far back
as the Bible and it exists as a stable
narrative for ideas like kindness
morality and positivity we even
construct images of being a good
neighbor like taking a pie to a
neighbor’s home and they’ve just moved
in or watering a neighbor’s plants when
they leave for vacation in fact this
common identity story is global the
Italians call it Bravo gender thanks to
the leave campaign immigrants were
suddenly being viewed as bad neighbors
so what does this mean basically the
former London Mayor Boris Johnson was
one of the key proponents for furthering
the leave campaigns narrative on
immigration while the campaign itself
touted misinformation and false
prediction for immigration statistics if
Britain were to remain a member state
Johnson supported the campaign’s claims
that Turkey was close to joining the EU
citing the country itself as a direct
risk to national security with this
false assertion the leave campaign
furthered the narrative publishing
posters citing Turkey’s location on a
map and questioning the risk to national
security Turkey might possess given its
proximity to unstable hotspots like Iraq
and Syria perhaps even more distressing
a figure was Nigel Faraj another key
leave leader who supported publication
of a poster entitled breaking point
featuring hundreds of Arab people
swarming in a large crowd with the
caption take back control in an
interview with the BBC former Minister
of State for faith and communities
fairness Aida warsi was quoted saying
this kind of nudge-nudge wink-wink
xenophobic racist campaign may be
politically savvy or useful in the short
term but it causes long-term damage to
communities but is this kind of public
racism new
the simple answer is no the narrative
used by the leave campaign is not a
foreign concept to the British public
the media have been cultivating and
perpetuating the same story in a public
space for years and years fine-tuning
language – perfectly encompass that kind
of wink wink racist rhetoric however
this message is far more deeply rooted
implicit and settled in the leave
campaign strategies in one 2008 study
researchers analyzed over 140 million
words of British media text on refugees
asylum seekers immigrants and migrants
collectively referred to as race in to
reveal that racial eccentricities were
ever-present in British journalistic
language a language that is ultimately
meant to be objective specifically the
researchers wanted to know if racism
really was linguistically defined and
constructed by the press as well as if
attitudes towards racism emerged from UK
newspapers through these various
linguistic objectives the study indeed
found that the press had defined the
story of racism through the pollution of
language words like aloud as in allowed
into Britain or references to a convoy
or an army of immigrants clearly define
an expected epistemic norm of how these
groups were to be considered now
interestingly the narrative appeared
across broadsheet published press and
tabloids so we know that the story is
everywhere it transcends demographics
and audiences and it’s communal effect
on the perception of immigrants is
obvious so what happens is when you take
this racist narrative and you pair it
with the most nationalist and socialist
institution of Britain the National
Health Service it seems that there’s a
strong correlation between concerns over
immigration policy in England and
concerns over the success of the NHS in
2015 the University of Oxford’s
migration Observatory on UK public
opinion towards immigration held a
survey focused on these overall
attitudes and level of concern when the
public were asked what they thought the
greatest threat to British success were
most of them said and there was a steady
trend pattern that followed that
immigration policy was at the top
concern along with success for the NHS
in fact concerns over immigration policy
ranks slightly higher than concerns for
the NHS by just 5% now at first the
leave campaign intertwine these top two
concerns with an air
of subtlety about a month before the
boat Boris Johnson released a statement
including only one line on immigration
in the NHS quote it is intolerable to
continue without Democratic consent for
Britain’s immigration policy that is
what will be best for our public
services particularly the NHS Johnson
was likely referring to a quote that
took the front page on the vote leave
take calm take control Tom’s website
that pointed out that 2 billion pounds a
year was being spent from the NHS on
immigrant and immigrant families however
following the campaign’s trend of
misinformation this statement neglects
to mention that the overall budget for
the NHS is 113 billion pounds a year
which means that support for immigrants
and their families clocks in at just 2%
of the entire budget now it seems that
the leave campaign successfully told a
story that led to a rise in ethnic
nationalism and as a result dissolved UK
membership in the European Union as a
reporter for the International Business
Times James Bloodworth points out in an
interview with NPR hostility towards
immigration and by extension hostility
to Europe is driven by cultural concerns
as much as by economic worries that is
certainly what we see here and in
essence it is whether or not England
feels like England the rhetoric used to
illustrate these economic and cultural
concerns was no doubt as clever as it
was xenophobic multiracial nationalism
continues to overpower multiracial
success in the UK and the EU referendum
is yet another example of brutal anti
immigration policy overlaid with a
racist mentality and it just goes to
show that race is indeed a direct
proponent of class hierarchy and social
structure while an unfortunate part of
human behavior in the political system
racial biases are used globally to
divide and rank society and while the UK
is a first-world developed country much
like the u.s. it is not immune to the
kind of racial rhetoric used to pick
groups against each other for political
motivations in the case of the EU
referendum race was the catalyst that
spurred voters are already fearful of
losing their rights to truly believe
that the campaign would be overrun by
immigrants amidst
facts and figures lay fierce threatening
propaganda for a campaign against
immigrants often those with different
social customs religious backgrounds and
darker skin my goal is to show how
political campaigns use race to make a
point whether or not that point is true
or honorable still the most important
point I hope to make is that with
growing awareness to these ploys we as a
global community can begin to change the
face of this kind of propaganda so that
it is based on policy and not the
perpetuation of racist values thank you
[Applause]
process involving two vetoed
applications by France the United
Kingdom became an accepted member of the
European Union this decision was upheld
in 1975 when the British public voted
67% in favor of a unified European
community in the wake of World War two
unification therefore became a strategy
for political power and more importantly
British survival in a tense and changing
global climate fast forward now to June
23rd 2016 when the UK voted to reverse
41 years of membership in the European
Union with a leave vote of 51.9%
to 48.1% essentially after the 2008
financial crash pared itself with
skepticism over power transfers from
Parliament to Brussels the public’s
concerned over bureaucratic meltdown and
border control pushed then Prime
Minister David Cameron to promise a
referendum although some argue that the
referendum was purely a way to appease
other political parties on the right
this monumental decision will likely
stay in Britain’s future with an intense
mark of disagreement over how the
country both functions and supports all
citizens residing in the UK and in the
broader EU as a British citizen myself
who voted to remain in the EU this past
June
I found myself drawn to the other side’s
campaign’s racial use of language
now I’m when it boils down to it I’m not
just upset that Britain chose to leave
the EU I’m angry about the tactics they
used to get there using the ideology
that immigrants were sucking resources
from the National Health Service as a
way to promote white society the leave
campaign showed one group as more
deserving because they were in some way
more British than their non-immigrant
peers now pairing this idea with a
strong sense of national identity this
ideology played on fears that the fruits
of one groups hard work would be taken
from them by people they had willingly
accepted into the country but were for
whatever reason seen as less British due
to their origin this sentiment could not
be seen more clearly than from Michael
Gove statement in The Times because we
cannot protect our borders public
services such as the NHS will face an
unquantifiable strength further in a
study conducted by the independent
research organization if sis Maureen
where 1000 British citizens were asked
the question out of every 100 residents
in the UK how many do you think were
born in EU member states other than the
UK regs Eaters responded that they
believe 20% of UK residents to be EU
immigrants now the actual figure is just
slightly less than 5% so in my opinion
this narratives can best be explained
through the idea of identity stories so
what is an identity story basically when
good and bad narratives become
objectified in material form people buy
into and then create societally
acceptable identities take for instance
the identity story of being a good
neighbor this allegory goes as far back
as the Bible and it exists as a stable
narrative for ideas like kindness
morality and positivity we even
construct images of being a good
neighbor like taking a pie to a
neighbor’s home and they’ve just moved
in or watering a neighbor’s plants when
they leave for vacation in fact this
common identity story is global the
Italians call it Bravo gender thanks to
the leave campaign immigrants were
suddenly being viewed as bad neighbors
so what does this mean basically the
former London Mayor Boris Johnson was
one of the key proponents for furthering
the leave campaigns narrative on
immigration while the campaign itself
touted misinformation and false
prediction for immigration statistics if
Britain were to remain a member state
Johnson supported the campaign’s claims
that Turkey was close to joining the EU
citing the country itself as a direct
risk to national security with this
false assertion the leave campaign
furthered the narrative publishing
posters citing Turkey’s location on a
map and questioning the risk to national
security Turkey might possess given its
proximity to unstable hotspots like Iraq
and Syria perhaps even more distressing
a figure was Nigel Faraj another key
leave leader who supported publication
of a poster entitled breaking point
featuring hundreds of Arab people
swarming in a large crowd with the
caption take back control in an
interview with the BBC former Minister
of State for faith and communities
fairness Aida warsi was quoted saying
this kind of nudge-nudge wink-wink
xenophobic racist campaign may be
politically savvy or useful in the short
term but it causes long-term damage to
communities but is this kind of public
racism new
the simple answer is no the narrative
used by the leave campaign is not a
foreign concept to the British public
the media have been cultivating and
perpetuating the same story in a public
space for years and years fine-tuning
language – perfectly encompass that kind
of wink wink racist rhetoric however
this message is far more deeply rooted
implicit and settled in the leave
campaign strategies in one 2008 study
researchers analyzed over 140 million
words of British media text on refugees
asylum seekers immigrants and migrants
collectively referred to as race in to
reveal that racial eccentricities were
ever-present in British journalistic
language a language that is ultimately
meant to be objective specifically the
researchers wanted to know if racism
really was linguistically defined and
constructed by the press as well as if
attitudes towards racism emerged from UK
newspapers through these various
linguistic objectives the study indeed
found that the press had defined the
story of racism through the pollution of
language words like aloud as in allowed
into Britain or references to a convoy
or an army of immigrants clearly define
an expected epistemic norm of how these
groups were to be considered now
interestingly the narrative appeared
across broadsheet published press and
tabloids so we know that the story is
everywhere it transcends demographics
and audiences and it’s communal effect
on the perception of immigrants is
obvious so what happens is when you take
this racist narrative and you pair it
with the most nationalist and socialist
institution of Britain the National
Health Service it seems that there’s a
strong correlation between concerns over
immigration policy in England and
concerns over the success of the NHS in
2015 the University of Oxford’s
migration Observatory on UK public
opinion towards immigration held a
survey focused on these overall
attitudes and level of concern when the
public were asked what they thought the
greatest threat to British success were
most of them said and there was a steady
trend pattern that followed that
immigration policy was at the top
concern along with success for the NHS
in fact concerns over immigration policy
ranks slightly higher than concerns for
the NHS by just 5% now at first the
leave campaign intertwine these top two
concerns with an air
of subtlety about a month before the
boat Boris Johnson released a statement
including only one line on immigration
in the NHS quote it is intolerable to
continue without Democratic consent for
Britain’s immigration policy that is
what will be best for our public
services particularly the NHS Johnson
was likely referring to a quote that
took the front page on the vote leave
take calm take control Tom’s website
that pointed out that 2 billion pounds a
year was being spent from the NHS on
immigrant and immigrant families however
following the campaign’s trend of
misinformation this statement neglects
to mention that the overall budget for
the NHS is 113 billion pounds a year
which means that support for immigrants
and their families clocks in at just 2%
of the entire budget now it seems that
the leave campaign successfully told a
story that led to a rise in ethnic
nationalism and as a result dissolved UK
membership in the European Union as a
reporter for the International Business
Times James Bloodworth points out in an
interview with NPR hostility towards
immigration and by extension hostility
to Europe is driven by cultural concerns
as much as by economic worries that is
certainly what we see here and in
essence it is whether or not England
feels like England the rhetoric used to
illustrate these economic and cultural
concerns was no doubt as clever as it
was xenophobic multiracial nationalism
continues to overpower multiracial
success in the UK and the EU referendum
is yet another example of brutal anti
immigration policy overlaid with a
racist mentality and it just goes to
show that race is indeed a direct
proponent of class hierarchy and social
structure while an unfortunate part of
human behavior in the political system
racial biases are used globally to
divide and rank society and while the UK
is a first-world developed country much
like the u.s. it is not immune to the
kind of racial rhetoric used to pick
groups against each other for political
motivations in the case of the EU
referendum race was the catalyst that
spurred voters are already fearful of
losing their rights to truly believe
that the campaign would be overrun by
immigrants amidst
facts and figures lay fierce threatening
propaganda for a campaign against
immigrants often those with different
social customs religious backgrounds and
darker skin my goal is to show how
political campaigns use race to make a
point whether or not that point is true
or honorable still the most important
point I hope to make is that with
growing awareness to these ploys we as a
global community can begin to change the
face of this kind of propaganda so that
it is based on policy and not the
perpetuation of racist values thank you
[Applause]
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