Racism is an issue that is plague on society and since the Brexit vote, there has been significant rise in racist abuse. The poignant matter is that it is very much ingrained into our societal thinking and this comes down to major politicians, news sources and public figures often perpetuating the British Empire colonial myths of superiority. The build up to the local elections only solidified the fact that a vast majority of the media still push conservative colonial ideological narratives.
Britain has a long history of racial exploitation and white supremacy but in modern times, there have been attempts to try and change attitudes, it is process that is long and arduous.
Whilst no political party is immune from the issue, the racist problem is rife within the Conservative Party.
The racist epidemic within the Conservatives
There has been a lot made of the accusations of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party, despite evidence from YouGov and various other reports that it has in fact dropped since Jeremy Corbyn has become leader. The problem with the reporting is that there has been very little made of the Conservatives problems with racists and bigots. The Windrush scandal is just part of this as that made it clear that the very top of the party hold the same racial colonial ideology as they have always done.
Prior to the local elections, it was shown that 18 Conservative candidates were suspended by the party for racism or abuse within the last month.
Furthermore, former Tory Minister Baroness Warsi exposed that there are now “weekly occurrences of Islamophobic incidents” within the Conservative Party, the Muslim Council of Britain demanded that the Conservatives begin an inquiry into the racism epidemic engulfing the party.
Implicit racial biases
Although racial biases aren’t confined to the Conservative Party, they are certainly more prominent as the ideological stance of them is more compatible and their history is that of a racist ideology.
However, racial biases exist everywhere and it is difficult thing to pinpoint exactly and whilst most people aren’t racist, many people are influenced by implicit biases. This is down to a number of factors, importantly the role our education system as played in promoting the ‘right’ kind of history and leaving out the majority of the oppressive nature of the British Empire, but more pertinently, the role the elites and news media has played to promote a nationalistic sense of pride and superiority.
Back to the psychology and there are robust findings that show that implicit racial bias is pervasive within contemporary society.
Psychologist Patricia Devine conducted several studies that show that people tend to have more positive associations with white rather than black people; other studies show that black males are more readily associated with weapons; others that black males are more strongly associated with danger and hostility than are white males. There are many psychological studies on the subject matter and it is something that is largely ignored within society.
