Another
week in the European Parliament election campaign, another story of racism and
xenophobia coming from UK candidates. These stories are happening so often now
it's almost becoming difficult to keep track – the EU elections really do seem
to bring out a special type of crazy that doesn't normally get as much
attention during national elections.
The
main story during the whole campaign has been that of the United Kingdom
Independence Party, or UKIP, who are currently polling in second place, behind
the Labour Party, but ahead of the ruling Conservative and Liberal Democrat
parties. This popularity, however, comes despite an increasing number of
scandals and controversies. One candidate recently suggested shooting gay people
in an effort to get them to admit that they 'aren't really gay'; another quite
openly claimed that people who vote for the other three parties should be
executed for treason.
Of
course, these people tend to be rather minor figures, often standing only in
local council elections rather than as national figures or potential MEPs.
However, the leader of the party, Nigel Farage, is himself no stranger to
controversy. In an interview with a London radio station this week he
reiterated his position that he would not want to live next door to Romanians;
when asked by the presenter what the difference was between Romanians and
Germans (Farage's own wife is German), he simply replied 'you know what the
difference is' – a reply that seemed so openly racist about 'certain groups of
people' that even the notoriously anti-immigrant The Sun newspaper called
Farage out over it.
Farage's
response comes from a long line of 'unspoken racism' that seems to characterize
current British discourse on immigration in many ways. Certain people are seen
as 'good', and we have no problem with them immigrating to the UK. Americans,
Canadians, Australians, and increasingly even Germans (who are seen as
industrious and hard working) and, in Farage's case, Indians (who are
presumably seen as less threatening due to usually being Hindu rather than
Muslim). Others are seen as 'bad', and must be kept out – Romanians, Albanians,
Pakistanis, Somalians, branded as uniformly criminals, thieves, and beggars.
But none of this is ever said out loud – it is assumed that anyone with 'common
sense' will automatically know it, and will understand what Farage means when
he says 'you know what the difference is'.
Perhaps
the closest this ideology has come to being said out loud comes in another of
Farage's statements – he claims he doesn't have a problem with the quantity of
people coming into the country, but rather the quality of those immigrants.
This is where the mask covering UKIP's racism really starts to slip – the
argument, it seems, has nothing to do with the economic impact of immigration
on the British working class, or on the cohesiveness of British culture (the
usual arguments made for restricting newcomers). Rather, the problem is that
some groups of people are simply seen as having less 'quality' than others.
The
saddest thing about Farage's comments is that the ideology they reveal is one
that is shared by a significant segment of the British population. Many people
have complained about the comments, but many more will have heard them and
nodded, and said that this is what everyone is really thinking – that some
groups of people are more worthy than others, are somehow inherently 'better'.
This is a slippery road to start walking down, and can very quickly lead from
genuine worries about economics and social issues into full-blown racism and
the demonization of people simply because of their homeland or ancestry. But it
seems that for now such a path is popular enough to hand UKIP a spot near the
top table in the upcoming European Parliament.
[ European
Parliament election campaign, United Kingdom Independence Party, UKIP, Nigel
Farage, The Sun newspaperб British working class ]
No comments:
Post a Comment