Racist Riots Across Britain

The problem is much wider than the EDL.

This afternoon tucked in the region of Calabria in Italy, a notification popped up on my phone telling me that Australia is advising travellers not to travel to Britain.

Over the last few days drunk by the sun sea and sand and the Olympic coverage on Rai, I've been marveled by how far Italy has come as a nation since I lived there in 2005. The number of Italians of African heritage in their Olympic team is commendable.

Interdispersed with this coverage I have been watching the scenes of violence, looting and anger unfold in Britain.

I began my holiday with scenes of a young Muslim boy being attacked by Greater Manchester Police - he was kicked in the face. Even Nick Ferari of LBC thinking it unacceptable. And then days later we saw that a young boy (aged 17) is the main suspect in the horrific killing of 3 small girls after what was a knife rampage. We are told the boy is black, British born and his parents are from Rwanda. But before we knew anything about his heritage, the Internet had decided he was a refugee and Muslim.

And so the riots began.

The perpetrators of the riots are the English Defence League but from what I can see there are loads of people who seemed to have joined them overnight.

The scenes are pretty disgusting. A young white teen girl is shouting “Pakis out.” White women are seen throwing things at shops. Oh and then there are the men, white men and white boys, all wanting their country back.

Muslim gravestones are reportedly being defaced.

These disgusting scenes are countered by white men and women standing up to the racism. In one video an Irish woman, I believe white, is screaming at a woman for teaching her child racism. An old white Liverpuddlian in another video is outside a Mosque protecting it.

Other videos show black and brown men being attacked by these rioters.

Lush, Greggs and Specsavers all targeted.

For many, such riots will bring back flashbacks and memories of riots of yesteryear, violence and terror.

For me, I'm reminded of the aftermath of 7/7. Someone related to my husband a few weeks after the 7/7 bombings, asked me why they happened. She asked me what the 7/7 terrorists wanted.

Like I would know of course. Because we are all the same.

This woman went on to vote for Brexit.

Can I imagine now, in this all white violence, asking any white Brit why these riots are happening?

No!

The riots also remind me of Brexit. A few of my relationships soured over Brexit. I recall being told how over involved I was over Brexit.

But I remain resolute today, as I did in 2015 when I started talking to the majority of people I knew who were not as worried about Brexit as I was.

Brexit was about Islamaphobia. And even for many who voted Remain, I don't think we guaged just how bad a Brexit vote would be for British culture.

Let me repeat. British culture.

Because what we are seeing across Britain in the horrific targeting of the mostly Muslim communities is what Brexit has done to our culture. What Brexit has done to communities.

The riots are a crytallisation of absolutely every person staying quiet over Islamaphobia and/or people supporting it.

It is not migrants who have ruined our culture. It's not Muslims. It's not asylum seekers.

As one woman has said on Instagram, it's the people who are rioting who are not integrating.

I've seen videos of white people equating being pushed out of their country like the Native American Indians were. Wholly bizarre.

There is so much more I can say, but it's all been said before. Yeah yeah- choose love, hope not hate, treat others as you would be treated. Share the commonalities. Celebrate the similarities. We can only hope this will work.

On this holiday in Italy I was staggered by two foods that blew me away. One that was basically the equivalent of the Indian sweet “barfi” and the other the equivalent of a “gulab jamun.”

But food sharing is not enough to conquer racism.

I think the real problem is mindset.

And it's a tricky thing. But the end point is either you are racist or not.

Racism is a mindset.

You either are or you aren't. You either will die at the thought of your child marrying out of your colour. Or it just won't bother you. If it bothers you, you are racist.

If you are brown or of colour and are racist, you will either raise your kids to shun their heritage or you will raise them to stay away from black and Muslim people.

I've seen so much of this.

Keir Starmer is in a unique position. A white working class man who married into the Jewish community - he will know all about what it is to have a wife and children from a different culture, as such making his family vulnerable.

I hear Keir Starmer and his wife also live in a wonderful London community that supports his wife and her heritage. Why shouldn't they? Why shouldn't a family and their heritage be protected?

Starmer now has an opportunity here to stand up for Muslims. Imagine the gesture he could make here.

I hope he will as after all he comes across as a decent person. Though I understand he is yet to call the riots racist and Islamaphobic.

We all have this opportunity in fact.

To be decent. To describe what we are seeing.

From experience what makes foreigners withdraw is not always a desire to not integrate - it can also be rejection.

And we either take it or we don't.

This opportunity.

People talk about woke.

Yes. Wake up.

I saw in New Zealand those who were affected by the Christchurch terror attacks and those who weren't. A British woman in New Zealand asked me why I looked so sad a day after the Christchurch Terror.

It's a mindset.

Racism is a mindset.

As regards the stabbings in Southport, the riots and terrorism have been an appauling aftermath of the death of such small children. The children deserved so much better. So did their parents. No child should face the terror they did.

We should be talking about how our society enabled the violence on those young children.

Yet instead we are talking about riots.

The violence still being inflicted on children.

We should be focussing on knife crime and parent support, community mental health and protecting women and girls, so the next mass killer does not surface.

And on the topic of holidays. We are in Summer holidays. Our migrant, Muslim and children of colour in the UK ought to be relaxing on holidays. Instead many are worrying about their safety, and that of their parents and won't get a holiday at all. And for anyone who has children they will know that sets many children back. And it's the same for parents. My Muslim friends are on social media instead of enjoying long hot Summers.

Violence and riots aside, being a migrant child has so many challenges.

When migrant children who go on to become MPs or successful, like Rishi Sunak, they talk about “giving back.” Ought we really be placing these burdens on migrant children who did not ask to be born in a country they did not choose?

On the one hand we want migrants to integrate, yet on the other we expect them to dance to Rule Brittania and acknowledge that they should be grateful or leave.

It's wholly bizarre logic.

And in all of this some of the nicest rhetoric I'm hearing is how much harmony there was prior to Brexit and misinformation. No Britain is not a beacon of inclusivity. Stephen Lawrences's murder will always remain a stain on the Union Jack.

Yet somehow growing up, we all mostly got on with each other despite racism.

But things have changed. We too must stop harking back to yesteryear. The here and now is what is happening on the British streets across Britain.

At the time of writing, I have been forwarded screenshots of more planned riots. Sad to see the violence to continue.

I'm also told that the riots do not seem to be present in Wales and Scotland - i.e no arrests. This is heartening to hear but the risk of rioting always exists.

Even worse to see Elon Musk fan the flames.

But we can change this. We are not powerless.

Our power to change this in all our communities starts in our homes, at our dinner tables and our minds.

I hope this Substack informs your outlook.