Integration as Erasure
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Reading The End of Tolerance made me stop for a second and took me back to the events that happened this summer in the UK, events that sounded too dystopian to be true. Kundnani argues that British integrationist policies and rhetoric have systematically shifted blame for social issues onto minority groups, particularly Muslims, who are frequently scapegoated.
One current example that underlines this same trend is the Southport attack that happened this August. The attacker killed three young girls, and crowds took to the streets, attacking random migrants and Muslims. This led to large riots that endangered the lives of many Muslims in the UK. When this attack happened, initial misinformation was shared that the knife attacker was Muslim reflecting how easily Muslims can be cast as scapegoats, reinforcing Kundnani’s point about the racialization of Muslim identity, where Muslims are often portrayed as a homogeneous "threat."
The attacks did not just target Muslims; Asian-owned businesses were also looted or vandalized, representing how racism operates under a broad brush that does not distinguish between individuals but lumps entire communities into a single, threatening “other.”
Kundnani talks about integrationist policies and how they have created a climate where difference itself is framed as a danger, making it easy for media to label Muslims and other minorities as outsiders, associating them with danger and extremism. This further creates an excuse for racially charged violence.
Integrationist policies encourage viewing certain groups as “problems” that must be managed or corrected, rather than communities to be included. Forced integration can become a form of exclusion, demanding that minorities bear the burden of proving their “Britishness” or to have to hide their true identity to be safe.
This also applies in many other contexts. For instance, Canada’s treatment of Indigenous communities, where they make it seems like Indigenous people have to leave behind their cultural heritage to gain a "prerequisite" for success in life. Indigenous people face significant structural barriers (all enforced by the white government) when living on reserves (limited healthcare, education, and employment) leaving many with the built in message that in order for them to have a better life, they must leave their communities and assimilate into a society that operates by colonial standards.
The integrationist demand that minority communities must conform to in order to be accepted or safe reveals the inherent flaws in a system that equates “unity” with assimilation, further marginalizing and erasing communities.