Script

Burning down the house of a Polish family, blaming Chinese people for Covid-19, sending death
threats to black people after losing a football game. Go to Great Britain. You will find even more
examples for xenophobia and racism. This will be the topic of today's podcast. I'm going to tell
you about the different forms of racism and xenophobia that occur most in the United Kingdom.
Let me start with a side fact: Xenophobia and racism are not the same thing, but they are so
similar you can use them in the same context. Xenophobia is the fear and hatred of strangers,
while racism is the belief that one race is superior to others. Therefore most people who are
xenophobic are also racist.
As you might have guessed after what I said in the beginning, xenophobia does not only affect
people of colour but everyone who is a foreigner and everyone that others might think is a
foreigner. Meaning, you could be born in Great Britain but some old white man in your
neighbourhood won´t believe you because of the colour of your skin or your religion.
This leads me to the next point on my agenda: The different forms of racism and xenophobia in
the UK. Let's start with one of the more recent examples: The hatred against chinese people or
east-asian people in general because most racists won't see a difference between chinese,
japanese or korean people. Do you know what they're being blamed for? ... Right, it's Covid-19.
It is the perfect example of how people are looking for someone they can put all the blame on by
only judging the way this person looks, not considering they might have absolutely nothing to do
with the current situation.

With the Brexit came the hatred. The number of hate crimes against European Union citizens
has increased by at least 20% compared to the time before the brexit. A statistic revealed that
muslims and people from eastern europe are affected the most. The most shocking example for
this sure is the case where the shed of a polish family living in Plymouth was set on fire. They
also received a note saying: "Go back to your fucking country! Next time it will be your family!".
While this might be an extreme case that is not happening like this everyday, foreigners get told
to leave and go back to their country almost on a daily basis.
Now to the last form of xenophobia that I want to mention today.
I'm sure you have heard the term "Islamophobia ''. If not, it is the fear and hatred of Muslims. If
you've watched the news in 2017 you may still remember the Beckton acid attack where Jameel
Muhktar and Resham Khan were attacked with acid in their car. This is one of many examples
of people being targeted just because of their religion AND the way they look. And as i said
before Muslims are also one of the groups of people who are being affected the most by the
hate after the Brexit referendum.

Besides these newly developed forms of xenophobia there is also THE oldest form, the one who
has always been there and probably will always be there, the one who is so firmly anchored in
history that it almost seems traditional: Anti-semitism. The first thing you think of when hearing
this is surely: "Germany 1940s!" and that's reasonable. But many people in many other
countries have a similar mindset like that guy with the ugly beard. And although the Jews
situation today is nothing compared to 80 years ago they still can not live their life in peace. The
number of reported anti-semitic incidents per year in the UK has been rising again since 2013
and now is almost three times higher. To be fair this number went down again in the last two
years but that's probably because people were busy hating asians.
I could also tell you about institutional racism in the UK but that would be too complex to explain
in this short time. For now, I just want you to think about how common xenophobia has become.
Many people in Great Britain took Brexit as a reason to be racist and think their country has to
be "white" and free from other cultures. What this can lead to can be seen right now: The gas
shortage is caused by not enough FOREIGN drivers (mainly from Poland) being there to deliver
the gas to and through the country. That's it for today! Thank you for listening!

Tasks:
Where does the family whose shed was burned down live?
-Plymouth
Which groups of people are affected the most by the hate after the Brexit referendum? Name
one.
-Muslims or eastern Europeans
What is the oldest form of xenophobia?
-Antisemitism