Commentary

<p dir="ltr">I write this commentary exhausted from another spat on X (formerly Twitter), generated by the current culture war in the UK. This one was prompted by the latest article in the right-wing broadsheet newspaper, <i>The Telegraph</i>, designed, seemingly purposefully, to arouse White ethno-nationalist outrage. The article was based (with pernicious license) on a group of wildlife and conservation charities’ evidence for a parliamentary enquiry. They were speaking about their role in both limiting climate change and improving access to the countryside for all. <i>The Telegraph</i>, however, chose to pick out their observation that Black people might face additional barriers to such access due to the antipathy encountered by some White Britons, who feel that ethnic minorities do not belong in a rural setting. The headline declared in exasperation that even the British countryside was now being called ‘racist’. Quoting the article on X, some of <i>The Telegraph</i>’s readers declared on the one hand that the allegations of racism facing Black people in the countryside were made up, while ‘observing’ on the other hand that the only Black people they had ever seen in rural areas were dealing drugs or breaking into people’s houses. The former Home Secretary and proponent of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, Suella Braverman, waded in, attacking the charities on the same newspaper’s front page the day after for trying to ‘Make People Feel Guilty for Being White’.</p>