Rioting and racism, enough is enough

I have thought long and hard about whether I should write about the violence and racial hate taking place across the country. I have resisted because I know that no one has been waiting to hear my take on it but today I feel compelled to share my views. ?

Why now? Well today we are expecting racist gangs to converge in up to 30 places across the country. They are coming to the neighbourhood that I grew up in, where members of my family still live. They are organised; they are full of hate; they are frightening people; and they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.

?In the past few days, I have talked to a large number of people of African, Caribbean and Asian heritage and all expressed anxiety. One of them had had racist abuse hurled at her on the phone on Monday. You can see why she feels uneasy now. ?The feeling that at any point someone will attack you verbally or physically is real.

?I feel uneasy, unsettled, unsafe. Indeed, when I went into central London yesterday for the first time in almost a week, I felt a moment of unease as I headed down into the tube, not entirely confident about how people would respond to the colour of my skin.

?It is the same feeling I had in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. I remember the week after the referendum having to go to a town in the North West of England for a conference. On the train there I looked up the results of the vote in that town and found a large majority of its citizens had voted Leave. As I got off the train, I couldn’t help but feel that those people didn’t want people like me, with my colour skin, there.

?I know that not everyone who voted Leave are racist, but the result absolutely gave licence to racists. People did not feel like they had to keep their views to themselves, they were more than happy to voice them whenever and wherever they wanted. I experienced it myself, on public transport and on the street, in the workplace and professional spaces, even at the Conservative Party Conference last year. It is sometimes upsetting, sometimes terrifying, always exhausting. ?I am an older, relatively affluent, professional person living and working in London. Just think what it must be like for others.

?Now it has gone from verbal abuse to violent assault on whole communities, on libraries and community centres, mosques and emergency vehicles, on homes and hostels. ?

?I have heard many commentators try to explain away what has been happening as the result of people feeling marginalised and unheard. This is utter rubbish. Not all racists are marginalised (I have experienced racist abuse from middle-class, middle-aged, well-heeled people in positions of power) and not all marginalised people are racists. Unheard? Give me a break, Farage gets airtime anytime he wants.

?What we are seeing has nothing to do with feeling unheard. It is hateful people using the horrific killing of children as an excuse to riot. As they commit arson and loot, as they attack libraries and mosques, they spout anti-immigration rhetoric and demand their country back, as if those of us who don’t look or sound just like them pulled off this incredible heist and stole Britain from under their noses and stashed it in a lock up in Bradford. ?

So what do I want? I would like to see politicians from all parties be honest about what we are seeing and condemn it and those who foment it. ?How odd that some of those seeking leadership of the Conservative Party don’t appear to have found time to comment at all on what is going on? Perhaps because they like so many others have been all too prepared to blow the dog whistle when it comes to issues around race.

I would like to see an end to the toxicity in political discourse about immigration and asylum. I would like there to be recognition of the benefits immigration has brought and continues to bring to this country, not just in terms of work that would go undone were it not for the generations of people who have arrived on these shores, but the extraordinary contribution we/they have made to British society, from the food we eat, the music we listen to, the books we read, the athletes we cheer on.

I want you to talk to your friends and colleagues of Asian, African and Caribbean heritage, to ask them how they are feeling and to let them speak. I don’t want you to confront the thugs who will be out this evening but if you live in or near one of those neighbourhoods ask the people who are likely to be feeling vulnerable, what you can do to help them feel safe. And tomorrow help with the clear up.

?I want to feel safe. I want my family to feel safe, my friends and their families to feel safe.

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