Chaplain’s Reflections

While 2020 will be remembered as the year of the pandemic, rising unemployment and a critical time for the climate emergency, an alarming increase in hate crimes across the world has also taken place. In Poland, LGBTQ communities have become enemy number one. In Hungary, neo-Nazi crowds organise demonstrations to expel the Roma communities. In Germany, there has been a dangerous increase in attacks against minorities and refugees. In the UK, there has been a surge in hate crimes against sexual minorities and transgender citizens.

All these seemingly disparate events have one fundamental thing in common: a systematic hatred of and bias against people who are regarded as different. History suggests that this ‘othering’ doesn’t start with concentration camps or genocide, but with words – stereotypes, cliches. Opposing this ‘othering’ then also needs to start with words. With new stories. It is easier to make sweeping generalisations about others if we know nothing about them. As we get to know ‘them’, we invariably discover that we have more in common than we imagined.

While data and factual information are crucial, it is not enough to bring down the walls of numbness and indifference, to help us empathise with people outside our tribes. We need emotional connections. But more than that – we need stories of our common humanity; stories of struggle; stories of opposing bigotry. East or west, when we relate to others we do so through stories. The stories we tell become one of our main acts of resistance against dehumanisation.

With thanks to Elif Shafak, Turkish-British writer, academic and activist.