Racism in the English countryside is ‘getting worse’, with abuse too often tolerated or even normalised, according to a controversial new report.
A two-year project by University of Leicester academics concluded the countryside is ‘often perceived as a predominantly White space’ which leaves ethnic minorities feeling like ‘outsiders’.
But rural campaigners have rejected the findings as ‘nonsense’ which are not ‘supported by the evidence’, pointing out that urban areas record far more race hate crimes than rural areas.
The conclusions of the academics were described by one source as giving ‘every appearance of having been decided before any research was done’.
The researchers interviewed 115 people and 20 community groups for the ‘rural racism project’ and found ‘most participants felt that racism in rural England is getting worse’.
