Millennial racism
The other side of snowflakes
‘Rights for whites.” “LGBT: Let’s Gas Blacks Too.” “This is Britain not Africa.” These comments were not made by neonazis in Seventies’ Britain, but by twentysomething millennials today. Just last week, footage filmed by Rufaro Chisango, a black woman locked in her room at Nottingham Trent University, went viral, as it revealed chants of “we hate the blacks” and other racist abuse coming from outside her door. Two men have since been arrested in conjunction with the incident. Then yesterday it emerged that five law students at University of Exeter were suspended after sending messages on Whatsapp saying that the university’s law society should be for white people only, saying: “If they’re black, send ’em back.”
So what is going on among a generation of young people, who are more used to being labelled “snowflakes” than racists?
“There’s a general belief that universities are beautiful, liberal spaces of tolerance and acceptance where racism doesn’t happen,” explains Ilyas Nagdee, Black Student Officer for the NUS. “But it’s often in those spaces that intolerant behaviour can foster. It’s treated as a dirty little secret.”
That “dirty little secret” is now being exposed – and not just on campuses. Recently, Jo Marney, the 25-year-old Ukip supporter and girlfriend of the party’s ex-leader Henry Bolton, was vilified for her private text messages. “I wouldn’t with a negro,” she told a friend, explaining why she disliked Prince Harry’s fiancée, Meghan Markle. “Her seed [will] taint our Royal family. This is Britain not Africa.” On being called racist by her friend, she replied: “Lol. So what?”
Her response, with its flippant “laugh out loud” abbreviation, is telling of a millennial attitude to racism, according to Dr Kehinde Andrews, co-chairman of Birmingham City University’s Black Studies Association. “I don’t think she knew she was in the wrong, or even recognised it as being truly racist,” he explains. “People don’t know where the boundaries are.”
James Kingett, an education manager at Show Racism the Red Card, agrees. “Young people are constantly being told racism was a big problem in the Seventies and Eighties, and it’s less of a problem now. They didn’t see it back then – so they don’t understand what it was truly like – and they’re constantly being told how much progress has been made. It means there’s a perception that racism isn’t an issue any more, so certain attitudes aren’t seen as racist.”
Heather Jones, 20, used to edit a prominent alt-right website that featured articles on the oppression of whites. She is often called racist for her views, but refuses to accept the label: “I don’t think it’s racist to want to preserve the culture of your country. I have an issue with the fact people want to change our culture, take away the things that made us who we are. That’s what I don’t like.”
She also hints that those with views like hers are thriving because of our politically correct culture, and not in spite of it. “I feel like there’s a lot of anti-whiteness in general. I don’t necessarily think we’re oppressed, but I think people can be very extreme against white people at the moment.”
Unlike many other members of the young alt-right, however, Jones doesn’t agree with an extreme view of an all-white England and says she is open to adapting her views – “I’m only 20, so I have a lot of opinion changing to do.”
Peer pressure is a big issue with racism among millennials, especially when it comes to politics. Nick Ryan of anti-fascist advocacy group Hope Not Hate explains that far-right groups have grown in recent years, and a poll by his organisation found a quarter of its 4,000 respondents have anti-immigration, Right-wing views – while 39 per cent now identify as liberal.
“The number in the middle is shrinking,” he explains. “The danger there is you have two groups. Society seems to have become more polarised. There have been incidents and attacks from groups on both sides.”
The polarisation is something that millennials are noticing. While some are labelled “snowflakes”, others, like libertarian Jakub Jankowski, who supported Donald Trump’s anti-muslim ban and used to identify with the alt-right, are labelled racist for their views. “I am economically liberal and socially conservative,” explains the University of London student. “I’m sceptical of immigration – but I don’t think that’s racist.” He has faced backlash for his views after appearing on a TV documentary on the alt-right, and has since noticed a “political segregation” on his university campus.
“Polarisation certainly is obvious at my university. There’s been an increase this year in the amount of people who identify as Right-wing. I knew about 15 last year, but now I easily know of about 40.”
While overt racist attacks hit the headlines, most reported incidents are subtle – be they comments like Marney’s views on not finding black people attractive, or cruel “jokes” presented as “banter”. “The idea of banter is something we’ve been concerned about for a long time,” explains Kingett. “There are a lot of people who interpret it as a means to say anything they want.”
One 26-year-old white student, who wants to stay anonymous, admits that she makes racist jokes with her friends. “I think if it’s a joke, it’s not a big deal. It’s funny to talk about the stereotypes among black, brown and Chinese people. I don’t think of it as racism. It’s just having a laugh. We all do it.”
Banter was the same excuse of medical students at Cardiff University, who wrote a play that included blacking up, “racist, sexist and homophobic jokes and stereotype references”. Dinesh Bhugra, emeritus professor of mental health and cultural diversity at King’s College London, was commissioned to write a report on it. He discovered a number of students had dropped out of the university after the incident came to light, and doesn’t believe it was an isolated incident. “The generous explanation for this kind of behaviour is that they don’t realise what they’re doing,” says Bhugra. “They think it’s just a jape, but as they’re hurting people – consciously or unconsciously – it’s a major issue that needs to be resolved.”
Ryan agrees that most incidents of face-to-face racism among young people are “done more out of ignorance”. He says that while most students are prevailingly tolerant, there are small pockets of racist groups, such as fragmented extreme right groups, which his organisation often filtrates, where there are more reports of anti-semitism and Islamophobia. “In terms of the general situation, the pocket has become a bit more worrying,” he admits. In 2016, University College London students reportedly barricaded Jewish students into a room at an anti-israel protest. Months later, a swastika carving and “rights for whites” sign was found in University of Exeter halls, while Holocaust denial pamphlets have reportedly been handed out at various Russell Group universities.
In fact, anti-semitism at universities has increased so much that former universities minister Jo Johnson said there were “unacceptable” levels of it now among students. It’s why the government has now funded a project where 200 student union leaders will be taken to visit Auschwitz this year.
The only way to combat this rise in millennial racism is something all the experts agree on: education. “Young people need to be involved in conversations,” explains Kingett. “They’ve grown up with the idea that racism is difficult to talk about, so no one does. We need more education to show them what it looked like through history.
“The face of racism changes quickly – in its targets and expressions – but we need to be even faster, so we can make sure we keep on tackling it properly.”
‘People don’t know where the boundaries are’