A few weeks ago I was asked to run a session of communicating in dangerous times to an audience of people who work in the community cohesion space.
These are people who work in and with councils to allow different communities to get along with each other.
One comment in particular from an audience member was particularly striking. She was an Afro-Caribbean lady in her 40s. I paraphrase, but she said the racism and hostility she sees has never been worse.
But what is the publiuc sector and others doing about it, she asked?
It wasn’t enough, she said, for the public sector to ask her for help with a survey.
“Where are they when we really need them,”
“I’m now at a point where I’m starting to think ‘what’s the point?’
“There have been times when we asked them for support and they’ve gone away and thought about it and then told us ‘we’re not getting involved.’
“If you can’t help when we need it why should we help you when you need us?”
This is not an unreasonable thing to expect.
In a YouGov survey in 2026, 80 per cent of people said that Britain was ‘somewhat’ or ‘a great deal’ racist.
It’s a conversation I’d like to come back to because all too often where is the public sector?
Do the right thing is a good code to live by.
What’s wanted?
As an absolute basic, don’t tolerate hateful behaviour online.
The very minimum this can be done is in the online comments section on the pages the public sector look after.
Should you be posting hot button topics? Pride, Ukraine, Black History Month, Diwali, Eid, Remembrance Sunday, flags and Christmas are just some of the topics that can bring out abuse.
The temptation is not to get involved in the short term for an easy life.
But medium and long term, if you don’t post on these issues you are letting part of your community down. You are not recognising the festivals that are important to them. You chip away at the society that tolerates those points of difference.
To be British is to be tolerant.
And if you don’t draw a line in the sand on vile comments, what’s the point of you?
Have a set of social media house rules, enforce them and tell people that they’ve been enforced.
I’ve blogged before on the need to plan ahead for hot button topics. Keep a list of bullet points to counter what may be said. For example, why should the Royal British Legion mark Black History Month? Because of the 1.7 million Commonwealth soldiers who gave their lives in two world wars. That’s why.
Be factual.
But on occasion, call it out.
How to do draw a line in the sand and stand up for the community
Oldham Council on their Facebook page announced their new youth Mayor.
Hassan Ali Jabbar is a mechanical engineering apprentice who succeeds Penelope Spencer-Simpson.
Racists came out in force.
But rather than spinelessly take down the post or switch off comments Oldham Council’s admin pinned a comment defending the lad.
“To anyone who thinks it is ok to come to our page and leave racist comments – you are not welcome here. This is a post about the Youth Mayor of all people. To make this the target of your hatred is vile, and you should be ashamed.”
In short, they drew a line in the sand and called out unacceptable behaviour. Ninety people liked the comment.
Huge credit to Oldham Council for this. This is gold standard work.
They didn’t identify names or enter a ‘he said, she said’ discussion with the offenders because that would be pointless.
The support was also recognised by the Oldham Bangladeshi Society on Facebook.
That’s support that they can probably draw on at some point in the future.
Tapping into racism as a business strategy
But it doesn’t stop there.
The Oldham Times covered the story with the headline ‘Oldham Council slams ‘vile’ and ‘racist’ comments over youth mayor appointment.
Sadly, the Newsquest-owned title’s page in the comments has allowed comments that were stomach-churningly unpleasant.
But with page views built into reporter’s targets it’s hardly surprising that the racism goes unchallenged.
Would the next challenge to hold The Oldham Times’ stewardship of their Facebook comments to account through IPSO’s Editors Code?
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Creative commons credit: By Pavement graffiti, The Vennel by Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0.