Here we go again. Violence is erupting all over Britain induced by racism and misinformation. We have large wealthy corporations – like Meta, X, TikTok and Google – controlling our communications.
Social media encourages lies to propel themselves, and anger to fuel itself and spread. Commercial owners of media love anything that goes viral, good or bad. That is the big problem of modernity. Human societies are left to pick up the pieces, and pay the costs of repair, as these giant media corporations do not even pay their fair taxes. This is not the end of anxiety, but more a continuing story.
The UK government has responded firmly and so have communities up and down the country speaking out against racism, including white people. Many are taking personal risks to remove bigotry and stand up to the thugs. Police have been beaten and hurt by the violence up and down Great Britain. At root is a significant moral and emotional crisis, where people have lost their sense of purpose and meaning, and organisations and employers have focused too much on the bottom line, at the expense of social and environmental responsibility. Far too many organisations and businesses, including banks and giant corporations, have become exploitative and greedy.
Governments too have become very right wing and capitalist, losing the simple fact that there are many things in life that commerce cannot provide for, and states can deliver them better and cheaper. Examples include public goods like water, sanitation, clean air, transportation, policing, justice, education and even healthcare. Markets fail in providing them fairly and equitably.
Public servants who work hard for basic rewards like teachers, nurses, social workers, carers, cleaners, etc. increasingly find their working conditions getting harder, jobs being cut, and outsourcing of their roles to private contractors who do not have any care or compassion in their balance sheets. Aspirational minorities, who care and work hard become visible and instead of attracting appreciation and awe, are now being vilified for taking the jobs of ‘white’ people – the new ‘great replacement theory’ is being widely propagated by racist influencers. Fear is being propelled especially to uneducated and illiterate people, and many of them have taken to the streets rather than address their concerns through debate and discussion, and changing their behaviours. Many have lost their identity, and are clutching on to a faded idea of Empire and Englishness.
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The truth of the varied and lasting contributions of ethnic minorities are forgotten or ignored simply because the extremists have their own agenda, and few educated professionals are ready to speak up for them or stand up when black people are being discriminated against. This is especially true in the workplace, where I constantly meet many talented ethnic minorities suffering in silence. Even when it comes to jobs, there are plenty of unfilled vacancies all over the country – but fewer people want to do the laborious jobs or work hard for their money. Even for teachers and nurses there are plenty of unfilled vacancies, and when minorities apply to do these jobs, they are seen as ‘taking over’ the country. It is good to see that the current government has taken a hard line against racism, but the nuances of it run very deep and need to be resolved on many fronts, starting with education. Empire and slavery have been central to world history, but are peripheral even to the school history curriculum, let alone other subjects.
Religion is coming under attack because it unites and builds communities. British churches have been in decline for decades, but even in Christianity, it is the minorities who are turning the tide, though they rarely get the recognition. Muslims have been very strongly targeted in the latest riots, but that too is a wide generalisation, and there are large numbers of peaceful law-abiding Muslims all over Britain. As an example of their values, many of them are teetotallers and do not touch alcohol.
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Peace begins from spirit and culture, and Britain needs to actively see how peace-making and conflict reduction become a national focus in all activities and professions. We have excluded animals and nature from our understanding of peace, but must now acknowledge that there can be no wider peace without respecting both.
Actively embracing racial diversity is a path to cohesion and community. Not only the protection of trees, but the closing of factory farms all over the world is urgently needed if we are to make peace with the environment. The arms industry and our war machinery also create more and more fear and less and less peace. It is time we gave importance to non-violence in all aspects of life. And make it public policy.
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Professor Atul K. Shah [@atulkshah] teaches and writes about Indian wisdom on business, culture and community at various UK universities and is a renowned international author, speaker and broadcaster.