Inter-Community Racism

Unpublished letter to "i"

Dear Sir,
Your excellent columnist Patrick Cockburn is right to draw attention to the link between the Brexit campaign and the reappearance of overt racism in the community.("Brexit has unleashed the forces of racism" i 15-16/6/19). What has become a worrying phenomenon for me (and perhaps not so visible to the average white British commentator), is the growing racism in the last few years in everyday conversation between different religious and ethnic minorities that espouse Brexit thinking it makes them more British and criticize each other in their home language while remaining polite to each other when speaking English. Many of my friends from different ethnic communities complain about this and I can vouch for this happening with some East European minorities. Of course on the whole ethnic community leaders and ethnic online media continue to carry the torch for mutual tolerance and cultural cohesion but all the same it remains a worrying trend that is difficult to monitor.
Yours faithfully
Wiktor Moszczynski