Europe and the far right: It is a dark stain on Europeans and their descendants worldwide.
Europe is experiencing an increase in racism, in particular against refugees and people of colour. It has gotten much worse over the past few years. Here’s why
I’m born in New Zealand, with multiple ethnicities from my mother’s side and my father’s side. I’m part Chinese, acquired from my mother, with one great grandparent coming directly from China. My father is a Pakeha/NZ European, which means I’m also European by descent. However, given that my one of my great grandparents is scottish, and one of my great — greats is Irish, with most on the great greats being scottish, but going back one generation, which is still very close, there are more Irish ancestors. Another step back, we have English ancestors. But on both sides, there are undiscovered ethnicities that I would have, and a DNA test would prove this.
Coming onto the topic of racism against POC: Europe is seen as a magical place, a place of love and romance, culinary delights, green and lush scenery, a great place for fashion and adrenaline inducing adventures. (France and the UK gave birth to bungy jumping in New Zealand, all because of AJ Hackett and his stunt in Paris.) And Europe is known for healthy lifestyles, happy people and people with a sense of style and beauty. But Europe has a very, very dark side — there is not only pickpocketing (we were the subject of pickpocketing in Paris earlier this year after some women with clipboards forced us to sign a petition, luckily I didn’t — but my mum did, and should have known better), but the actual dark side is the racism epidemic that is plaguing Europe. And this, along with my ancestor’s colonial and racial past (I will explain more on this further down).
Europe is a paradise — but unfortunately, only to those who are not African, Muslim, or Middle Eastern. There has been a significant increase in racism and anti refugee sentiment in Europe over the past few years, and that dating back to 2015 with the refugee crisis being a significant issue back then, following the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults in Germany and the far right exploiting this abhorrent event to further their racist causes. More recently, #irelandisfull is trending on X (formerly Twitter) and the French authorities have attempted to flood a dinghy with migrants, who are fleeing war, on it. Moreover, during the Covid 19 Pandemic, and especially in the early days, Europe has seen an uptick in racism against Asians, especially East Asians — Japanese, Chinese and Koreans etc. These ranged from verbal harassment right through to physical violence. Outside of Europe, European descendants have engaged in extreme racism and mass murder. One such notorious case is the Charleston massacre in 2015, where Dylann Roof opened fire and killed nine people in this racist attack.
The far right and their racist ideologies doesn’t just affect POC. It can affect Europeans too, especially Euros of mixed ethnicities, which has at least one non Euro ethnicity — like me. Also, even fully white Europeans are no stranger to danger from these racist ideologies. Just a few days ago, a Croatian man was killed in Ireland simply because he did not speak English — he spoke Croatian, which is a white, and a European language. And he is fully white. In 2006, Hans Van Themsche, who is Flemish, killed a pregnant Malian nanny, and a fully white, Belgian toddler that she was looking after at the time, Luna Drowart. In 2011, a mass murder took place in Norway, where European people, including children were killed as Brevik opened fire at a summer camp and that of a car bomb explosion in Oslo. Other places outside of Europe include European descendants who have engaged in mass murder, including the CHCH terrorist who killed innocent Muslims on March 15, 2019, who subscribed to white supremacist ideologies. One of the Muslims killed is a white woman, Linda Armstrong, who converted to Islam.
Unfortunately, my family and ancestry is NOT immune to racism either. One of my grandparents, had a dog in which he called the dog the N word slur and chased indigenous New Zealanders of his property. And more shockingly, I have a racist cousin who subscribes to white supremacist ideology. Another cousin of mine, admittedly told me to “mind my own business” and appeared to be dismissive of the situation in Europe and says that there are two sides to every story.
It really is a huge stain on Europe and those with European ancestry and it affects many descendants all around the globe. It is not only an embarrassment to me and my ancestry, but it is also a dark stain, one that needs to be eliminated. As europeans (even half Europeans), and those of Euro descent, we all need to acknowledge our racist past, and present. And those within our own families as well, by challenging their racist beliefs. It might be a hard conversation to have over dinner time, but fortunately, in today’s day and age, we have AI, which is a useful tool to have to help start the conversation. And American,European and all other politicians across the western world need to step up their game and stop racist, far right white supremacist ideologies from spreading across the world, like a virus if we want Europe and other western places to be a safe and a welcoming place for everyone. Everyone, regardless of their walks of life is welcome, racists, Nazis, bigots and white supremacists aren’t welcome.
