Many people will probably be surprised that in 2012 a young woman would be savagely beaten by her parents for dating a black male, yet for black and minority ethnic communities racist attacks and abuse is a daily occurrence and many stories rarely feature on mainstream television news and in the national newspapers.
David and Frances Champion were both jailed after beating up their 17-year-old daughter Jane when they found her in their home with her black boyfriend Alfonce Ncube, who worked in a restaurant in Swansea.
The Champions lost control after they returned home to see their naked daughter Jane with Alfonce, after the father threw Alfonce out of his home he grabbed his daughter by the hair and repeatedly hit her whilst screaming racial insults and profanities.
A month later after Jane had returned from living with her grandparents believing that the situation had calmed, her parents confronted her again asking if she was still seeing Alfonce, when she replied yes, they both laid into her punching and kicking her causing swelling on her face and her head.
They then went to the resturaunt where Alfonce worked to confront him but were thown out by staff.
David Champion was sentenced to 12 months in prison whilst Frances received nine months. The couple had told their daughter that she had brought shame on the family for dating a black male. (Mother and father jailed for beating their daughter, 17, for ‘bringing shame on the family’ by having a black boyfriend: Mailonline: By Michael Seamark and Rebecca Evans: 6 August, 2012)
Racism and racist attacks underreported in the media
Whilst the Champion’s case made headline news giving the impression that racism such as this is on the decline in Britain, the real picture of racism and racist attacks against individuals from black and minority ethnic groups goes largely under reported, especially when it comes to television news and national newspapers.
When the real picture of racism is revealed the racism of the Champions can be seen as a larger funadmental issue exposing a racially fractured UK.
The Institute of Race Relations wrote a report which documented racist attacks from January 2012, and the picture that this report reveals uncovers a rise in racism and racist attacks in UK.
In January 2012, a black family in east Belfast were forced to flee their home after a campaign of racist attacks. In one incident an 8-year-old girl was injured after a rock was thrown through her bedroom window. (Spotlight on racial violence: January – June 2012: by Jon Burnett: July 2012: Institute of Race Relations)
In February 2012, a female Chinese student was the victim of an unprovoked attack as she walked home from a nightclub in Plymouth.
In February 2012, 22-year-old Michael Paul Burke threatened to burn down a shop in Crosby Down after staff refused to let him have a bottle of Vodka on credit, he called the Asian staff ‘rats’, threw items over the counter and squirted one of the staff with cleaning liquid.
In Brighton, February 2012, a mixed-race teenage girl was subjected to racist abuse via the social media and attacked after falling out with school friends. She was called a black bitch and told to go back to Africa.
In February 2012, a woman from Thailand was traveling on a Plymouth bus with her four-year-old child when five teenagers racially abuse her, mocking her accent and spitting on her, the crying woman had to beg the bus driver for assistance.
In March 2012, a Muslim woman walking with her family in Birmingham city centre was grabbed by the head and had her niqab ripped off by a white male, who later told the court that he was angry because the film he had gone to see at the cinema was not showing.
In an unprovoked racist attack in April 2012, an Asian man walking with his wife in Northampton was racially abused by a white male with a pit-bull-type dog, when the Asian male crossed over the road to avoid confrontation the white male followed him and his wife headbutting him and punching him to the floor.
In April 2012, the family of a Bengal Fusion restaurant in Somerset was forced to defend themselves and their business after they came under attack from a group of white males who shouted racial abuse and smashed windows. Amazingly, when the police arrived the owner of the restaurant, Shah Alom was arrested along with the rest of his family. Mr Alom, who has lived in Somerset for 22 years said that he is considering leaving the area after the police response.
In May 2012, a 30-year-old Asian woman was in the park with her three children in Manchester, when a group of teenage girls told her to take her children away from the swings, the teenagers racially abused her and kicked her before a man who was with them indecently exposed himself to her.
In June 2012, Brighton and Hove council sent officers to investigate claims that there was a ‘culture of racist abuse’ at a school in Brighton, where black and mixed-race pupils where the victims of bullying, racial harassment and physical attacks.
I have mentioned just a few of the incidents from the report which contains much more. Jon Burnett, who wrote the report said that, “Given that these incidents were recorded in the local or (much less frequently) national press, they show only a tiny fraction of the true scale of violence.”
Readers will note that in more than one case young white teenagers of school age are implicated in racism and racist attacks, challenging the idea that racism will become less frequent with the younger generation. If anything, with the bleak economic climate the younger generation are merely expressing the types of racist attitudes that the older generation of black and minority ethnic communities were use to. Attitudes that are now coming to the surface amongst the younger white generation because of several factors including, the recession, the media’s demonisation of Muslims and racist often inaccurate stories in the media regarding immigration.
The distorted image of general racial harmony and tolerance which the media has presented of race relations in the UK falls apart quite quickly when examining the evidence.
It seems that whites in the UK put up with multiculturalism as long as they had favourable access to jobs, housing and general opportunities, however with a recession, and increasing competition for housing, jobs and general opportunities, the latent racist attitudes of the younger white generation is now displaying itself in racist attacks and abuse.
If multiculturalism and racial tolerance is so strong in the UK then why is it that race relations comes crashing down like a pack of cards at the first sign of economic troubles?
When the UK can suffer economic hardship and decline without a soar in racist attacks and racism, then and only then can we say that race relations has progressed; sadly what we have now is a racially fractured UK, which is set to become even worse with more draconian social welfare cuts, job cuts and a rise in the fees for higher education.
The UK is going to to become an even more dog-eat-dog society, with every man and woman for themselves, and with that the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ tribe mentality will become even more extreme. In other words racism is going to get worse.
For further research:
http://www.irr.org.uk/news/spotlight-on-racial-violence-january-june-2012/
