The English countryside will be studied by hate crime experts to establish whether it harbours “rural racism”.
Academics specialising in British colonialism and “hate studies” have been commissioned to record the “lived realities” of ethnic minorities living, working, or hiking in the country.
The study will gather evidence of “rural racism” in villages in England and the great outdoors, establishing how minorities might be excluded, and which policies could prevent this in future.
The project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust, a charity established by a plantation-owning soap magnate behind Unilever, which vowed following Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 to help “rid the world of the systemic injustices of racism”.
A statement on the new “Rural Racism Project” from the Trust says that it will “explore the lived realities of those encountering racism within the English countryside whose experiences are routinely overlooked, minimised and unchallenged”.
It adds that this will “play a key role in uncovering the nature, extent and impacts of racism experienced in rural towns and villages across the country”.
It is understood the project will examine how ethnic minority hikers may face open hostility when out walking, and how other visitors and recreational groups might feel excluded from enjoying the countryside.
The study will also canvas ethnic minority residents to see how those living and working in rural England may be made to feel unwelcome, in what ways this “rural racism is expressed”, and how this might differ from place to place.
The project launching in October 2023 will be led by criminology expert Prof Neil Chakraborti, director of the University of Leicester’s Centre for Hate Studies, along with fellow hate crime specialist Dr Amy Clarke, and colonialism expert Prof Corinne Fowler.
Prof Fowler’s recent work has included contributions to the National Trust’s survey of stately homes linked to colonialism and empire, including Winston Churchill’s residence at Chartwell, and a book on imperialism’s legacy in the countryside, titled Green Unpleasant Land.
Plans for the study come after a 2019 report from Campaign to Protect Rural England which found that people from ethnic minority backgrounds account for around one per cent of visitors to England’s national parks.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has previously reported that minority groups often view the countryside as an “exclusively English environment”, concerns echoed on the BBC’s Countryfile.
Groups such as Black Girls Hike and Muslim Hikers have attempted to increase interest in the countryside among minority counties, including in the latter’s case by placing signs pointing to Mecca in sites across the Peak District.
How these groups, and those living in the countryside, are treated will be the focus of the planned “Rural Racism Project” financially backed by the Leverhulme Trust, a charity boasting a £4 billion endowment which was founded by soap magnate and philanthropist William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme.
In 2021, the Trust commissioned research into Lord Lever’s company, Lever Brothers, which used subsidiary organisations to manage palm oil plantations in the Belgian Congo and Solomon Islands in the early 20th century, before it merged with Dutch concern Margarine Unie to form Unilever in 1929.
The research documented “the distressing labour practices in the …. plantations owned by Lever, including mistreatment, forced labour and abusive practices”.
The Trust vowed to address the legacies of exploitation raised in the research, stating: “In the work of the Trust, particularly through our scholarships and research, we have funded many independent studies of the legacy of colonialism, racism and other forms of [related] injustices.
“As well as reflecting on our own past, we will continue to fund important research that can help us understand such wrongs.”
The research and subsequent commitment followed a promise following Black LIves Matter protests in 2020 to “continue to offer Leverhulme grants to study these and other social inequalities and in this way help rid the world of the systemic injustices of racism”.
> The study will gather evidence of “rural racism” in villages in England and the great outdoors, establishing how minorities might be excluded, and which policies could prevent this in future.
> It is understood the project will examine how ethnic minority hikers may face open hostility when out walking, and how other visitors and recreational groups might feel excluded from enjoying the countryside.
> The study will also canvas ethnic minority residents to see how those living and working in rural England may be made to feel unwelcome, in what ways this “rural racism is expressed”, and how this might differ from place to place.
> The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has previously reported that minority groups often view the countryside as an “exclusively English environment”, concerns echoed on the BBC’s Countryfile.
> Groups such as Black Girls Hike and Muslim Hikers have attempted to increase interest in the countryside among minority counties, including in the latter’s case by placing signs pointing to Mecca in sites across the Peak District.
I do hope the report asks the right questions and actually examines if any racism is:
* Genuine
* Perceived, but with no evidence real besides “I feel like I’m not welcome”.
* Attributed to something else (e.g. sticking up signs to your religious site of preference across a countryside that others would prefer remain unspoiled).
No matter where you are in the UK there’s always a racism narrative.. and what I find funny is the part of London I live in and surrpunding 5-10miles has been 80% BAME for decades.. I’ve only lived here a few years but have a black mate who has lived here 35 years and says the race card has always been played no matter if its indian against black, black white, indian black etc..
For example since being here I’ve been called racist in a building chat group for rasing awareness of parties which are done by random people who are renting flats via air b and b which are NOT allowed to be rent…. renting is against our.lease… especially if you are a renter subletting…..as soon as I posted that with a screenshot from the lease i got a barrage of messages saying “white cunt privledge” … “funny how the slave masters tell us how to live still”… then just general DM threats… what’s even more bizarre was it was people not doing the illegal activities just defending people of their race even though its CLEARLY against the rules/laws of the building and causes communal damage which we all end up paying for…. absolutely absurd. I think some people get riled up without thinking logically, such as our building costs consistently keep raising due to damage but they don’t understand the minority illegally subletting who are profiting are making us have to pay this..
well that should’t take long to find, try earwigging in the local.
“Good afternoon”
“Arftnoon squire”
“Are you on holiday?”
“No, I lives ere”
“Oh good for you….err, those are sheep aren’t they?”
“Yep, they be sheep”
“I thought so. Only what are they doing up in the trees?”
“A fair question and one that has in recent weeks been much on my mind. ‘Tis my considered opinion that they be nesting”
“Nesting? Like birds”
“Exactly”
“And why are they all white?”
“Bah, you got us. We’re racists”
5 comments
**From The Telegraph:**
The English countryside will be studied by hate crime experts to establish whether it harbours “rural racism”.
Academics specialising in British colonialism and “hate studies” have been commissioned to record the “lived realities” of ethnic minorities living, working, or hiking in the country.
The study will gather evidence of “rural racism” in villages in England and the great outdoors, establishing how minorities might be excluded, and which policies could prevent this in future.
The project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust, a charity established by a plantation-owning soap magnate behind Unilever, which vowed following Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 to help “rid the world of the systemic injustices of racism”.
A statement on the new “Rural Racism Project” from the Trust says that it will “explore the lived realities of those encountering racism within the English countryside whose experiences are routinely overlooked, minimised and unchallenged”.
It adds that this will “play a key role in uncovering the nature, extent and impacts of racism experienced in rural towns and villages across the country”.
It is understood the project will examine how ethnic minority hikers may face open hostility when out walking, and how other visitors and recreational groups might feel excluded from enjoying the countryside.
The study will also canvas ethnic minority residents to see how those living and working in rural England may be made to feel unwelcome, in what ways this “rural racism is expressed”, and how this might differ from place to place.
The project launching in October 2023 will be led by criminology expert Prof Neil Chakraborti, director of the University of Leicester’s Centre for Hate Studies, along with fellow hate crime specialist Dr Amy Clarke, and colonialism expert Prof Corinne Fowler.
Prof Fowler’s recent work has included contributions to the National Trust’s survey of stately homes linked to colonialism and empire, including Winston Churchill’s residence at Chartwell, and a book on imperialism’s legacy in the countryside, titled Green Unpleasant Land.
Plans for the study come after a 2019 report from Campaign to Protect Rural England which found that people from ethnic minority backgrounds account for around one per cent of visitors to England’s national parks.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has previously reported that minority groups often view the countryside as an “exclusively English environment”, concerns echoed on the BBC’s Countryfile.
Groups such as Black Girls Hike and Muslim Hikers have attempted to increase interest in the countryside among minority counties, including in the latter’s case by placing signs pointing to Mecca in sites across the Peak District.
How these groups, and those living in the countryside, are treated will be the focus of the planned “Rural Racism Project” financially backed by the Leverhulme Trust, a charity boasting a £4 billion endowment which was founded by soap magnate and philanthropist William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme.
In 2021, the Trust commissioned research into Lord Lever’s company, Lever Brothers, which used subsidiary organisations to manage palm oil plantations in the Belgian Congo and Solomon Islands in the early 20th century, before it merged with Dutch concern Margarine Unie to form Unilever in 1929.
The research documented “the distressing labour practices in the …. plantations owned by Lever, including mistreatment, forced labour and abusive practices”.
The Trust vowed to address the legacies of exploitation raised in the research, stating: “In the work of the Trust, particularly through our scholarships and research, we have funded many independent studies of the legacy of colonialism, racism and other forms of [related] injustices.
“As well as reflecting on our own past, we will continue to fund important research that can help us understand such wrongs.”
The research and subsequent commitment followed a promise following Black LIves Matter protests in 2020 to “continue to offer Leverhulme grants to study these and other social inequalities and in this way help rid the world of the systemic injustices of racism”.
The Trust has been contacted for comment.
**Find the article here:** https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/29/hate-crime-academics-study-english-countryside-evidence-rural/
> The study will gather evidence of “rural racism” in villages in England and the great outdoors, establishing how minorities might be excluded, and which policies could prevent this in future.
> It is understood the project will examine how ethnic minority hikers may face open hostility when out walking, and how other visitors and recreational groups might feel excluded from enjoying the countryside.
> The study will also canvas ethnic minority residents to see how those living and working in rural England may be made to feel unwelcome, in what ways this “rural racism is expressed”, and how this might differ from place to place.
> The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has previously reported that minority groups often view the countryside as an “exclusively English environment”, concerns echoed on the BBC’s Countryfile.
> Groups such as Black Girls Hike and Muslim Hikers have attempted to increase interest in the countryside among minority counties, including in the latter’s case by placing signs pointing to Mecca in sites across the Peak District.
I do hope the report asks the right questions and actually examines if any racism is:
* Genuine
* Perceived, but with no evidence real besides “I feel like I’m not welcome”.
* Attributed to something else (e.g. sticking up signs to your religious site of preference across a countryside that others would prefer remain unspoiled).
No matter where you are in the UK there’s always a racism narrative.. and what I find funny is the part of London I live in and surrpunding 5-10miles has been 80% BAME for decades.. I’ve only lived here a few years but have a black mate who has lived here 35 years and says the race card has always been played no matter if its indian against black, black white, indian black etc..
For example since being here I’ve been called racist in a building chat group for rasing awareness of parties which are done by random people who are renting flats via air b and b which are NOT allowed to be rent…. renting is against our.lease… especially if you are a renter subletting…..as soon as I posted that with a screenshot from the lease i got a barrage of messages saying “white cunt privledge” … “funny how the slave masters tell us how to live still”… then just general DM threats… what’s even more bizarre was it was people not doing the illegal activities just defending people of their race even though its CLEARLY against the rules/laws of the building and causes communal damage which we all end up paying for…. absolutely absurd. I think some people get riled up without thinking logically, such as our building costs consistently keep raising due to damage but they don’t understand the minority illegally subletting who are profiting are making us have to pay this..
well that should’t take long to find, try earwigging in the local.
“Good afternoon”
“Arftnoon squire”
“Are you on holiday?”
“No, I lives ere”
“Oh good for you….err, those are sheep aren’t they?”
“Yep, they be sheep”
“I thought so. Only what are they doing up in the trees?”
“A fair question and one that has in recent weeks been much on my mind. ‘Tis my considered opinion that they be nesting”
“Nesting? Like birds”
“Exactly”
“And why are they all white?”
“Bah, you got us. We’re racists”