AIBU to think Brexit has shone light on a really unpleasant racist underbelly allowing it to flourish?

[KennDodd]

I know, I know not all Leavers are racist, really, I do know that. But the (lovely, non racist) Leavers must be able to see this, they really cant be blind to the unsavoury characters and groups promoting Brexit for all their worth. I don't know what can be done about this, if there's any way to put these groups back in the box?

@bellinisurge at EU elections we will see many, many people vote for a right wing populist party this is what UKIP now is; a mainstream, extreme right wing party. Even Mosley and his black shirts were not classed as mainstream.

It looks like the Brexit Party won't be much better.

Catherine Blaiklock, the leader of the Brexit party, repeatedly retweeted posts from far-right figures as well as sending her own messages. Among the messages she shared was one by Mark Collett, a former British National party (BNP) activist, referring to “white genocide”.

She has resigned though.

A Danish women told me she was discussing Brexit with her manager, and their receptionist piped up that she had voted leave, as "then the foreigners wouldn't be able to take all the good jobs and the good jobs would be availabe for British people". Cue her giving the Danish women a very telling look. As in "then I'd have your job". That was also how the manager understood it so she had to explain to the receptionist, that only someone with an academic education could fill the Danish woman's job. Apparently the receptionist didn't even have a sixth form education but she felt swindled that she didn't get offered jobs that requires academic qualifications. She felt it was reverse discrimination or something like that.

Those people we know who wants to leave or who have already left, all belong to professions where there is a lack of applicants. There are already less foreign applicants for jobs as nurses and teachers and we had a serious lack of both nurses and teachers even before Brexit. I don't blame the people who don't want to come here to work, though. Not only is Britain less friendly to foreigners, the pound has also fallen in value.

I do find it hilarious that some politicians have suggested that everybody will need to "dig for Britain" again. The farms in our area have all completely given up on finding British fruit pickers and farm hands. When they have contacted the local job centres it always turns out that Brits would rather lose their benefits than work on farms. But some politicians still expect everybody to be willing to "dig for Britain".

I think that racism has always been around, and I don't think unlimited immigration did much to quash it.

Being a leaver doesn’t mean your racist, but typically those who are racist nationalist etc would vote leave.

Unfortunately people with unpleasant views have jumped onto BREXIT and used it as an excuse to be more vocal about their views.

I do find generally racism/nationalism is more likely to be expressed compared to a few years ago. I’ve always found football fairly racist, but I stopped going when wog chops and jihad became acceptable ways to address me in the stand.

It shouldn’t matter what colour someone is, where they are born etc, the only thing we should value is the type of person they are.

FFS we have always had the ability to control immigration its just successive governments from Blair onwards chose not too as newsflash our economy needs immigrants to function don't see many brits working 12 hrs a day in the cold digging up potatoes do you. Immigration is not the fault of the EU it's a shitty government issue.

dont see many brits working 12 hours a day in the cold digging up potatoes do you

So you think the British aren't prepared to do these jobs?

Why do you think that is?

I do bear witness to the rise in plain racism since the Brexit vote and leading up to it. It's an experience I can describe and increasingly quantify, being married to a Pakistani woman. ANYBODY who denies the rise, or in any way under-plays it is either stupid, lying or blissful in their whiteness.

Racists are a surprisingly diverse bunch (I'm aware of the irony of the phrasing of this statement), Brexit tears down a potential issue for them to unite politically over. I think not having a referendum or trying to go back on the vote would have been far more dangerous.

I don't deny racism, but believe me it was worse in the 80s and 90s.

but believe me it was worse in the 80s and 90s

Couldn't agree more. I think the hyper-connected world we currently live in makes us more aware of racism but I used to work with an Afro-Carribean woman who described how, when she was a child, people would try to set their house on fire on a near-monthly basis (burning newspaper through the letterbox).

It was awful in the 70's with NF marches and generalised entitlement to be racist.

This new lot though are better connected up and actively organising. And give legitimacy to the street level thugs. Gove/Johnson/Davies/Mogg - all of them, as Lammy described on Marr.

Rural areas tend to have sparse population so there aren't the numbers of people to do them without travelling into the area, then accommodation and travel cost becomes an issue also. Farm labour is minimum wage at best and that coupled with the physicality of the job makes it unappealing. Why would you travel and do a physical hard job for shit pay when you can work in a bar or deliver parcels for amazon for the same amount?

That's racism in itself, rosie

"Make the immigrants do shit jobs for shit pay in shit conditions. Our native born Brits can do the better jobs."

Here's a thought. Pay everyone a fucking decent wage and don't make people do 12 hour days in the freezing cold.

Who do you think these racist Leavers are racist against?

I agree about paying everyone a living wage but whilst capitalism is engrained into western society it's never going to happen.

I suppose it is a form of racism but no one is making foreigners do the job, they are choosing to come here and do them, although we think of them as crap jobs with crap pay they are still an improvement on jobs and wages in their home countries. If farmers paid above minimum wage and made conditions more appealing the the cost of produce would have to rise and people would loose their shit if they had to pay a fiver for a bag of spuds.
The only solution is to vote to end capitalism which will never happen.

Of course yanbu

Conversely, from my observations, it was areas least affected by immigration who were overwhelming Leave voters.

No, Rosie, that is racism.

It is seeing "them" as "other" to native born Brits, they aren't rescue animals "it's not ideal but a better life for them than at the pound."

And it is also baffling to me why being in the EU has been embraced as a left wing move. I think you will find that native born Brits can and will work if they are not going to be shat all over and called lazy if they can't find childcare for 12 hours to pick potatoes.

YANBU, but it's not just Brexit that is the cause of this. Islamist terrorism has contributed to it too.

dont see many brits working 12 hours a day in the cold digging up potatoes do you

you won't see any immigrants doing that either.
Why?
Because its not how potatoes are harvested.

I'm sick of my employees being driven out by blatant nasty racism, I've lost two Polish people because of it, yet no British people have applied for their vacancies.
When someone is in tears because their car has been daubed with " go home polak" it makes me ashamed to be British.
This is getting more and more awful and I just cannot understand why people get swept away with the lies of farage and his ilk who will still trouser an EU pension whatever happens two faced tosspots will take the money and fuck off to pastures new leaving the rest of us with their right wing mess

it was areas least affected by immigration who were overwhelming Leave voters
A person's perception of the world is not necessarily based on their local area though. It is more often based on newspapers and TV.

So, the only nation I've heard mentioned here is 'Polish'.
Is that who everyone thinks Leavers are racist against?

I don't think it's surprising that areas least affected by immigration voted Leave.

Not everyone voted based on immigration for one, and for another,areas with high levels of immigration tend to be more mixed anyway.

London is multicultural as are most cities. Cities voted to Remain.

Yet rural areas voted to Leave, where they would be least affected by immigration.