ad-free
Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-08-31
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK3iq96wGlk
in nineteen sixty nine after a tumultuous application process involving two vetoed applications by France United Kingdom became an accepted member of the European Union this decision was upheld in nineteen seventy five when the British public voted sixty seven percent in favor of the 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 twenty third twenty sixteen when the U. K. voted to reverse forty one years of my but the lead vote a fifty one point nine percent to forty eight point one percent essentially after the two thousand eight financial crash paired itself with skepticism overpower transfers from parliament to Brussels the public's concern over bureaucratic meltdown and border
control push 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 stain Britain's future with an intense marked 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 U. this past year and I found myself drawn to the other side's campaigns racial use of language now I'm going to boil down to it I'm not just upset that Britain chose to leave the EU I'm angry about the tactics they use to get there using the ideology that immigrants were sucking resources from the National Health Service as a way to promote white
society believe campaign showed one group as more deserving because they were in some way more British than their non immigrant peers now appearing this idea with a strong sense of national identity this ideology played on fears of the fruits of one group's hard work would be taken from them by people they had willingly accepted into the country but where for whatever reason seen as less British
due to their origin this sentiment cannot be seen more clearly than for Michael go statement in the times because we cannot protect our borders public services such as the NHS will facing on quantifiable straight further in a study conducted by the independent research organization EPCIS Maury or one thousand British citizens were asked the question out of everyone hundred residents in the UK how many do you
think were born in E. member states other than the UK friends there's responded that they believed twenty percent of UK residents to be E. U. immigrants now the actual figure is just slightly less than five percent though in my opinion this narrative can best be explained through the idea of identity stories so what is my 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 ideas like kindness morality and positivity we even construct images of being a good neighbor like taking up high to a neighbor's home they just moved in or watering a neighbor's
plants may leave for vacation in fact this common identity stories global the Italians colored brother just a thanks to 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 fighting the country itself as a direct risk to national security with this false assertion believe campaign further 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 hot spots like Iraq and Syria
perhaps even more distressing a figure was Nigel for rise 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 in communities barren SI you to war see was quoted saying this kind of nudge nudge wink wink
Xena phobic racist campaign may be politically savvy are 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 a perpetuating the same story in a public space for years and years
fine tuning language to perfectly encompass that kind of wink wink racist rhetoric however this message is far more deeply rooted implicit and settled in the lead campaign strategies and one two thousand eight study researchers analyzed over a hundred and forty million words of British media taxed on refugees asylum seekers immigrants and migrants collectively referred to as race and 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 race him really was linguistically defined and constructed by the press as well as the attitudes towards race emerge from you can newspapers through the various linguistic objectives the study indeed found that the press that defined the story of racism through the pollution of language words like allowed
as in allowed into Britain or references to a convoy or an army of immigrants clearly defined in expected at the stomach norm of how these groups were to be considered now interestingly the narrative appeared across broadsheet publish press and tabloids so we know that the story is everywhere it transcends demographics that audiences and it's communal affect on the perception of immigrants is obvious what happens when
you take this racist narrative and you pair with the most nationalist and socialist institution of Britain the National Health Service it seems that there is a strong correlation between concerns over immigration policy in England and concerns over the success of the NHS in twenty fifteen years university of Oxford migration observatory on UK public opinion towards immigration how the survey focused on these overall attitudes and level
of concern when the public were asked what they thought the greatest threat to British success water most of them sad and there's a steady trend pattern that followed that immigration policy was the top concern along with success for the NHS in fact concerns over immigration policy rank slightly higher than concerns for the NHS by just five percent now first believe campaign inter twined 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 all the bathrobe public services particularly the NHS Johnson was likely referring to a quote that took front page on the boat leave take dot com take control
dot coms website that pointed out that two 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 one hundred and thirteen billion pounds a year which means that support for immigrants and their families clocks in at just two percent of the entire
budget now it seems that believe 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 the 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 illustrate his economic and cultural concerns was no doubt as clever as it was Xena phobic multi racial nationalism continues to overpower multiracial success in the UK and the 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 unfortunate part of human behavior in the political system racial bias these are used globally to divide and rake 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 use to pick groups against each other for
political motivations in the case of the referendum race was the catalyst that spurred voters already fearful of losing their rights to truly believe that the campaign would be over run by immigrants omits incorrect facts and figures lay fears 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 flooded is based on policy and not the perpetuation of racist values thank you
