"Something is happening, and we see it on both sides of the Atlantic. On the surface, it is about flags, identity and political allegiance. But to me, as an American living in Britain, recent events reveal something deeper: both our societies are normalising hate and othering in ways that corrode not only our politics but our souls. The something is aggressions and micro-aggressions: a coarsening of everyday encounters."
"I have snapshots. Recently, at a celebrated creative hub in London, I twice endured blatant bias. My guests and I the only all-Black table in the room were left in the dark, literally. As night fell, every other table was given a lamp except ours. When I raised it with management, I was interrupted, dismissed and told it was an oversight."
"Much more overt aggression is normalised in a way I haven't seen in years. Recently in US airports and restaurants, I have been called the N-word: a word historically intended not just to insult, but to erase. These are not minor indignities. They are signs of a culture where suspicion and prejudice are no longer whispered but weaponised. In Colorado, three students were critically wounded after a school shooting."
Everyday aggressions and micro-aggressions are becoming normalized across the US and UK, corroding civic life and human dignity. Incidents include an all-Black table left without a lamp while others were lit and management dismissing concerns as oversight, and verbal racial abuse with the N-word in airports and restaurants. Such hostility manifests alongside lethal violence: a school shooting in Colorado critically wounded three students, a mass attack in Minnesota targeted political figures with an extensive hitlist, and a deadly attack at an adult education centre in Orebro, Sweden, killing ten students and staff. These patterns signal rising weaponized prejudice and social othering.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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