Sadly, we know the harm that hate crime has on victims’ lives; it lasts far beyond the day or the week that the incident takes place. Many end up changing the way they live or dress, or the places they visit. This is an experience anyone who has faced hate will know, from the gay couple anxious to express their love in public, to the Muslim woman afraid to wear hijab, to the Jewish man worried about wearing a kippa.
Many in the ESEA community are doing the same: 72% of those people who had experienced hate crime felt anxious, more than half had started avoiding certain areas, 16% changed their appearance or the way they dressed and 13% even wanted to move house.
The number one reason I don't go around listening to music with headphones on now, and also I am not as relaxed as I used to be in public: I noticed that when I get random racism from passersby it's almost always been when I'm relaxed and distracted. Eg: Playing Pokemon GO on my phone, or chilling out listening to music. I constantly feel the loss of being able to do that. However, I think there's something about being relaxed in public that makes me look softer (because I am softer in that moment), and therefore a better target for the sort of racist who wants to vent their spleen at a random passerby. Like they feel more confident picking on a relaxed Asian woman.
That probably goes with this stat:
73% of hate crimes targeting ESEA women are perpetrated by men, and seven in 10 of all hate crimes committed across the UK involved a male offender. Racialised misogyny impacts thousands of women across the UK – targeted not only for their skin colour or religion, but also for being a woman.
Because there's a type of guy who wouldn't feel as confident trying to bully another man as opposed to a woman.
But really in my experience there's no limitation by gender or even age. I've had racism from men, women, kids, little old ladies, couples, people of different classes... I mean there's really no single type of racist. You get it from all sorts.
The Conservative government is continuing to drag its feet on the publication of a desperately needed new hate crime strategy, the absence of which is leaving policymakers ill-equipped to tackle the growing problem.
Probably because the Tories would love to be able to get away with doing more hate crimes themselves, plus they don't want to alienate their racist voter base.