{"id":1192,"date":"2019-03-22T11:47:24","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T11:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/?p=1192"},"modified":"2019-03-22T11:47:24","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T11:47:24","slug":"after-christchurch-the-political-class-must-stop-positioning-racism-as-a-democratic-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/2019\/03\/22\/after-christchurch-the-political-class-must-stop-positioning-racism-as-a-democratic-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"After Christchurch, the Political Class Must Stop Positioning Racism as a Democratic Demand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aurelien Mondon<\/a> is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies at the University of Bath. Aaron Winter<\/a> is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of East London.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Three emotions have hit many of us in the aftermath of the horrific terrorist attack on Al Noor Mosque and Linwood mosque in Christchurch<\/a>, New Zealand, during which 50 Muslims were killed and dozens more were injured. The first one is incredible sadness at the loss of lives and the pain inflicted on the families, friends and communities touched directly and indirectly by this atrocity. The second is in fact a lack of emotion - a lack of shock. Of course, we did not foresee such an attack in particular, but recent events have made us (and many other experts) convinced that this has become a real risk. Finally, anger. We are angry because this attack is not an isolated, unfortunate happenstance. This attack is the logical deadly conclusion of years of the normalisation of Islamophobia and racism, and mainstreaming and hyping of the far right. Here are just three of the mainstream narratives, commonly pushed by the media, politicians and some academics, which have played a key role recently in legitimising ideas which were core to the attacker\u2019s worldview.<\/p>\n

\"Racism is a fringe problem confined to mad or bad individuals\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Far right attackers are often framed as aberrations, as \u2018lone wolves\u2019, rather than as linked to both a wider movement, and to wider racism in general. The double standards within analyses of terrorism are notable. Attacks involving perpetrators who are Muslim and\/or are seemingly conducted in the name of Islam are generally treated as automatically terrorist in nature both by politicians and the media, and Muslims subjected to collective suspicion. But far right attacks, committed by white people (and in the name of whiteness) with a clear and avowedly terrorist intent, have been individualised, pathologised and represented as the acts of mad or bad individuals.\u00a0In the case of Christchurch, the attacker was described as a \u2018mass murderer\u2019 affected by being \u2018picked on at school because he was chubby\u2019.<\/a>\u00a0This is the case even when far right terrorists leave manifestos outlining where their ideas have emerged.<\/p>\n

What is too-often ignored is the role of mainstream discourse and actions in legitimising ideas that were core to the attacker\u2019s worldview. We are invited to believe that racism exists only in the more extreme movements and their spokespeople. In other words, to believe a post-racial narrative that de-emphasises the prevalence of racism across our politics and denies structural, institutional and everyday racisms.<\/p>\n

These attacks take place in a context of electoral gains of the far right and its fellow travellers, from the FPO in Austria, the Lega in Italy or Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, to the success of Trump, who is referred to in the attacker\u2019s manifesto, and Brexit, as well as a rise in far right street level activism and terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

They take place in a media landscape where the far right is regularly platformed and Muslims, migrants and refugees demonised.\u00a0In fact, on the day of the Christchurch attack, BBC\u2019s Newsnight gave a platform to Generation Identity, an anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim far right group banned on Facebook.<\/a>\u00a0The BBC has previously given a platform to English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson and Douglas Murray, of the Henry Jackson Society, who has argued that conditions for Muslims in Europe must be \u2018made harder across the board\u2019 and that to fight terror, we need \u2018less Islam\u2019. Mainstream governments securitise Muslims, create hostile environments for migrants and hold those refugees that are not lost at sea in deportation centres.<\/p>\n

To justify such policies and coverage, politicians, the media, but also some academics often lay the blame on the will of the \u2018people\u2019 and \u2018left behind\u2019: what they are saying and doing is what the people want.<\/p>\n

\"The far right is supported by the working class, the left behind, the people\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re told the far right, at least in its electoral and street protest manifestations, is symptomatic and representative of the \u2018left behind\u2019. A cry of anger and disenfranchisement. Yet the truth is that the far right is not supported by\u00a0the working class \u2018left behind\u2019<\/a>. That\u2019s merely an ideological attempt to give racism and the far right a veneer of democratic legitimacy. And such attempts end up being used to justify the resentment, hate and violence of the far right.<\/p>\n

If we are to take the concept of the left behind seriously, then surely, these should be found in the 50% of Americans who abstained or are not registered or deregistered, rather than in the 25% who voted for Trump. The same goes for Brexit and other far right electoral successes.<\/p>\n

Most of those angry and disillusioned about the system simply do not turn to the far right, and this is compounded by the fact that our most precarious communities are also our most diverse ones.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that some sections of the working class do not turn to the far right, but they are a minority, and this is nothing new. To be precise, it is usually amongst those who fear they have something to lose that we find far right supporters, rather than those in the most precarious positions. In fact, whether it is\u00a0Brexit, Trump<\/a>\u00a0or the\u00a0French Front National<\/a>, this kind of vote comes for the most part from the (lower) middle class, and the middle class. Here again, abstention is conveniently ignored, even though it is a clear symptom of the crisis of our democracies.<\/p>\n

Finally, this narrative also conveniently ignores that many far right campaigns are led by clearly elite and elitist people, who have little interest or connections to anything that could be described as the \u2018left behind\u2019. It is thus not surprising that they find allies in the powerful, in the middle and upper classes and in the intelligentsia. In a sense, this is a game of divide and rule without concern for who gets hurt.<\/p>\n

\"Immigration and Islam are a major concern for the people\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apparent concerns about immigration, Islam or \u2018rising ethnic diversity<\/a>\u2019 have been used far and wide to scapegoat certain minorities and push racist narratives. But these deeply damaging narratives are based on an ideologically skewed reading of pretty simple data.\u00a0A neat example<\/a>\u00a0to show how data can be manipulated and public opinion constructed is to look at the Eurobarometer. This data is publicly available and reading it requires no particular training. In this European wide survey, the same people are asked a series of three questions:<\/p>\n