Racism Isn’t Fringe Anymore!

As the world steps into a new year, what should have been a moment of renewal is overshadowed by escalating racial hatred, xenophobic politics and far-right mobilisation across Europe and the US

- KDP RAO THE WRITER IS A FORMER ADDITIONAL CHIEF SECRETARY OF CHHATTISGARH

As we enter a new year, one would hope for renewed compassion and collective wisdom.

Yet, Europe and the United States instead seem to carry forward a troubling surge in racial hatred and anti-immigrant hostility. In recent times, a substantial increase in racial violence against Asians, especially Indians, Latinos, Africans and nonwhites, has been seen across Europe and the US. In England and Wales, more than 115,000 hate crimes were recorded until March 2025, a 2 per cent increase over the previous 12 months. In July 2024, the streets of the UK witnessed anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim violence. This September, more than 1,00,000 people, led by far-right activist and convicted fraudster Tommy Robinson, marched through the streets of London, sloganeering "We want our country back." French far-right politician Eric Zemmour joined the rally and addressed the crowds with an inflammatory speech on the "great replacement" of European people by people coming from the south and of Muslim culture.

In the US, over 700 anti-immigration demonstrations occurred across all 50 states by mid-2025, often escalating into violence against Indians and ethnic minorities, frequently overlapping with anti-immigrant sentiment. In the EU, over 10,000 racially motivated crimes occurred during 2024-2025 across the Union, with violence comprising 40-50 per cent of the cases.

Racial discrimination, once a dormant feature of Western societies, has now emerged as a dominant political narrative. According to Gary Younge, a professor of sociology at the University of Manchester, unlike before, racial tension intermingled with xenophobia has acquired a global dimension, with the same talking points like the "great replacement" of "indigenous" white people and the perceived threat to women in Europe, particularly from Black men, showing up on social media feeds and in discourses in the US, Ireland, the UK and across Europe.