"I think Nigel Farage is playing the trick that I think he tries to play very regularly, which is he will say something that, technically he can say is not racist, but what he really knows is he's blown a very, very loud dog whistle to every racist in the country. That means he can always sort of claim plausible deniability and say: Well, you know, technically, my policy on ILR, for example, looking at indefinite need to remain for people who've been in this country for many years', he'll say: Well, that will apply to white people as well as non-white people'. Technically, that would be true, but he also knows he sent a very clear signal to every racist in the land that those who have made their homes in this country have come from other places, might one day have their status ripped off."
"It's a little bit worse than racist, she said. If it was racist, in a funny way, it would be easier to deal with."
Shabana Mahmood accused Nigel Farage of using coded, dog-whistle politics that deliberately signal to racists while preserving plausible deniability. The proposals to reassess indefinite leave to remain are framed as neutral but communicate that long-term residents could have settled status revoked. Mahmood reported recent racial abuse directed at family members near their Small Heath home and described a wider, pervasive tide of racism across the UK. Mahmood characterized coded political messaging as harder to confront than explicit racism and emphasized the need to resist policies that stigmatize and imperil settled communities.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]