GUEST BLOG - Arpita Dutt, anti-discrimination lawyer and equal rights campaigner
Response to Brexit vote
(An abridged version of this piece appeared in The Times "The Brief" earlier this week.)
The morning after the referendum, the sun was shining and
the sky was blue. That’s often enough to make me feel good but I woke up deeply
upset, in shock and disbelief at the outcome - Brexit.
The split of the vote around the country made it clear
that this was a country deeply divided, and rather than feel proud of being
British, a country I was born in, one that I have loved and worked hard for, as
my parents as immigrants to this country had done before me, I just felt sick
with a sense of alienation.
It was a feeling that had been growing before the EU
referendum vote as it seemed that public figures, posters, newspapers and
members of the public had used the Leave campaign to vocalise racist views and
lay the ills of years of under-investment in public services, community
infrastructure and housing at the door of all ‘immigrants’ indiscriminately,
whether from the EU, non–EU ethnic minorities or British born.
I don’t think it’s racist to talk about immigration, but I
also believe in calling out racism strongly when it’s vocalised, whatever the
context.
Let’s talk factually and not pander to stereotypes,
slogans and myths.
I own up to living in the diverse ‘London bubble’ as it’s
been called, but for the last 25 years I
have been a strident campaigner against racism and xenophobia, strengthening
communities and cohesion and listening to people as I have travelled around the
country.
I have worked with European anti-racism organisations to
build bridges and good practice and to talk about immigration. When I’ve come
back from Europe I’ve often felt how lucky we are compared to immigrants in
other EU countries.
I‘ve witnessed the lack of facilities for local people,
and I’ve experienced the vitriolic words of hate against immigrants. Most of
all, I’ve felt ashamed at the deprived areas and circumstances in which I feel
no-one in the UK should have to live in.
In the last 5 years I’ve been physically harassed and
verbally abused by the English Defence League in Grays and taunted with shouts
of ‘there aint no black in the Union Jack’.
Last Friday, I suddenly felt unsafe again, and I felt like
the ‘other’.
So, this racism isn’t new; but it appears to have been
given greater legitimacy to emerge and is manifesting in nefarious ways around
the country as recent reports that have been reported by the media and on the
Twitter tag #PostRefRacism show.
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But, it’s not just me that feels this way. My ethnic
minority friends fear for their children now. Our parents experienced the worst
harassment and exclusion, and as British born second and third generation
children of immigrants, we too were called ‘Wogs’ and ‘Paki’s’ but that’s not
what we expected our children to experience.
As I travelled to work on the bus on Friday, I heard a
fellow Spanish passenger talking to relatives on her phone in utter disbelief
about the result.
She has two small children and she felt deeply uncertain
about the future, and whether she could stay in this country.
Now I fear that the perceived mandate for out and out racism
will give oxygen to the far right as the politics of division intensifies.
As a lawyer, I have helped secure justice for victims of race
discrimination in their workplaces and in the community; I have chaired a
London Borough Hate Crime Forum for 5 years working with the local police,
housing agencies, the council and community organisations to instill victims
with confidence and create reporting centres to report hate crime; ensuring
agencies work together effectively to deal with those reports.
I founded ARA Trust, a charity that has worked to bring
young people and families from diverse backgrounds together to educate and
create understanding amongst new and existing members of communities.
I have worked with Hope Not Hate and the trade union
movement on many anti-racist campaigns.
All of these organisations continue to carry out valuable
work, and they are needed more than ever.
I know that we are much stronger when communities work
together to eradicate all forms of extremism.
We must all be vigilent, record and report all hate crime and
stand together because ‘Brexit’ should not be a proxy to legitimise racism and
xenophobia.
We have to do better than this.
We have to be better than this.
In 2016, that’s not what being British is about. I’ll be
redoubling my efforts.
Arpita
Dutt is a Founder and Partner of
employment law firm BDBF LLP and writes in a personal capacity.
