Neo-Rascism

I was born in 1963. As I grew up and started taking notice of the world, hate crime was a daily news article, reports more common than a politician's lies. Hours of video footage of National Front marches, often resulting in riots as answering marches sought to silence the voices of the haters, to convince them their view was toxic to the very things they wanted.

Scenes of extreme Police brutality as the rioters were clubbed to the ground or washed flat by fire hoses. The innocent being caught in the cross-fire. 

I'd hoped never to live long enough to see history repeat. I'd hoped this country had got past such nonsense, such poison. My dream of that died today.

The far right and other nationalists are once again hijacking phrases from mainstream politics, distorting the Brexit Leave campaign's banner slogans, making them darker, blackening their original intent.

I hear of 'go home' notices filled with hate being pushed through the letterboxes of anyone who is suspected of being a foreign national, anyone 'other'

I hear a white German woman, resident in the UK for decades, sobbing over the airwaves, choking on her fear as she describes shit being lobbed at her home, of being jeered at and told to f^^k off back home. She sits alone as she waits for help, the German embassy dumbfounded by her plea for help, her only comfort, the voice of LBC's anchorman.

I read a post from a white, British friend telling me she's had abuse hurled at her in the street, Yes, she looks like she might be very slightly Vietnamese or Thai, so that's enough to make her unwelcome in Britain in their eyes.

I read a teacher describing how one part of her class are in tears from their parents anxieties that they might be 'sent home' whilst another group parrots their parent's jubilation that they 'got their country back'.

I watch again the banners, the hijacking of my flag, the sound of bovver boots on tarmac as the haters reclaim 'their country'.

I want no part of such things. I want no such definition of 'my country'. I will tolerate no such toxin near me or those around me. I wish I could fully remember how we pushed these thugs back into the slime from which they came last time but, for now, it's hard to think clearly over my sorrow, or to get past gagging on my disgust.

But I will.

Then I, and every other Brit who feels as I, will be coming after you.To once more make you part of the ooze from whence you came.