FIGHTING COLLECTIVE
AMNESIA
The UK has a sense of collective amnesia around issues of racial justice. It is just over three months since the worst racist violence in this country in a generation. The summer riots saw violent far- right groups, fuelled by toxic conspiracies, storm the streets, attack mosques and set fire to hotels housing people seeking asylum. It was a period that evoked the bygone era of the National Front, with people of colour afraid to leave their houses and communities shaken, reminded that they cannot take their safety in the UK for granted and forced to face the racism, Islamophobia and anti-migrant prejudice that has long been simmering under the surface. But since then, alarmingly, it has felt
like
business as usual. The state of panic that gripped the media for a few days quickly subsided, and it has been left to communities of colour to once again raise the alarm that the issues of this summer will not simply go away. At the time of writing, far-right activist Tommy Robinson and his supporters are once again preparing to march to Parliament Square, a potent reminder that the threat of a repeat of the racist riots is all too real. What happened this summer was not an aberration, as some would like us to believe, but instead the product of racist policymaking and
26 AMNESTY WINTER 2024
This summer’s riots across the UK were the worst racist violence in a decade – yet the political and media focus has swiftly moved on to other issues. But it is not an option to ignore the impact of the riots on people of colour, and the painful truths the violence exposed, warns Alba Kapoor, head of policy at racial justice thinktank the Runnymede Trust.
the dehumanisation of Muslims and migrants that has accelerated in recent years. As the Runnymede Trust’s research has highlighted, violence on the streets starts at the top, catalysed by the political and media scapegoating of migrants and people seeking asylum. In recent weeks, this has even been acknowledged by a Conservative peer, who admitted that ‘stop the boats’ rhetoric in parliament fuelled the summer’s racist riots. Scenes showing rioters screaming that slogan made the connection between political rhetoric and their actions crystal clear. This
rhetoric has been coupled with a
legislative agenda in recent years that has undermined the rights of people of colour. From the previous government’s restrictive anti-protest laws to successive inhumane immigration acts, politicians have cemented their role in fuelling racism and the far right. For example, as Runnymede’s research with the charity Care4Calais shows, the previous government’s decision to build large-scale detention centres, including the infamous Bibby Stockholm barge, normalised the cruel and inhumane treatment of people seeking asylum in the UK. As Labour sets out its agenda on
PHOTOS Above: A protester holds a placard during a counter demonstration against a racist protest called by far-right activists in
Walthamstow, London, 7 August 2024 © Benjamin Cremel/ AFP via Getty Images Right: Far-right rioters in Sunderland, 2 August 2024 © Simone J Rudolphi/Drik/Getty Images
‘The UN
recognised the urgency for change in the UK’
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