{"id":358,"date":"2019-10-22T15:27:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T14:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/crowdsidentities\/?p=358"},"modified":"2019-10-22T15:27:02","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T14:27:02","slug":"tackling-hate-from-parliament-to-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/crowdsidentities\/2019\/10\/22\/tackling-hate-from-parliament-to-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Tackling hate \u2013 from parliament to campus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Carina Hoerst <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week was National Hate Crime\nAwareness Week<\/a>. What started in 1999 as a reaction to attacks on the\nBlack and LGBT community has become a big event and takes place every year\nsince. Today, it seems to be more important than ever. The UK is currently\nwitnessing an increased level of hate crimes. According to most sources, it has\ndoubled since 2013<\/a>. Within this increase, it seems as if specific news\nevents trigger spikes<\/a> of sudden\nincreases in hate crimes. Awareness is an important first step, yet we need to go\nfurther and understand the processes behind this pattern, allowing us to combat\nhate crimes more efficiently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, what do we mean when\nwe speak of \u201chate crimes\u201d in this context? The legal definition says that any\nattack, perceived by the victim as based on prejudice against race or ethnicity,\nreligion or beliefs, sexual orientation, disability, and transgender identity is\ndefined\nas hate-motivated<\/a>. In order to counteract those attacks, we need to\nknow what makes them most likely to happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the 23rd<\/sup> of June\n2016, the UK held the referendum on whether to leave or remain in the European\nUnion. The unexpected result to leave was followed by an immediate rise in hate-related\nattacks by\n57%<\/a>. Since then, subsequent peaks were recorded by the Metropolitan\nPolice. For example, there was a spike in June 2017 which seemed to be linked\nto the London Bridge attack<\/a>. How can we explain these patterns?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The media reported that racists\ngot \u201cemboldened\u201d<\/a> by the referendum result. During the referendum, Brexit\nwas presented by some as being against\n\u201cforeigners\u201d and \u201cforeign\u201d control<\/a>. We think that after the Brexit\nreferendum, a minority of xenophobes amongst the population perceived<\/em> the\nnation as backing their ideology and actions, similar to what\nhappened after the 2016 US elections<\/a>. With the referendum result, they\nnow saw the majority as sharing their values and identity, which led to the\nperception of support for their actions. Xenophobes\nbecame empowered<\/a> to conduct attacks on people that were seen as\n\u201cnon-British\u201d and \u201cnon-White\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, hate and xenophobia\nlevels not only seem to remain high, but further peaks occurred. Nationalist\nrhetoric<\/a> of those that represent the country, published\npolls<\/a> forecasting voting behaviour, hate posts on social media<\/a>,\nas well as the actions of hate-groups\non the internet<\/a> seem to foster, if not trigger, this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prejudice and hate crimes are not\nrestricted to exist \u201csomewhere else\u201d but can likewise exist on our doorstep. The\nUniversity of Sussex is known for its liberal and welcoming environment and a\npolicy that strongly supports respect and diversity. Nevertheless, it is a\nplace where people from over 100 nations<\/a> with\ndifferent cultures and religions come together, and campus is not an exception\nto other places; here, as much as elsewhere, there are people\nholding xenophobic attitudes<\/a>. Students that become a victim of hate crimes\nderiving from those attitudes can suffer from psychological consequences which\ncan be as severe as physical ones. Hate affects people\u2019s well-being<\/a>\nwhich can not only lead to strong emotional responses but also to a decrease in\nacademic performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to understand hate crimes\nbetter. We need to understand their pattern, what triggers them, and why they decline\nas well as rise. In my PhD research, in order to understand how xenophobic\nattacks increased, I will be drawing upon models of empowerment – the dynamic\nprocess by which power relations change. Perceived power or efficacy can lead\nto the legitimization of a movement<\/a>, and people\u00b4s idea of \u201cwhat\nis right\u201d can influence their behaviour<\/a>. I will apply this framework\nto examine the empowerment of xenophobic white identities, focusing on those\nwho view themselves as victims of the establishment and immigration policies.\nFurthermore, by comparing spikes in hate crimes, I will examine patterns that\nemerge, for example in regard to the target group and the circumstances that might\nhave encouraged offenders to conduct hate-motivated attacks. This knowledge\nwill not only further the understanding of the processes behind hate but also\ncontribute to tackling it \u2013 from parliament to campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are a student affected by\nany kind of hate-motivated attacks, University of Sussex institutions are there\nto help<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"tumblr\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"tumblr\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carina Hoerst Last week was National Hate Crime Awareness Week. What started in 1999 as a reaction to attacks on the Black and LGBT community has become a big event and takes place every year since. Today, it seems…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/crowdsidentities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/crowdsidentities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/crowdsidentities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/crowdsidentities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/crowdsidentities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/crowdsidentities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/crowdsidentities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/crowdsidentities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/crowdsidentities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/crowdsidentities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}