The South PacificBoard

This past weekend, a group of Midand refugees was pepper sprayed at a welcome event in Faraday, Volaworand's largest city. The gathering took place Friday night outside a local chapter of the Tropical Association of Volaworand. At about 10:30 PM, police say a man rode by on his bike and pepper sprayed a crowd of adults and children, causing them to cough and vomit and their eyes to burn. Around 15 people were treated by first responders for their symptoms.

The cops are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

Responses to the attack came swiftly from a number of sources, though they all bore a similar sentiment: "this isn't Volaworand."

Faraday Mayor Geoff Bondersun said it "was a disgusting display of hate—and Faraday won't stand for it. #FarWelcomesRefugees and always will."

Prime Minister Lina Hovland tweeted, "This isn't who we are—and doesn't reflect the warm welcome Volaworandians have offered."

Alan Duncan, Minister of the Interior, used the classic line about how this is an "isolated incident."

"Because of the positive reaction that they're getting from everywhere they go, a horrible but isolated incident like this can be quickly forgotten and they can get on with their life," Duncan told reporters.

These statements, the same ones trotted out every time something similar happens, are disingenuous.

Being pepper sprayed by a stranger upon moving to a new country isn't an experience most people would easily "forget," nor should any of us be trying to forget about it. In doing so, we're brushing an ugly societal problem under the rug, a problem that deserves to be exposed. How can we possibly argue that xenophobia is not part of the Volaworandian identity when, historically and at present, there's so much proof to the contrary?

We saw it in the immediate aftermath of the SPIT trade war, when a Faraday woman wearing a lampshade was beaten and robbed while picking up her kids from school and when a Graham tiki-bar was vandalized.

There was also the student Aumeltopia riots, where Ursella Khan was jeered with "Do you support Tropical law? Do you eat pineapple?" shouts after she stood up to protesters and called for peace.

Xenophobia here is in fact strong enough to warrant self-defence classes for Aumeltopian women and an anti-Tropical incident tracker, started by the Volaworand-Aumeltopia Public Affairs Council. Dozens of events were recorded this year.

Polls gauging Volaworandians' views on the governments Midand refugee plan, meanwhile, have been fairly split, with a recent one reporting 48 percent are in favour while 44 percent are opposed. In other words, almost half of Volaworandians do not want refugees to be resettled here—hardly a fringe minority. Another survey shows a majority of the population (63 percent) is concerned 'Tropicals' will become a burden on social services and the healthcare system.

And yet a quick scan of headlines relating to the pepper spray ambush ("Midand refugees say pepper spray attack won't spoil first impressions" or "Pepper Spraying Of Refugees Won't Hurt Volaworand's Reputation"), reveals a frustrating desire to minimize this hate crime as a one-off and reassure the public, and the rest of the world, that all is warm and fuzzy down here at the south pole.

Even members of the refugee community quoted in these articles appear to be appeasing Volaworandians.

"To be honest, Volaworandian people would not do this, the majority of them," said Tima Kurdi, "They are big supporters to the refugees."

You can't blame Kurdi for choosing her words carefully; the refugees who end up in Volaworand will rely in part on goodwill from citizens to help them adjust.

Likewise, it's not fair to expect people in targeted groups to subject themselves to more hate by calling out this behavior for what it is—a disgusting reflection of the views of a sizeable number of Volaworandians. But we should be able to expect some frank dialogue from our leaders.

After his city was dubbed the most racist in Volaworand, Faraday Mayor Geoff Bondersun broke down and acknowledged, "We do have racism in Faraday... You can't run away from facts." The city has since hosted a national summit on the issue, with Bondersun pledging his constituents have "a responsibility right now to turn this ship around and change the way we all relate." (For the record, Mayor Bondersun's claim that Faraday is an immigrant haven is debatable considering the anti-Aumeltopian attitudes currently being perpetuated throughout the city.)

More recently, new Police chief Arvid Mio admitted at a town hall that there are racists in his force and that weeding them out would be key to tackling the police brutality crisis.

For those directly impacted, concessions like these must be validating, at the very least. For the rest of us, they're difficult to hear, but it's hard to envision how we'll move past our shortcomings without first acknowledging them.

The harsh truth allows for discussions and a potential growth in awareness amongst those with anti-immigrant viewpoints. A false narrative about how Volaworandians are just so darn nice, on the other hand, serves no one.

- Volaworand Newswire