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#14 [The Diversity Trust Podcast] Hate Crime
or
Listen to a snippet here…
[#14 Soundbite 1] Hate Crime – Joni – The cost of hiding
“I looked very gender non-conforming…I know I stand out…the choice I make every day is how do I want to balance my happiness versus my safety.
I think a lot of people do make sacrifices in order to remain within their like assigned gender boxes. And I think sometimes seeing someone just stepping out of that and being like, ‘Well, no, I’m going to live in a way that feels right and authentic to me’, I think it can open up a lot of quite deep questions for people about like ‘Well, why am I so invested in what I’m doing?’.”
Listen to a snippet here…
[#14 Soundbite 2] Hate Crime – Deepak – Need for witnesses
“For me, it’s listening to individuals, listening to victims, that will really put that realism back into the officers and staff within the police service who deal [with this].
The start needs to be more people like yourselves who call it out and also who report that, who then stand to be witnesses and support those individuals, those victims.”
Listen to a snippet here…
[#14 Soundbite 3] Hate Crime – Sam – Impact on Independence
“I felt quite intimidated to go out on my own and it hugely impacted my independence. For a disabled person, your independence is like the holy grail.
It even impacted my work…I actually started to say ‘no’ to opportunities because I was so petrified of going on television…and return home and look at my phone and see all this abuse.”
Listen to a snippet here…
[#14 Soundbite 4] Hate Crime– Sam – Disability stereotypes
“We were kind of pigeonholed into two areas. We were either a drain on society and that led to a lot of abuse…Or you had to be this object of inspiration…and if you didn’t fit into any of these kind of sections…and if as a non-disabled person, I can’t put you in a box, well, who are you?”
Listen to a snippet here…
[#14 Soundbite 5] Hate Crime– Khesha – Experience of hate crime
“Several incidents took place when I was around 14ish.
And I thought…’why are they following me?’….and, basically…one of them decided to attack me…which took me by surprise. So, she attacked me, she kicked me, she punched me several times and even jumped on me whilst I was on the floor.”
Listen to a snippet here…
[#14 Soundbite 6] Hate Crime– Khesha – Different
“I grew up in a school where teachers and students were racist. And that kind of narrative continued in the workplaces where sometimes it wasn’t explicit but you know you feel different.”
Listen to a snippet here…
[#14 Soundbite 7] Hate Crime– Alex -Very brave
“I was on the bus…and the next thing you know is there’s a guy at the back of the bus yelling racist abuse down the phone…and then at the front of the bus, a White man stood up. He had a small child next to him. He then declared to the whole bus, ‘I’m a bus driver. This is my child and I am disgusted by you’. And before he could finish speaking – that was very brave, he had a small child with him – half the bus stood up to say, ‘We’re all disgusted by you as well’.”
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Samantha Renke (she/her) is an actress, presenter, speaker, writer and disability rights campaigner who has written a multitude of articles on what it is like to be disabled in a disabling world, as well as several sociocultural criticisms on patronising attitudes, body image, bullying, LGBTQ+ issues, ableism and the financial and social costs of being disabled. For the Diversity Trust, Samantha is the Disability Lead and a Consultant in Disability Awareness. In this podcast episode, Samantha will focus on her personal experience with hate crime as a person with a non-normative body, and on how she has been affected by it throughout her life.
Joni (they/them) is a Trainer and joint LGBTQ+ Team Coordinator at The Diversity Trust. Driven by a passion to make a positive difference for the trans and non-binary community, they have previously worked at Non-Binary Leeds as a community organiser and support group facilitator, a part of for which they delivered Trans Awareness and Inclusion training to various partners across Leeds and West Yorkshire. They were also a member of the organising team behind Trans Pride Leeds 2019 and 2020. In this podcast episode, they will be talk about dealing with hate crime as a gender non-binary person.
Khesha Patel (she/her) is the Race & Bias Team Co-ordinator at the Diversity Trust. Her contributions include working on a wide range of initiatives, from shaping policies and report writing to leading qualitative and quantitative research, facilitating focus groups to creating surveys and delivering training nationally and internationally. As a British person of South Asian descent, she has lived experience of being a target of racial discrimination. She discusses this in this podcast episode, as she revisits a hate crime experience that occurred while she was still at school.
Deepak Kenth (he/him) is a Police Chief Inspector for Bristol East Neighbourhoods. He has over 20 years’ experience of policing service, during which he has worked in leadership roles on patrol, neighbourhoods, firearms, roads policing, custody and offender management. Deepak’s ambition is to make policing more inclusive and representative of its communities. In this episode of the podcast, Deepak references the role of the police in dealing with hate crime attacks and listens attentively to the other guests’ lived experiences. He touches on the police procedures once a hate crime report has been submitted, and the issues that need to be addressed from within the police, to provide adequate help to the victims of hate crime assaults.
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Alex Raikes (she/her), interviewer for this podcast episode, is the Strategic Director at SARI (Stand Against Racism and Inequality) with 30 years of experience as a caseworker and with an Honorary Degree, Doctor of Laws, from the University of the West of England. She delivers SARI’s strategic and operational functions to keep victims of hate crime and communities safe. As a dual heritage individual impacted by several equalities themes, Alex also has first-hand experience of hate crime.