Social media creator Yasir Sacranie's videos usually deal with the day-to-days of pharmacist life, alongside educational content, top tips and study guides, promoting his training platform MicroPharm.

But in recent days, he's begun responding to racist and Islamophobic comments as violent unrest and intimidation has spread across parts of the UK.

He sat down with The Pharmacist to share why he felt it was important to respond and how he uses humour to challenge misconceptions and change people's minds.

Mr Sacranie's most popular video on the topic has already been seen over 375,000 times. ‘I wanted people to understand the number of people that come from a BAME background that work in the NHS,’ he says.

The video, captioned ‘We are a fundamental part of the NHS’, responds to the comment ‘Muslims should leave the UK’ with the text ‘Meanwhile, Muslims…’ overlaid over footage of Mr Sacranie, a South Asian and Muslim pharmacist, wearing PPE and working as a hospital pharmacist.

@micropharm We are a fundamental part of the NHS ❤️ #fyp #foryou #NHS ♬ hotline bling - hellaxgay

One of his first videos on the subject was a response to being told to ‘go back home’.

‘I was born in the University Hospitals of Leicester, and I work for the University Hospitals of Leicester, and I still live in Leicester. So when people say, go back home, [that’s one] of the comments which I find hilarious, because I'm a British Indian, I've never been to India, it's a really surreal place to be in. You don't feel anything but being British, right? And to be told otherwise is a really interesting situation to be in,’ he says.

 

@micropharm Is that how it works? 🤣 #fyp #foryou #NHS ♬ green to blue (Sped Up) - Aurenth

 

Responding to abuse with humour can be ‘very hard’, he says, but it helps him reach people he might not otherwise get through to.

‘You're furious because people are telling you to get out the country you're born in […] But you have to navigate that conversation in a way that the people who misunderstand the situation start to understand,’ he tells The Pharmacist.

In response to one comment telling non-white workers to 'go home', Mr Sacranie replied: 'If we leave, I think it's time you prepare for medical school in that case, because 42% of the doctors in the UK are non-white. You've got this, buddy!'

‘It's about it's about navigating it in a way that you don’t stoop to that level, essentially,' he tells The Pharmacist.

And he is keen to clarify that the racist commenters he responds to are not representative of the general population.

Mr Sacranie says he has received ‘thousands’ of comments from healthcare professionals and others grateful for his videos.

‘”They do not speak for me”. “You are loved and appreciated”. “’They’ aren't the UK”. “Thank you for all you've done”’, he reads from messages of support.

‘The large majority are positive, it's been fantastic to see that. And one of the most beautiful things that you see is people defending you without the need to defend yourself.’

But the reach of social media has opened the door to a barrage of negative comments - ‘a side of the UK you've maybe never seen before’, Yasir says.

He tells The Pharmacist he’s looking forward to his shifts as a hospital pharmacist this week where he says ‘all my interactions with my patients have been amazing’.

‘I'm looking forward to going to work, because I'm looking forward to seeing patients that actually appreciate me,’ he says.

With so many of the NHS workforce identifying as Black, Asian or another minority ethnicity, Mr Sacranie says: ‘We need to improve the dialog with regards to what it means to be British, those that call this country home.’

He adds that he’s planning more content on what it means to be a Muslim working in the NHS, ‘because I think it's deeply misunderstood’.

‘Having those conversations about different religions and different ethnicities allows us to work better at managing patients [of different ethnicities and religions] and also appreciate each other as humans,’ he says.

Yasir Sacranie is the founder of the popular MicroPharm YouTube, Instagram and TikTok accounts and training platform.