When I see people being racist, I am reminded that racial hatred has a long history in Britain:

In Celtic Britain, the Iceni hated the Coritani, who hated the Parisi,

Then the Romans came and everyone hated them.

The Scoti, Saxons, and Picts all hated each other,

And the Mercians hated the Northumbrians, who hated the East Anglians,

Then the Vikings came, and everyone hated them.

Later came the Normans who were hated even more.

The Plantagenets arrived, and they were hated by the Scots, the Irish, and the French.

There was lots of hatred between Yorkists and Lancastrians around this time too,

And of course, there was a 100 years of hatred.

The Welsh hated the Tudors, as did the Scots and the French, 

The Spanish weren’t that keen on us either because they sent an Armada.

There was lots of Civil hatred when the Stuarts ruled, and the country was torn apart with hatred.

When the German House of Hanover took over, the Scots and the Spanish were full of hate.

The Jacobites were pretty annoyed at this time too.

More Germans came along with the House of Saxe-Coburg, who had to change their name to Windsor because they were hated that much.

In any case, at this time Britain was running amok in almost every country in the world, killing people and robbing them of everything, 

You can bet your bottom dollar we were hated by a lot of people, including the slaves, who had good reason to be pretty upset.

The Irish hated us because we starved them, and they were Catholic and we were Protestant. 

We hated them because we thought we were better than them, and because they were Catholic and we were Protestant.

Then there were two World Wars when everybody hated each other, unless you were on the same side; then you could hate the other side together.

Later came the abandonment of Palestine, India and Pakistan, uprisings in Malaya, Ghana, and the Middle East, and finally Hong Kong, where there was much killing and all round hatred of Britain, 

When the War ended, Britain had a shortage of workers, so we advertised in all our old colonies: “Come to Britain to work, we will welcome you and you will grow rich.’

But people didn’t welcome them, they were hated by lots of people, and still are. 

The Suez Canal crisis made us look very silly, and we were hated by lots of people including the US.

Much later, we bombed the heck out of Afghanistan and Iraq, and created new groups of Middle Eastern people who hated us called Al-Qaeda, Isis and the Taliban. 

The EU hate us because we pulled out of their alliance, and now they won’t stop migrants coming across Europe to get to Britain like they did before. 

China don’t like us because we cancelled their 5G contract, the Russians hate us, the French hate us, the EU aren’t that keen on us either. 

Football fans hate each other, people from different cities hate each other, people of different religions hate each other, people whose skin colour is different hate each other, straight people hate gay people, old people hate trans people and everyone hates ‘the immigrants’.  

Which all goes to show that people are good at hating. The Buddha said holding onto hatred is like swallowing poison and expecting the other person to die. Hatred always hurts the one who’s hating. You don’t have to love everyone, but at least try to tolerate them and make space for those who you don’t agree with. It won’t just help us all get along, it will help you to be happier.