BUZZ
Key Takeaways
- A University of Leicester study reveals the British countryside is predominantly white and lacks halal food options, highlighting the feelings of discomfort experienced by minoritised ethnic individuals.
- The research, based on interviews with 115 people, indicates that minorities face microaggressions and open prejudice in rural areas, contributing to psychological burdens.
- To foster inclusion, the report advocates for policies that integrate racialised minorities into rural regeneration strategies, countering the narrative that demographic changes threaten rural identity.
- The Countryside Alliance disputes the findings, claiming the portrayal of rural areas as more racist than urban settings is unfounded and reflects biases against rural communities.
A two-year study out of the University of Leicester’s Centre for Hate Studies concludes the British countryside is “overwhelmingly white” and “needs more halal food.”
Research into rural-area racism is “often overlooked,” the center claims.
With a grant from the Leverhulme Trust, “The Rural Racism Project: Towards an Inclusive Countryside (2023–2025)” looked at “the nature and impacts of racism experienced by minoritised ethnic individuals and communities in rural England.”
Project researchers interviewed 115 people and 20 community groups.
According to the study, the vast whiteness of the UK countryside produces “feelings of discomfort” and “psychological burdens,” The Telegraph reports.
For example, “monocultural customs” such as so-called “pub culture” and not providing for “’dietary norms that are rooted in religious or cultural practice’ such as kosher and halal” make minorities feel left out.
In addition to such “physical impacts,” also “experienced ill-treatment in the form of microaggressions and in open displays of prejudice.”
These include “persistent and aggressive staring,” “hostile body language,” and “deliberate isolation” in addition to racial epithets and “physical intimidation.”
The report also claimed rural minorities are “disadvantaged” because they don’t have proper walking/hiking gear and thus “find it ‘daunting’” to plan travel routes the Daily Mail reports.
The report sets out strategies to improve inclusion, including policies that would “include racialised minorities as part of a broader rural regeneration strategy”.
One contributor to the report, which is based on interviews and “informal conversations” with 115 people, suggests that “you could revive rural communities by bringing in more diverse communities.”
The report claims that the “rural racism” such recommendations are intended to tackle is in part driven by fear and “resistance to demographic changes”.
It states that these changes are often “framed as a threat to the stable and enduring norm of rural identity”, rather than “being recognised as a process of enrichment”.
The Countryside Alliance, which participated in the study, referred to the final report as “collating anecdotes.”
Alliance Chief Executive Tim Bonner said “the narrative that rural communities are inherently more racist than urban ones is just nonsense.” He added “Ironically, those who peddle the narrative of a racist countryside are actually showing their own prejudice against rural people.”
The specializations of lead researchers Neil Chakraborti (pictured) and Amy Clarke include “rural racism,” “racism and racist victimisation,” and “‘otherness’, ‘difference’ and perceived vulnerability.”
The other lead researcher, Museum Studies professor Corinne Fowler, specializes in “colonial history, decolonisation and the British countryside’s relationship to Empire.” Her books include “Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural England’s Colonial Connections” and “Postcolonial Manchester: Diaspora Space and the Devolution of Literary Culture.”
A year and a half ago, a University of Cambridge museum “overhauled” displays of the British countryside out of concerns they could evoke “dark nationalist feelings.”
