Brexit Is The World’s Wakeup Call — Racism Is Real And Dangerous

We as millennials appear to be ruled by a standstill generation who are determined to move us backwards in time. With the aftershocks of Brexit, there appears to be a trickling down effect pointing to the same issue. Immigration.

51% of Great Britain voted to leave the European Union, resulting in a divided nation. However this overwhelming response is a wake up call signalling that individuals still hold dated ideals that ‘to make Britain great again’ it must be made whiter. Although immigrants arguably provide invaluable resources to a country, there are still people who fight to the ends of the earth to gain back their supposed right to their country.

These are the people mumbling out speeches that the Polish have taken away their jobs and simply enjoyed reaping the undeserved benefits, which wasn’t rightfully theirs. Forgetting the struggle it takes to leave ones own country and family to go make an honest living in a strange country. Or that the jobs they take are typically the ones that no one else wants or aren’t willing to do.

This forgetfulness occurs because of the remaining racist undertones that still dominate the many elders or the uneducated within the Western society. There’s a reason why white, rich men who migrate to the Middle East are known as expatriates whilst the Indian labourers are coined as immigrants. As Mawuna Koutonin aptly points out ‘Africans are immigrants. Arabs are immigrants. Asians are immigrants. However, Europeans are expats because they can’t be at the same level as other ethnicities. They are superior. An immigrant is a term set aside for ‘inferior races’.

Our ancestors may have made strides in abolishing the more extreme costs of racism but there appears to be a standstill that wasn’t noticeable until Brexit. Whilst there are no specific segregated rooms, there is still mental segregation as people stereotype and separate others without factual knowledge. So, we have to remind those baby boomers that we have to admire and respect the immigrants white, black and everything in between. We have to understand that we’re all global citizens of the world; as behind our skin colours, our hearts beat the same.