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| Following the Brexit vote, I fear tolerant Britain is lost for ever | Following the Brexit vote, I fear tolerant Britain is lost for ever |
| (2 days later) | |
| As I posted my vote to remain in the EU into the ballot box, I had an overwhelming sense of teetering on the edge of a precipice. My parents were political exiles, compelled to leave President Nasser’s Egypt in 1970 when friends and neighbours were too scared to air their views in public and knocks on the door in the early hours meant imprisonment and possibly torture. My parents weighed up their options: stay in their own country surrounded by everything that was warmly familiar; or uproot their family so that their children could be free to speak their minds and determine their future? | As I posted my vote to remain in the EU into the ballot box, I had an overwhelming sense of teetering on the edge of a precipice. My parents were political exiles, compelled to leave President Nasser’s Egypt in 1970 when friends and neighbours were too scared to air their views in public and knocks on the door in the early hours meant imprisonment and possibly torture. My parents weighed up their options: stay in their own country surrounded by everything that was warmly familiar; or uproot their family so that their children could be free to speak their minds and determine their future? |
| They chose the latter. After some deliberation about where to go – the United States, Australia, Canada or Britain – they chose Britain. They loved the BBC World Service, which they considered a beacon of free speech, and were connected to Britain, as so many millions of people are, through the legacy of empire and colonialism, through language and education, and above all through a deeply held belief in the British values of tolerance, inclusion and openness. | They chose the latter. After some deliberation about where to go – the United States, Australia, Canada or Britain – they chose Britain. They loved the BBC World Service, which they considered a beacon of free speech, and were connected to Britain, as so many millions of people are, through the legacy of empire and colonialism, through language and education, and above all through a deeply held belief in the British values of tolerance, inclusion and openness. |
| Related: After a campaign scarred by bigotry, it’s become OK to be racist in Britain | Aditya Chakrabortty | Related: After a campaign scarred by bigotry, it’s become OK to be racist in Britain | Aditya Chakrabortty |
| And so, in middle age, they left behind everything they knew to embark upon a risky venture. My father, who had been an engineer and senior officer in the Egyptian air force, studied computer science and took menial jobs to support his young family. In spite of the financial struggles and the petty, mundane humiliations, my parents were convinced they had made the right decision. | And so, in middle age, they left behind everything they knew to embark upon a risky venture. My father, who had been an engineer and senior officer in the Egyptian air force, studied computer science and took menial jobs to support his young family. In spite of the financial struggles and the petty, mundane humiliations, my parents were convinced they had made the right decision. |
| After I had cast my ballot, I took the bus to Shepherd’s Bush tube station. A campaigner was distributing “vote remain” stickers to passers-by. I photographed him. A young woman standing behind me on the bus smiled: “This feels very emotional,” she said. “I’m Polish and I feel like no one wants me to be here. But who would be willing to accept the minimum wage as we do? My sister lives in Germany and is training to be a lawyer. It’s different there.” | After I had cast my ballot, I took the bus to Shepherd’s Bush tube station. A campaigner was distributing “vote remain” stickers to passers-by. I photographed him. A young woman standing behind me on the bus smiled: “This feels very emotional,” she said. “I’m Polish and I feel like no one wants me to be here. But who would be willing to accept the minimum wage as we do? My sister lives in Germany and is training to be a lawyer. It’s different there.” |
| France and Germany, I once thought, were less tolerant than the accommodating Britain. In France – where I lived for a time – you were either French or “other”; there was no middle ground, no hyphenated identity. But Britain was different. You could never belong completely but you could embrace Britishness and enjoy a hybrid, contingent form of belonging: black British, British-Egyptian, British-Asian and so on. | France and Germany, I once thought, were less tolerant than the accommodating Britain. In France – where I lived for a time – you were either French or “other”; there was no middle ground, no hyphenated identity. But Britain was different. You could never belong completely but you could embrace Britishness and enjoy a hybrid, contingent form of belonging: black British, British-Egyptian, British-Asian and so on. |
| It wasn’t 100% British in a pure, cricket-white, cricket test sort of way, but it was British enough, and left room for the well of other cultural experiences and influences that shaped your identity. In turn, this hybrid, contingent identity enabled Britain to grow into a 21st-century nation infused with the intellectual, artistic and social influences of countless other cultures, making it richer and more interesting. | It wasn’t 100% British in a pure, cricket-white, cricket test sort of way, but it was British enough, and left room for the well of other cultural experiences and influences that shaped your identity. In turn, this hybrid, contingent identity enabled Britain to grow into a 21st-century nation infused with the intellectual, artistic and social influences of countless other cultures, making it richer and more interesting. |
| Related: Racism is spreading like arsenic in the water supply | Randeep Ramesh | Related: Racism is spreading like arsenic in the water supply | Randeep Ramesh |
| When did that change? That is the question that has haunted me for the past week, since I woke last Friday morning and reached for my phone to learn the result of the EU referendum. The change did not happen overnight. It happened slowly. | When did that change? That is the question that has haunted me for the past week, since I woke last Friday morning and reached for my phone to learn the result of the EU referendum. The change did not happen overnight. It happened slowly. |
| It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the change started but it has come in small steps rather than substantial leaps. The slow souring as multiculturalism stopped being something to be celebrated, becoming instead a watchword for an ill-advised dalliance with something dangerous; the spreading view that racism and prejudice were issues for individuals after all, and not institutional and systemic as the inquiry into the botched investigation of Stephen Lawrence’s brutal murder had established. the increasing hostility towards British Muslims in all parts of British society; and the heightened fear of migrants and refugees, which reached fever pitch during the campaign. Now that reports of race hate crime are soaring, it seems undeniable that the vicious and irresponsible rhetoric of politicians and media in the days and weeks leading up to the referendum has fostered toxic sentiments. | It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the change started but it has come in small steps rather than substantial leaps. The slow souring as multiculturalism stopped being something to be celebrated, becoming instead a watchword for an ill-advised dalliance with something dangerous; the spreading view that racism and prejudice were issues for individuals after all, and not institutional and systemic as the inquiry into the botched investigation of Stephen Lawrence’s brutal murder had established. the increasing hostility towards British Muslims in all parts of British society; and the heightened fear of migrants and refugees, which reached fever pitch during the campaign. Now that reports of race hate crime are soaring, it seems undeniable that the vicious and irresponsible rhetoric of politicians and media in the days and weeks leading up to the referendum has fostered toxic sentiments. |
| I feel bereaved, as though I may have lost something very dear, and I’m terrified that what I have lost may be irrecoverable. Strange as it may seem, I am in mourning for St George. Born in what is now the Middle East to a Greek family, he was a soldier in the Roman army in Italy and he died in what would become Turkey. This is the version of Englishness I think is worth fighting for: embedded in Europe, connected to the world, not frozen and immutable. If we can’t be Europeans in a constitutional sense then now is the time to reclaim and redefine Englishness as an identity, culture and politics that is intrinsically diverse, worldly and constantly evolving. |