This weekend we witnessed one of the most disgraceful and distressing demonstrations of racism in British history.

Speakers including Elon Musk directly incited racist violence, calling for British people to ‘fight back’ or die. They continue to exploit the safety of women and children to whip up hatred and fear. Meanwhile, a Sikh woman in Oldbury was raped in broad daylight by white male attackers who told her “you don’t belong in this country, get out”. 

The government and mainstream political parties have for years now flirted with racist politics, demonising migrants, people seeking asylum and Muslims to distract from their own policies that have hollowed out communities and inflicted deep poverty nationally. Their legitimisation of racism and racist narratives led to this crisis. 

But they have now lost control of this narrative to the likes of Musk who are treating people of colour in the UK with complete contempt. And whilst we feel scared and furious - our government is unable to even name this violence as racism, or take a clear principled position against it. 

It is significant that Saturday was also Stephen Lawrence’s birthday. Racism kills - and over three decades after Stephen’s murder it is unconscionable that we have a government and Prime Minister who cannot call out the racism and Islamophobia that is alive and rampant on our streets. We’re calling on the government to:

1. Name and call out racism and Islamophobia, and stop its own exploitation of them for political gain 
2. Acknowledge the fear felt by people of colour in the UK
3. Convene civil sector and community leaders to initiate a genuine conversation about how to deal with the rising tide of racism