Marking the anniversary of last summer’s racist riots, the Race Equality Foundation stands in solidarity with all those affected. In this blog, we reflect on the response to the riots, ours and across the country, considering what has been done, and what there is still left to do.
A year ago, on 30th of July 2024, racist rioting broke out across towns and cities in the UK. Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic individuals and communities were threatened and left in danger. People lost their lives. Homes, places of worship and whole areas desecrated. These attacks were some of the worst, and most devastating incidents of racist violence the country has seen in decades.
Today is a time for us to ask what we have done as a country, to not only heal from the violence, but to truly learn from it, and prevent them resurfacing.
What did we do?
In the initial days, we reached out to our staff and network offering support where possible. Particularly with the families and individuals in our Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities network. But like many charities without national coordination or official guidance we struggled to provide the support needed.
We then began to liaise with our voluntary sector colleagues, and local government connections to understand if there had been any efforts to coordinate a response. Neither the 16 organisations within the Alliance for Racial justice nor our partners in Muslim-led organisations had been reached out to. We came to learn discussions were taking place, but those most directly affected, and the groups working closest with them, were not invited. At the same time, publicly leaders were failing to name the violence as racist or anti-muslim, and remained silent on the dangerous narrative that rioters had ‘legitimate grievances’. Even then, in the initial days of August 2024, we saw indications of a concerning response to the riots.
It was within this context that we launched ‘Responding to the Racist Riots’ in September 2024. It was started from our belief that there needed to be a platform for those impacted by the riots, and those working to address them, to speak on their root causes, and help shape the response.
At its core, we wanted to highlight the racist intent behind riots, and confront the deeper drivers of violence: the years of public policy failures, worsening male violence, and escalating anti-muslim hate. Concerningly these realities were missing from the dominant narrative at the time,
Since then, the project has led to:
- Organising and hosting four experts led webinars on the cross-sector causes of the riots, and necessary future action. Held in November and December 2024.
- Compiling support and resource for affected families following the riots.
- Commissioning public facing communications to challenge mainstream narratives, including an article on building an anti-racist future, and addressing the riots within the NHS.
- Facilitating sessions on the riots with community development workers.
- Carrying out community organising and facilitation on how to tackle mis, and dis, information.
- Contributing to a partnership of local and national media partners on disinformation and public trust following the riots, including contributing to a four-part publication on policy guidance, and a practical coordination model for the UK’s media.
- Continuing to hold government to account on their narrative, and commitment to addressing racism as the driver of the riots:
- Writing to the Children’s Commissioner report on Children’s involvement in the 2024 riots.
- Writing to Cabinet Office members on steps to respond to racist violence in Ballymena.
- Publishing a report understanding the causes of the riots and suggesting five policy recommendations for long-term change.
- Participating in roundtable consultations on community and cohesion.
- Contributing to the House, Communities, and Local Government committee, select committee evidence session on community cohesion.
Throughout all of this work, we have worked closely with partner organisations to shape their strategies and have begun to see elements reflected in approaches across the sector. But, we still come up against the same challenge: leadership’s failure to support the more systemic changes needed.
The continued challenges
We had hoped to mark this anniversary with a national conference as a staging post to convene parties involved in the response, review progress and consider necessary steps. We also remain committed to our call for a national public health approach to racist and gendered violence prevention, and continue to pursue funding and resources for this work.. Instead, national efforts continue to centre on the idea of greater ‘community cohesion’. All while narratives which demonise migrants and minoritised ethnic communities remain rife in mainstream rhetoric. The ‘solutions’ continue to separate the riots from systemic and structural issues of racism, social inequality, and male violence with blame placed on integration, or immigration. From Ballymena and Epping we have seen the consequences, with continuous threats of renewed and violent attacks.
Despite these challenges, we have continued our work. We are developing a leadership model for addressing racialised violence. We are engaging with partner organisations, and contributing to national conversations such as the call for evidence on the Islamophobia/Anti-Muslim Hatred Definition where we raised our serious concerns about the limited questions and their implications.
The racist riots, a year ago today, and the racist attacks we continue to see, are preventable. Policy and action to address them does exist. In spite of the barriers we come up against, we remain committed to pushing for these changes. We hope today reminds others across the country of the need to do the same.
