19 March 2019
Stickers saying "It's okay to be white" have appeared on lamp posts around Hounslow.
Of course, it is perfectly "okay" to be white. That is not the point.
An anonymous far right group has its Twitter account and logos on the stickers. According to their Twitter feed they have put up stickers that show their true agenda such as “They have to go back” and “This is our land”. They believe that we live in a “deluge of anti-white hate”.
We worry that the slogans on these stickers are part of a recruitment drive. And this scares us because we have all seen what stirring up racial hatred can lead to. It can lead to radicalisation, civil unrest, and ultimately to mass murder.”
If you see any stickers we advise that you:
1. Inform the council
2. Deface with permanent marker, ex: change "white" to " human ".
3. Do not use bare hands to tear down!! Use a key or other hard object as there is a chance that blades may be hidden underneath. You may be able to remove a sticker by lifting a corner wearing gloves and just peeling it off quite easily.
You may also want to contact Stand Up to Racism and get involved in their campaigns. They arrange meetings, lectures and demonstrations. They have a Facebook page.
In our experience very few White people share extreme racist views, just as very few Muslims agree with the extremist views of ISIS and Al Quaeda. Most of us are happy to live in a multicultural society, and as Qasim Peracha points out in his article “'It's okay to be white - but the Hounslow sticker campaign radicalising people on our streets is disturbing and racist'”
“Around a third of Hounslow is not white, with the biggest ethnic minority built up of the Asian community, making up a quarter of the borough according to the data from the last Census.
That means one in three people that walk past these stickers are reminded that some people don't believe they should be here. It's a very disturbing thought.
That's the best way I can describe experiencing racism. You're left feeling insecure and a little betrayed and usually disturbed, not because of what is being said, but why it is being said.
What makes someone who surely has other things on in their life, go out of their way to make others, total strangers, feel unwelcome?”
