The media in the UK have reported on a second major case of hateful crime amid calls for a boycott of budget airline Ryanair over alleged inaction of its staff during a “racist” verbal attack on a passenger.
A video going viral on the social media on Monday showed a black security guard working at a Sainsbury's store racially abused by a white shopper.
One woman filmed the hate crime at a London branch of the supermarket chain and posted it online, drawing hundreds of thousands of watches.
“What are you f*****g doing here? You are telling me what to do. I belong here. You don’t. F*** off,” the unidentified customer can be heard yelling at the security guard.
The incident follows another recently filmed video of a white man calling a woman an “ugly black b******” on a Ryanair flight from Barcelona to London, which equally sparked widespread outrage online.
The backlash began after footage was posted on Friday showing a black woman being racially abused by the fellow passenger. In the video, Ryanair staff failed to put a stop to the racist tirade in which the woman was threatened, promoting the public outcry.
The abusive passenger was also allowed to remain on the flight, and keep his original seat, while the victim was forced to relocate elsewhere on the plane.
Customers and senior figures have threatened to boycott Ryanair after airline staff failed to remove the man from a flight or to apologize for its handling of the incident.
The airline has so far only responded via Twitter on Sunday, saying they had made Essex Police aware of the incident and that it was no longer their matter.
However, the absence of a public apology to the passenger subjected to the rant and allowing her aggressor to remain on board has people vowing to never fly with the airline again.
The Transport Secretary has since described the incident as "unacceptable," while Labour MP for Tottenham, David Lammy, has called for a boycott of the airline.
Ok boycott @Ryanair if they think it’s ok for a racist man to abuse an elderly black woman and remain on the plane. It’s 63 years since Rosa Parks said “No “ to sitting on the back of the Bus and we ain’t going back. https://t.co/IYczabgjMJ
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) October 21, 2018
The two offensive attacks came only one week after statistics released by the Home Office showed that hate crimes in England and Wales in 2017-18 have increased by 17% on the previous year.
Hate crime is defined as “any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone based on a personal characteristic”.
According to the data, more than half of religiously-motivated attacks recorded by police in 2017-18 were directed at Muslims while one of the most significant overall factors motivating hate crimes was people’s race.