Billionaires and the Rise of Racism: How Wealthy Elites Enable Hate Speech
In a stark reflection of our times, the words of a top banker to the Financial Times after Donald Trump's 2024 election victory capture a disturbing trend: "I feel liberated. We can say 'retard' and 'pussy' without the fear of getting cancelled ... it's a new dawn." This sentiment, while crude, underscores a broader shift where decency's guardrails are being torn down by malign provocateurs with immense influence.
The Super-Rich as Enablers of Prejudice
Figures like Trump, Elon Musk, and now UK billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe are increasingly acting as enablers, making racists feel great again. Ratcliffe, a Monaco resident with a fortune estimated at £17 billion, recently accused migrants of having "colonised" Britain, despite muddling his statistics on population size. His comments, though not explicitly racial, were inevitably heard through that lens, debunking the long-held assumption that anti-immigrant sentiment stems solely from economic anxiety.
As Sunder Katwala, director of the British Future thinktank, observes, we are "going backwards on racism." The data supports this: Ipsos found in January that the most affluent fifth of British voters were the group most likely to name immigration as their top concern, showing no correlation between income and hostility to migrants. Musk, the world's richest man, further fuels this by backing anti-immigration parties across Europe and promoting extreme voices on his X platform.
A Surge in Hate Crimes and Public Discourse
The evidence of regression is palpable. Police in England and Wales, excluding London, recorded 116,000 hate crimes in the year to March 2025, a rise from the previous year, with a fifth involving violence. NHS staff face "ugly," 1970s-style racism, prompting Health Secretary Wes Streeting to warn last November that it was becoming "socially acceptable to be racist."
Public discourse has shifted alarmingly. Mainstream commentators now debate whether Rishi Sunak is English, while former cabinet minister Robert Jenrick lamented not seeing "another white face" in a Birmingham neighbourhood. Liz Truss appeared on an online show with far-right figure Connor Tomlinson, who believes ethnic minorities should not be allowed to become MPs. Social media is rife with racial slurs against politicians like Priti Patel and Shabana Mahmood.
The Role of Online Influencers and Attention Economy
Online influencers amplify this toxicity. Figures like Tomlinson, once confined to pub backrooms, now reach millions with professional production values. In an attention economy, shocking statements win clicks, leading to a ratchet effect of ever-more extreme rhetoric. US white supremacist Nick Fuentes, for instance, has escalated from Holocaust denial to calling for women to be sent to "breeding gulags," with Tucker Carlson hosting him and Musk promoting similar voices.
Advance UK, a political party including Tommy Robinson, vows to ban indefinite leave to remain and encourage settled migrants to leave, with Musk praising it over Nigel Farage's "weak sauce." The pandemic radicalised a small, online minority through anti-vax conspiracy theories, exacerbating the shift.
Complacency and the Ongoing Battle
Despite this, most Britons hold tolerant attitudes, deeply embedded in society. However, complacency has set in, with many assuming racism was a solved problem of the past. Racism and prejudice are light sleepers, requiring battles to be re-fought in every generation. The loud, powerful voices of billionaires and far-right figures are shaking them awake, threatening the fabric of decency. As hate crimes rise and discourse coarsens, the need for vigilance has never been greater.
