University News Last updated 15 October 2020
A social scientist at Birmingham City University is calling upon others to display messages of support on their face masks in the wake of rapidly rising hate crime statistics.
The initiative comes as England and Wales report record highs of hate crime, with the number of racially motivated offences recorded by police increasing by 4,000 in a year.
Professor Imran Awan has launched the campaign as part of Hate Crime Awareness Week.
More than 105,000 hate crimes were recorded in 2019-20, an rise of 8 per cent on the previous year.
“After reading the new hate crime statistics this week, I just felt compelled to do something,” explained Professor Awan, who teaches at Birmingham City University’s School of Social Sciences.
“I wanted to make a positive change and move the negative headlines into a positive one. Hate crimes are message crimes and I want us to send a clear message to our communities that we say ‘no 2 hate’.
In a report released earlier this year, Professor Awan highlighted how social media and coronavirus conspiracies can act as trigger points for further hate crimes.
Professor Imran Awan works as an independent member of the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group and is a member of the SAGE SPI-B behavioural group that tackles inequality in relation to Covid-19.