What I wish I’d known before Brexit.
Who’d have thought such a small word which has only existed for a couple of years could cause so much carnage? Certainly for me, aka the ‘remoaner’, this word has changed things for me in ways I could not have predicted before the 23rd of June 2016. A political issue has never in my lifetime divided a nation as much as the EU referendum has and (yell at me all you like for saying this) I’m still angry about it.
The irony is that one of the things I am most aggravated by and wish I could have known before the country voted to leave is that I am suddenly told even by friends and my peers that I should stop talking about my anger at the corruption and lies which have led to this outcome and simply accept the fact that my side lost. Well no. As journalist Ian Hislop stated, in a general election the losing side does not simply shut up and accept the result just because they didn’t win and are well within their right to shout sweet hindsight at the elected party for the next 5 years until another general election takes place. In any case, if I were to accept the fact that a decision happened which I do not support and Brexit turns out to be a complete disaster then that would rob me of being able to proudly shout ‘I TOLD YOU SO’ at anyone who would listen! And that is not a privilege which I am prepared to give up.
What is also upsetting to many of those who voted remain and those who voted leave alike is the fact that the leave result has triggered the ignorant and the racists to come out of the closet and think it is acceptable to publicly declare their abhorrent views and spit hatred to our exceedingly valuable immigrants. This has not only outraged those in the remain camp who take pride in our country’s diversity and multitude of cultures but has also outraged many who voted leave as the frustrations they clearly had with the European Union have been undermined and they now find themselves grouped with the dangerously unintelligent of the country.
I sincerely wish I took this minority of people more seriously. Before the EU referendum I had always considered racism as almost an abstract concept. I was aware that in the past it had existed, and I was also aware that a few people with racist views existed today on mediums such as twitter. But I had never before seen racism as a living and breathing factor of modern society. I now come to realise that people harboring racist views are the same people who went to school with me and are people who I come into contact with on a daily basis. I even found these views in those who I had previously considered friends. It is hardly surprising that as a result of this I am now finding that foreign friends of mine are no longer keen to come to the UK during its current climate. I wish I had known that history really does repeat itself and that factors such as a pressured economy cause people to turn to extreme views.
I wish I had understood that simply staying quiet and hoping that things happen the way you want it to does not realistically work. However, one good thing which I did not know would happen before the EU referendum is that I am now more politically savvy and have discovered that my voice is one of many. Change will not happen unless we make our voices heard about it and this is a philosophy that I fully intend on having in future.
