I endured an English public school. But that’s not the only reason I’m not surprised by Farage’s claims Moses Okonga

WWhen I see the allegations of racism against Nigel Farage from his school days, I can’t say I’m very surprised. There are those who believe that the personality of the UK reform leader must have been developed to win over working class, or ‘red wall’ voters. I know it is entirely in keeping with the sentiments expressed by many young men in elite institutions such as English public schools – the kind of men who run the world.

Farage was educated at Dulwich College from 1975 to 1982; There, fellow students told The Guardian, he used racial slurs against fellow pupils and sang a song with the lyrics “Gas ’em all”. I went to Eton two decades later, but the attitudes of some of the people I met there were not very different. One student, after disagreeing with me over some mockery, bragged that his great-grandfather had been a slave driver. A Jewish friend who was with me at the same time told me how common it was for the word “Jew” or “rabbi” to be used to describe anyone who was thought to be mean with their money. When I later saw Boris Johnson, a resident of Old Eton, refer to black people as “little people” with “watermelon smiles,” I thought back to my colleagues who would erupt into rants full of racist stereotypes whenever they saw the West Indies cricket team on TV.

But there’s another reason I’m not surprised when I read about Farage’s alleged teenage behavior. As bleak as these stories are, you only have to look at the damage Farage has done as an adult, and the company he continues to keep. If you’re looking through your school yearbook and wondering, “Where are they now?”, you might want to add under his post: “He inspired the country with a wave of xenophobia to leave the European Union, a decision that most of the country rejected.” Either remorse or outright hatred“He then traveled abroad to receive a standing ovation from the German far right.” What has really changed since Farage’s school days is the community around him. We will return to that shortly.

But right now I’m thinking about school. I don’t know what Farage was like as a teenager, but – in my unfortunate experience, and as I have learned from reliable sources – the majority of people who expressed racist worldviews at school and university did not move away from those views as they grew older. Indeed, they have become noticeably more extreme in their outlook, and view the era of Trump and Musk with relish.

Why don’t they do that? Not only have many of my former colleagues retreated behind their walls and portals, but they are now fueled by various algorithms that send an endless stream of hate to their smartphones. Just as mosquitoes need pools of stagnant water to thrive, their stagnant social circles provide fertile ground for increasingly toxic threads of intolerance. I was recently at a university reunion and it was astonishing to see a man, who had somehow reached higher levels of racial prejudice than in his student days, surrounded as if he were a returning hero. What’s even more disappointing is seeing an old and close friend express deep and growing enthusiasm for Johnson’s politics.

It was also disappointing to hear of Farage visiting my old school, and to hear that, in the words of one onlooker, the Eton boys welcomed Farage’s “worst comments on immigrants and Covid”, subjecting visiting girls to “racist insults” and “misogynistic comments”. When I saw this quote, my sympathies immediately went out to the students of immigrant heritage in that environment, especially the visibly foreign ones. The college said it apologized “unreservedly” for the “completely unacceptable” behaviour, but it is difficult to understand what other outcome they expected. This is what Farage does; This is his skill. When it comes to stoking hatred, Farage is what the world of football is referred to as – a world that has now, for the sake of shameful political gain, become what the world of football is referred to as. Pretending to understand – Like a generational talent. He is a flute, leading his followers into a future that they find very exhilarating – for the time being, at least.

But where does his vision for immigration lead the UK? To answer this question, we can look to the actions of senior members of the current government, who have already subordinated their policies to his will. The mood they have created is so bad that, as The Guardian reported, “record numbers of overseas-trained doctors are leaving the UK, leaving the NHS at risk of huge gaps in its workforce, with hostility towards immigrants blamed for mass migration.” For a long time, the approach taken by European politicians like Farage was “if you don’t like it, leave.” Not surprisingly, the response is, increasingly, “with pleasure.”

Now back to how society changed around Farage. We have long had a media culture that prefers its political programming to be populated by artists rather than experts, and this trend has accelerated in recent years. We are also now in an era where, every day, the richest person in modern history — who, according to the New Yorker, is responsible through cuts in aid for the deaths Hundreds of thousands of people – He wakes up and grows up The most extreme far-right content It is one of the largest communication platforms the world has ever known, and it is a platform that he alone owns. In the UK, rising economic inequality – reinforced by Brexit – has created such scarcity that many voters are turning against those arriving in the country, blaming them for trying to steal more of the shrinking pie.

Of course, it is in Farage’s interest to prevent people from focusing on who actually uses the most resources, because the greediest consumers are some of his financiers and friends. Farage’s final message is simple: Open borders for the richBorders closed to everyone. It’s not as catchy a slogan as “take back control,” but as the reality of his true position becomes clearer, it may disappear. If that happens, we will be able to say that adults in the UK are finally taking Farage seriously, as has always been the case with many of his colleagues.

• Moses Okunga is a Berlin-based author and football broadcaster

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