Andrew Tate is mixed race, with an African-American father and a White British mother. He controversially converted to Islam in October 2022. Both of these factors mean that young men from minority ethnic backgrounds and young Muslim men might be more likely to find Tate’s hateful activism more relatable than white far-right figures like Tommy Robinson. That said, Tate has made problematic comments about both race and Islam which one might expect to deter young people from those backgrounds.
Young men from minority ethnic backgrounds are overrepresented in our Engaged Reactionaries segment, a group who are not yet completely disenchanted with the political system but at-risk of developing hateful attitudes due to their reactionary and conservative views on some topics. Deterring this group from influencers like Tate will go a long way to preventing the development of hateful attitudes.
Race and ethnicity
The high prevalence of Asian and Black young people who support Andrew Tate is striking, particularly as this is a group who would not be traditionally associated with far-right ideologies. We polled young people in January 2023 and 2024 asking about their attitudes to Andrew Tate, and found a 17% increase in support in Asian or Asian British young people, and a 24% increase in support in Black or Black British young people.
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Asian or Asian British Tate supporters’ top reason for liking Tate was that he is not afraid to push back against woke ideology (27%), reflective of Tate’s wider group of supporters. Interestingly, this contradicts much of the qualitative research we undertook, where many young people of colour expressed that they were more interested in Tate’s lifestyle content than his anti-woke content, the latter of which they believe is now a much smaller part of his image.
It’s changed [Tate’s content] … it’s really focusing on like changing the world in the future, giving … telling young people how to make money and stuff like that
Year 9 pupil (British Asian)
Black or Black British Tate supporters were more likely to respond that Tate wants men to be real men (31% vs. an average of 22% amongst Tate supporters). This ties in with the socio-cultural standards of masculinity that many young Black men feel pressured to adhere to and general adultification of young Black people. Tate’s content often addresses pressures to provide financially and rise above hardships, which might strike a chord.
Religion
Tate’s popularity is worryingly high amongst Muslim respondents, although there is a clear gendered aspect to this. 51% of young Muslims like Tate, the highest of any religion, but Muslim men are almost three times more likely than young Muslim women to like him (72% versus 25%). It’s also important to note the overlap between the religious and ethnic subgroups; 47% of minority ethnic Tate supporters (Asian, Black, Mixed or Chinese) polled are also Muslim.
Tate announced in October 2022 that he was converting from Christianity to Islam, and urged others to do the same. He later stated that his support for the religion was partially due to his opinion that Islam is a religion that still pays close attention to its sacred text (although people of all religions, including Muslims, will dispute this claim for various reasons). In December 2022, Tate apologised for some comments he made about Islam and the terrorist group ISIS in an interview with Piers Morgan.
Cynics might also argue that Tate’s conversion is a deliberate attempt to distance himself from past controversy – the announcement of his conversion came shortly after he was de-platformed from YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.
In a podcast filmed shortly after the announcement, the controversial Islamic scholar Mohammed Hijab declared to Tate, “Islam completely wipes away your sins”. Whilst Muslims would agree with this statement, they might take issue with their faith being used as a way of laundering Tate’s reputation and past actions – including illegal activity, violent assault and sexual exploitation.
What’s more, they might even feel that Tate’s misogynistic comments – which have continued following his conversion – are representative of the worst and most marginal forms of Islam, which continue to be used to unfairly stigmatise the majority of practising Muslims today against their will.
In one example, Tate says he wants to find “a nice Islamic-ass wife. I’m gonna build up a big pile of rocks in case she gets fresh. I’m going to be prepared.”. This refers to the archaic practice of stoning for infidelity, much to the dismay of feminist Muslims who seek to emphasise that women can be uplifted within Islam, and being Muslim should not be used as an excuse to subjugate women.
All this said, Tate’s messaging is clearly cutting through to young Muslim men. Whilst it may be easy to assume that this is due to his religion, Muslim Tate supporters were only 2% more likely than average Tate supporters to think that Tate stands up for people like them. Interestingly, Muslim Tate supporters (n=101) had a different top reason for liking Tate than the wider population of Tate supporters – 26% responded that they like that Tate speaks the truth about women and men (average 15%). It seems that Tate’s conversion has not had a huge impact on his popularity amongst young Muslims, who are more interested in his content around gender roles than they are in his faith.
Differences amongst Tate supporters
Assuming that Tate supporters will broadly agree on issues relating to gender roles, feminism and sexual violence, what might be their dividing lines? Comparing white Tate supporters to minority ethnic Tate supporters shows that racial discrimination and the far right are two areas where there is a contrast (due to the questions in our polling, we included in this Asian or Asian British, Black or Black British, Mixed and Chinese young people).
Minority ethnic Tate supporters show higher overall approval (17%) for the far right than the average young person (14%), but less than white Tate supporters (28%). They are also much less sympathetic to the idea of reverse racism (36% versus 53% of white Tate supporters), and very pro-immigration (71% versus 54% of white Tate supporters), very much at odds with the wider far right movement.
Making minority ethnic Tate fans aware of Tate’s friendship with Tommy Robinson and other racist activists, and his links to the broader far right could discourage their support of him. Engagement with these young people in the form of encouraging celebration of diverse identities could create a positive diversion. This could be done by finding male role models they can relate to who champion both self-improvement and equality.
Plugged In but Disconnected looks at young people and the attitudes they hold. We find some shocking evidence of hateful attitudes, particularly amongst young men. Download the report today.
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