Hello! Welcome to COTL, a discussion place for BIPOC. Posted the first 3 Wednesdays of the month
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As some of you maybe aware! Things are not looking good in the UK!
Last week 3 little girls (R.I.P. Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar) were stabbed & murdered in a brutal and senseless attack, at a children’s summer club ‘Taylor Swift’ party. Multiple other children and a few adults were also severely injured1. It was declared a major incident.
What happened after was a series of bad faith actors using this tragic incident to ferment and sow discord and push a far-right agenda:
Even one of the victims mother’s came out against the first riot to try to stop the violence (instead of being allowed to grieve). Sadly a group of violent, racist thugs/fascists have continued to seize the “opportunity” to spread violence and hate: in an almost unprecedented (in recent times) attack at multiple communities around the UK. Primarily targeting muslim communities, but there is no end to their ignorance & the naked racism!
(You may wanna skip this next video for the virulent stupidity: I dropped out after a few minutes because the caller is truly idiotic & the interviewer wasn’t challenging the actual racist rioter enough to warrant sitting through the whole thing imo. I do recommend the second LBC (talk show radio) James O’ Brien video as he very clearly and diligently breaks down most (if not all) of the sympathizers comments:)
Short Sky News report on misinformation campaigns:
Edit: not sure why this has been age restricted? Maybe the blurred, but bloody misinformation video early on? Although kids are facing/being radicalised online:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-64761893
This Channel 4 piece goes in depth about some of the things going on and even more to come (tonight)! It even discusses Elon’s “turn” towards the Far-right:
Tonight there are some rumoured Far-Right plans to attack immigration centers around the UK (as sadly discussed in the above video with the immigration lawyer fleeing his home with his family 😔):
One of these places is my home town & I may go to a counter protest, but obviously depends on a series of factors: policing numbers, whether nearby mosques are getting attacked too &/or whether I need to help my neighbours! It’s probably a bit overblown for most of the public to be concerned now, since the attacks have been exposed?
I have so many thoughts and feelings around the situation. A mind boggling number of thoughts in regards to the treatment of asylum seekers, policing & particularly 14 years of Conservative government policies.2 Not to mention a very possible ineffectual Labour government: Keir Starmer has already promised the “full force of the Law.”3 Except the criminal justice system is practically on its knees (Wandsworth Prison was declared catastrophic 3 months ago)! As well as despite the nanny state we live in (and the inordinate amount of social media camera footage from the riots and pogroms), the far right goons have been directed to “mask” up and many of the worst offenders can be seen doing as such. How do you apply the full force of the law when you don’t even know your enemies 🙄.
Something to remember if you’re attending an antifascist protest: they fear being exposed for the bullies and racists that they are. Or at least they should be afraid, but if things proceed in the direction they have…
Still caution is advised. You don’t want to end up being involved in a riot/violent clashes and fights, which just make it more difficult for the police to sort out serious situations (forcing them to divert resources that causes other innocent people problems, etc). Then again the police were overwhelmed at the Rotherham hotel & can clearly be seen to be standing aside as thugs set fire to the hotel (with refugees inside).4
What’s really sad is I think the situation will only get worse as climate crises force an ever increasing number of migrant crossers to the UK & worsening social conditions add fuel to the fire: as successive goverments fail to address worsening inequality & growing ignorance & misinformation?
Shouldn’t ‘public spaces’ be regulated at least? To prevent idiots from calling out “FIRE?!” Or selling off ‘public spaces’ wholesale 😒. Perhaps the riots will force positive changes? Who can really say 🤷🏾♀️.
Unfortunately, the riots have unleashed a small minority element of racists thugs who wish to cause harm.* Which has gotten very personal as you can see from one of my group chats:
To any fellow Britcados: stay safe!
*Which isn’t to say good people aren’t coming out in numbers. Showing that we aren’t all a bunch of tossers. Stand up to racism/fascism protests easily outnumber the small minority of violent rioters & plenty of ordinary local people have shown up to riot sites to help cleanup & provide support afterwards.
Let us hope things change on multiple fronts, particularly in regards to misinformation.
Haven’t really got any prompts in mind. Just trying to process what’s happening over here. It’s a lot and yet… it was always fairly predictable. It feels a lot like what Americados have been dealing with for a while recently (Jan 6th comes to mind), finally bubbling up over here in the UK?
Isn’t it “weird” how one Muslim attacking is called terrorism, but a horde of white people attacking is just a disorder…?
Also in some very recent sad news: Patti Yasutake passed away at the age of 70, on Monday (at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center after a long battle with a rare form of T-cell lymphoma) 5. She played Nurse Ogawa of Star Trek: Next Generation fame (despite having only 16 appearances & very few lines). She also played Fumi (George’s mum) in BEEF (remarkably I only just learnt of this): a fantastic role & she was excellent in it. What wildly contrasting roles!
Please feel free to discuss whatever else maybe of interest to you: from the Olympics, to Kamala Harris (at least that’s been some good political news) to what would have been James Baldwin’s 100th birthday on the 2nd of August (shoutout to @blargg for yesterday’s weekly LGBT+ post).
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