While the UK is gearing up to the 2015 General Election, anti-immigrant and xenophobic rhetoric in the media is increasing as well as informing political campaigns. It seems as though each day there is a news item detailing racism, Islamophobia and general xenophobia across Britain. Based on how the media reports on immigration and the so-called Islamic threat, many Brits have an inaccurate image of the UK’s population:

As UKIP and their anti-EU discourse is on the rise, white kids attack Hispanic men on buses in Manchester. Black folk are being run out of their homes by racist attacks in Belfast and kept off of trains by British football fans in Paris. Meanwhile British politicians support the so-called satirical derogatory depictions of Muslims on the continent at the same time as launching new policies to investigate (non-white) play-groupers who are considered to be “at risk of becoming terrorists” at the same time as asking the British Muslim community to act more British. Presumably, a collective Islamic apology for the recent attack on Charlie Hebdo in France would be a fitting attempt to adopt British values, whilst the British Home Office refuses to show the same compassion to the grieving grandparents wishing to travel to the UK from Zimbabwe out of fear they will attempt to remain in the UK.

Throughout all of this ugliness a group of individuals – including Polish singer Pola Pospieszalska and led by Czech filmmaker Lucie Wenigerova – have begun a project to raise awareness of the lives being affected by the scapegoating headlines and to ask “Why is this happening?” They have written a love song to the UK, their home, in a bid to challenge the anti-immigrant and racist/Islamophobic rhetoric informing public opinion and political decision-making. However, they need your help to complete their project and get the song out! If you also want to provide a counter to the media and material animosity mounting against immigrant and non-white communities in the UK, you can find out more about their WITH Love campaign as well as make a donation here. You can also watch the video clip below: