Thread by @MePeterNicholls

“Mass deportations” - it gets the red paint flag waving kind very excited, but means nothing. It means what ever the hearer thinks it means, and thus garners support for the one offering it. It sounds a strong solution, but it’s amorphous—

Mass - who? Maybe “illegals”- I’ll take it to mean all who arrive by small boats; but most over estimate how many ‘illegal’ arrivals are, and underestimate how many legal migrants of ALL kinds there are. It’s not internationally recognised

Arrival by any means with the intention of seeking asylum as a refuge is not and should never by illegal. But the supporter of mass deportation may suggest we’re over run with people who are here illegally. We’re not. Sure they may exist, but we don’t know. No one

There is no special insight by any Farage supporter. People who research this as their actual job have plausible estimates ranging from 600,000 to 900,000 people. In total. Significant, but not overrun. When discovered they are already being deported.

We have seen in the USA what happens when a department is set up to ‘hunt’ for illegal residents: lots of people get dragged in to the net that should never be there, injustices are carried out, people are hounded for looking different, and there are breaches of decent humanity

So what else might ‘mass deportation’ mean? All my life I’ve heard phrases such as ‘they should go back to their own country.’ And let’s face it, most of the time they mean black, indian, Asian, Muslim… not (white) Australians, or Americans for example.

These are the people who will not ever admit that a black or Asian person born and raised in England or Scotland are English or Scottish, even 3rd of 4th generation. This is just basic racism, based purely on the colour of someone’s skin. It’s white supremacy

Which is where all of these inevitably leads to: white supremacy. “We are being replaced” - nazi replacement theory. “They’re diluting the bloodline” - unscientific nonsense.

Genetically, race does not exist. Race is socially constructed based on variation and grouping of externally visible characteristics. These traits, such as skin colour, hair texture, or facial features, represent only a tiny fraction of human genetic diversity.

In fact, genetic studies consistently show that variation within so-called racial groups is often greater than the variation between them. What we call “race” is therefore not a biological category but a social and historical one, developed through colonialism, slavery, and

systems of power to justify inequality and exploitation. Over time, these categories have been reinforced through institutions, laws, and cultural narratives, giving the illusion that they are natural and fixed.

They are not.

In reality, human populations exist on a continuum, shaped by migration, adaptation, and interconnection. While ancestry and geography influence genetic traits, the rigid racial categories used in society do not map onto biological reality.

In short, race has no genetic foundation; it is a socially constructed system of classification that reflects histories of power and inequality rather than biological reality.

So, those who treat race as fundamental and weaponise it to exclude or divide others are reinforcing a fiction: they are upholding an invented boundary that science has already dismantled.

Clinging to such divisions is not only intellectually dishonest but morally corrosive, as it perpetuates fear and hierarchy where none should exist. The alternative—-

The alternative is to recognise human difference without mythologising it. We should acknowledging diversity as a fact of culture and history, not as a threat or dilution, while affirming our shared humanity as the only legitimate foundation for social belonging.

@threadreaderapp please unroll thread