When Maya* started a new teaching job, she did not expect to be called the n-word as she walked down the corridor.
The bullying from her fellow teachers proved relentless. She was called a “curry lover” and believes she was hidden from meeting parents at one point due to her skin colour.
It was not just racism she faced there but also sexism. Male colleagues told her she would have to “bend over a desk to get a promotion” and had “blowjob lips”. Incidents like these happened “almost every day”, she says.
Eventually forced to leave her job, Maya signed a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) making her unable to speak about the abuse she suffered. As part of the conditions of her exit, she also received a significant payout, which she describes as “money to keep quiet”.
Personally, I don’t think it’s made the UK more xenophobic. A decent percentage of people supported Brexit due to xenophobia, and the success of the referendum made them more outspoken. Basically, Brexit is a symptom of xenophobia rather than the other way around.
Yep. If it wasn’t for the racist vote, Brexit would not have happened. That particular wedge of the pie was just enough to get it over the 50% mark.
Sure, you could argue for other wedges also being responsible if you order them differently, but, you know, racism is a pretty nasty one and given the context, it seems like the right one to point to as a culprit.
Not Brexit by itself, the Brexit campaign and debate. I think it amplified the already existing xenophobia.