# taz.de -- Karissa Singh about racism after Brexit: „You will never be true British“
> Karrisa Singh says Brexit Referendum bolsters racists. The Human Rights
> activist created #PostRefRacism. Since then dozens of people have
> reported racist abuse.
IMG Bild: „What is different following the referendum, however, is that the incidents of racism seem emboldened, unashamed and more direct.“
taz.de: Miss Singh, what triggered you to create #PostRefRacism?
Karissa Singh: On the Friday following Brexit my brother and I were
harassed by a middle aged white man, who approached us while we were having
a drink to tell us: “You will never be true British. When we voted leave we
should have voted out to all you lot. I don’t care you think you’re here to
be a doctor, or a lawyer, or whatever, just go back and do it in your own
country“. This was in the middle of the day, in broad daylight, in a fairly
crowded student bar. Following this I heard from several friends who had
experienced similar incidents of racism – direct, unashamed and almost
righteous in its expression. I decided to set up a space to document these
aggressions, combat their normalization, and encourage people to call out
such incidents. We will not allow racist narratives to be mainstreamed in
British culture.
Have you ever been exposed to racism before the Brexit? What are the
changes you have noticed since?
Yes, and I’m sure members of the ethnic minority communities in the UK will
tell you that racism is not a new problem. Since the Brexit, however, the
incidents of racism seem emboldened, unashamed and more direct. Whereas
before someone might scream something and run, now people have no restraint
in approaching you in public and verbally harassing you. They feel that the
Brexit result is a vindication and validation of their racist views, and
now feel more able to express these views without repercussions. What these
people seem to have misunderstood that a democratic mandate for Brexit DOES
NOT equal a mandate for racist aggression, harassment or intimidation; and
does not legitimize or legalize terrible acts of racism against ethnic
minority communities.
When and how did you realize that your experience was not a single case,
but rather part of systematic racism linked to the Brexit? Did the extent
of #PostRefRacism surprise you?
Following the incident with my brother, I heard several stories from
friends and thought – this cannot be a coincidence. The victorious overtone
of those early racist incidents we experienced Friday following the result
underlined the link between the whole Brexit immigration narrative (“take
back control, take back our country“) and the wave of racism. The response
to the page did surprise and sadden me, as the fact it snowballed showed
that this was something many people were experiencing across the UK.
How many persons have contacted you with their stories of #PostRefRacism?
We are working on a way to organize our submissions, also in collaboration
with the worrying signs page, so hope to have more specific figures soon.
The police have reported a 57% increase in reported hate crimes compared
with last week. These incidents are happening across the country, and the
reports we are getting are mainly in urban areas, though this may be
because those in urban areas are more likely to use twitter!
Is it possible and would you be willing to take the incidents you reported
to court? Or do you see better ways of handling #PostRefRacism?
Whenever there is a legal case the incidents should be taken to the police,
but this will need to be done by those directly affected by the incident.
We are encouraging people to do that. We also want to encourage everyone to
call out racism when they see it, to prevent it being normalized – that’s
how PostRefRacism should be handled, with zero tolerance on all fronts.
29 Jun 2016
## AUTOREN
DIR Felix Hackenbruch
## TAGS
DIR Schwerpunkt Brexit
DIR Schwerpunkt Rassismus
DIR Migration
DIR Großbritannien
DIR Europa
DIR Schwerpunkt Brexit
DIR Schwerpunkt Brexit
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