Racism is more general than xenophobia.
In Xenophobia, one fears the stranger, as the British used to fear the Irish (although at the beginning of WWII, PM Churchill, anxious to make sure Ireland would help against Hitler, proposed Irish unification to the Irish president, de Valera… who rejected it…)
In racism, one fears those around oneself, not just strangers, after inventing ways (such as skin albedo) to characterize them as strangers, and tying that newly alienated status to pejorative claims. For example, Watson, one of the co-discoverer of DNA, thinks skin color is a mark of stupidity. Never mind that the Egyptians were not white like swans, and that much of our civilizational basis, from mathematics to antisexism, or our official reverence to truth, was forged in Egypt..
The essence of Brexit is to establish a hard border between 22 Irish counties and the other 6. That border is 500 kilometers long. 200 roads through it used to be cut, during the “Troubles”, before the European Union put an end to that nonsense. That hard border would make the others into strangers. In one word: alienation. Oh, by the way, the “Troubles”, 40 years ago or so, brought the death to around 4,000, plus years of not-so civil war.
Alienation leads to war. The best example was when Occidental Francia broke away from the rest of the “Roman Empire”, in the middle tenth century. Ultimately, that led to continual wars…
Brexiters have claimed that Brexit was a matter of money. Laughable: the UK has made huge yearly payment to the EU, right, but those are significantly smaller than the payments France has made. Also the UK has received, in exchange, more from the EU than it has paid.
Brexiters have claimed it’s a matter of democracy. Laughable: the UK is a monarchy, accompanied by strong plutocratic structures like the unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords. EU structures are actually more democratic. The ultimate governance of the EU right now is made of all the heads of democratically elected EU governments. Everything passes by the EU Parliament. Last week, Spain insisted Gibraltar was a “colony” (arguing from UN law). France vetoed that language.
So what’s left? Racism. On this site Hazxan, an esteemed commenter, supported my point of view by examples he witnessed.
What next? Well the UK won’t get out of the EU March 29: I have said this for years. There will a second referendum, that one officially known in advance to be legislating. The British people, faced now by the reality of what it means, to alienate one’s neighbors, will regain its sense and vote to remain.
Then the real revolution in the EU can proceed.
Patrice Ayme
Patrice Ayme's Thoughts 