The recent ironically titled “Unite the Kingdom” march was a racist display of sensationalism, drenched in intolerance, incitements of violence and hate speech. It was intentionally divisive, platformed harmful narratives towards racialised religious and ethnic groups, and could be interpreted to ‘unite’ people only around ideas of religious intolerance, “religious war” and ill-informed anti-migration views, “watching our communities crumble at the hands of open-border, mass uncontrolled immigration”.
We are deeply concerned for the implications these narratives have on safeguarding, wellbeing and cohesion, including for young people, racialised communities and communities of faith.
Racism has many forms, targeting various parts of people’s identities depending on how we racialise people as a society. Some forms of racism, that is: things which result in unfair outcomes for different racial groups, are woven into our institutional systems, and influence our judgements in ways which are more challenging to identify and therefore easier to deny. Overt racism, seen from the far-right organisers of Unite the Kingdom, its speakers, and those who support them, should be undeniable.
These ideas damage our whole society, and most directly, harms those from the racialised religious and ethnic backgrounds they target.
It’s uniquely harmful to young people, as it shapes their developing minds with ideas of Othering, which convinces them that people who look or believe differently, or who come from another place, are incompatibly different to them. For young people who look like and believe the same as the people who hold these ideas, they are led to think that the “others” are in some way – or in all ways – inferior. Young people are naturally less able to think critically or consider whether the messages they are hearing are true or not; especially if the adults around them repeat them.
These messages influence ideas of belonging and what it means to be British – some young people may interpret this, as many far-right messages repeat, as they are not British, and this is ‘not their country’. For others, being British may start to mean holding these ideas and believing false and harmful stereotypes to be true. For young people from racialised groups, internalising these messages can reduce their self-worth and self-belief, and damage their sense of belonging. This can have long-lasting effects to their psychological wellbeing and contribute to the external risk of exploitation and abuse for all young people.
The most undeniable impact of these messages is the increased risk of physical harm which speakers openly encouraged, “violence is coming to you, you either fight back or you die”, and the fear with which people from targeted groups must navigate their day to day lives and their plans for the future. Ironically, many of the false stereotypes used to shape fundamentally anti-migrant and xenophobic campaigns radicalise people using the idea of fear. Whether it’s economic; ‘taking jobs’, or gender-based; ‘hurting girls’, this framing relies on manipulating people’s emotional reactions, very often with lies, and relies on the guarantee that some people will make a judgement about one story eg. about one migrant or one group of people, and apply the same conclusion to all. This is also seen in the media and politics, where negative stories relating to migrants and racialised groups are highlighted for popularity; painting them to be the only, or primary perpetrators of violence and crime, despite the truth that this is, of course, not the case.
The organiser spoke of women and girls’ “safety being taken from them” and that migrants in Home Office accommodation were “undocumented”. He is wrong. Women and girls do not face an increased risk of violence or abuse from people claiming asylum, or from people from racialised groups. This is a racist lie used to manipulate people into supporting extreme anti-immigration views. It should go without saying that to be in Home Office accommodation means they are ‘documented’, and processed by the Home Office.
Continuing his attack against people seeking safety in the UK, he said “They [regarding the court decision against closing the Home Office accommodation for asylum seekers] told the world that Somalians [sic], Afghanis, Pakistanis, and all of them, their rights supersede yours, the British public who built this nation”. He is wrong. The rights of people navigating the asylum system are severely constrained. They face unique restrictions which affect every part of their life, including shelter (the location and conditions in which they live), food (what and sometimes when they can eat), money (the lack of right to work and earn), education, volunteering, and the right to unite with their family even once they have been recognised as a refugee and given permission to remain in the country.
A person’s worth should never be measured simply by their contribution, though to respond to the misleading notion that only certain people “built this nation” – people from various countries have and do, including through and after both world wars and across every industry today. Separate from this, our rights which the far-right challenge today – to non-discrimination, to freedom of religion, to seek safety in another country – should be universal.
Just as the far-right tries to hijack what it means to be British, the protest also sought to hijack Christianity and go against its fundamental teachings. Dressing far-right messages in Christian clothes is a denial of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Christians should advocate for justice based on the Bible. At the very beginning of the Bible we are told that God created the human race, all of us made in the image of God. All equal in the eyes of God. This truth runs through the heart of our scriptures – we should be celebrating our citizenship of the kingdom of heaven which includes people of every language and nation on earth.
Patriotism is not an excuse for racism. Embracing this country and encouraging Christian values cannot involve spreading hate towards people who are perceived to be different. The church in Luton recognise there are many things that contribute to people being drawn into the messages used by the far-right, but a Christian response to any of the issues which the far-right frame as problems cannot involve racism; in light of scripture and Christian teachings, we should not view any group of people through a negative lens or as less deserving of God’s embrace.
Young people must be protected from harm, from radicalisation into extremist views, and from ideologies which go against the values of mutual respect and tolerance. The scale and online reach of the march exposes young people to harmful messages, misinformation, and dangerous influencers based in the UK and abroad.
Keeping young people safe involves many approaches, but we can all do two simple things to help protect them:
Families, schools and other organisations that work with young people can:
As always, we are here to offer support to young people, families and organisations as they navigate these areas.
