White Race Riots: I don't know which is worse, the racism of our enemies or the silence of our friends.

As a British Black community, we anticipated that the white working class, once disillusioned by the false promises of Brexit, would direct their anger and frustration towards Muslims, Black people, asylum seekers—anyone but those truly responsible: the ruling elite and bankers. Unfortunately, as we've seen after a horrendous weekend of white race riots and please let call them what they are, race riots, some of our worst fears have been fully realised this weekend.

Trapped in a cost-of-living crisis, witnessing the degradation of public services the poorer areas of the UK have identified anyone assumed who is not a 20^th generational ‘White Anglo-Saxon Protestant’ (WASP) to be a part of the “British multiculturalism: problem. 

Led there over the last quarter of a century, by right-wing politicians in all parties and supported by sections of a hysterical right wing press, and a libertarian style Tory Government, Britain’s poorer communities and xenophobic press have enjoyed and indeed revelled in an old style, but all too common national conspiracy within western nations. They have systematically with their full chest vilified Islam and launched an ideological war on progressive values in a so called ’war on the woke.” 

Both here and in the US, we see the evidence of how white men seem to be having a collective nervous breakdown which I believe is a consequence of the realisation that demographic projections show the global birth rate of white people dropping catastrophically, whilst Black and Brown peoples and their nations are rising. Add to this the reality of inevitable decline of western economies whose GDP rates barely have a pulse and the continuing rise of the BRICS nations, and the rapid de-dollarisation of the global economy that is taking place, and you can see why they’re pissed. They can see the end coming. 

White billionaires have looked at their demographics, done the maths and are terrified by what they see. This is what the lurid nightmares of racists are made of and why we are living our lives subject to their worst racist imaginations, entrapped by the worst fears and lack of empathy of some white people. 

For those of the pointy hood disposition their most indelible fears can be summed up in the title of Public Enemy’s 1990’s seminal Hip Hop album “The Fear of a Black Planet.”  Wracked by fear some billionaire whites have set out to fund their survival which they see as being inextricably linked to maintaining a WASP nation and culture. Their impeding economic and political decline explains the increasingly hysterical nature to their xenophobic racism as they desperately seek to engineer another outcome.  

Whilst those that work on amplifying haltered are loud and obnoxious our friends and allies’ voices have been muted, some have in attempt to gain electoral popularity conceded to aspects of racism and have become utterly consumed by it. Once staunch anti-racist allies now engage in a largely cosmetic anti racism that is performative and ineffectual, whilst some have unforgivably accepted and therefore legitimised racist sentiment on immigration. 

It was Dr Martin Luther King Jnr who during the US civil rights struggle and lamenting the soft, cosmetic ant racism and lack of action from white liberals said,  

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Talking about friends, the past fourteen years, Labour’s concessions to this racist narrative have only served to normalise and legitimise these sentiments. 

The 2016 Brexit referendum catalysed this tectonic plate shift, transforming xenophobia and racism into perceived legitimate concerns of the white working class, and driven by a relentless and hostile media agenda. Labour’s willing compliance on issues of immigration, policing, and foreign aid created a fertile ground for the rise of the extreme right. We are now facing the consequences of politicians who chose to exploit racism for electoral gain, whose actions have led to a post Brexit society that is wracked with racial tensions and animus.

The complicity of centrists and liberals in this state of affairs isn’t always evident. However those with a keen eye will report that the UK has now adopted a form of organised racism and fascism reminiscent and modelled on the success of modern European continental fascism. It wont be lost on many that Britain left the EU and imported European style fascism. 

The left’s failure to robustly oppose racism has led us to our current predicament. Whilst the Labour movement and trade unions have done some great work in challenging racism and fascism in 2024 their anti-racism has become antiquated, compromised, cosmetic and ineffectual,  The lefts failure challenge austerity and to understand the importance of ensuring poorer communities were supported and educated about the nature of racism through political education means these communities were left angry that Labour had let them down locally and utterly vulnerable to racist exploitation by organised racists. 

The long lesson from history is that when political leaders legitimise racism for their own political or party benefit, the repercussions are inevitably disastrous.

And today we see that those who once demanded to "take back their country" and who told us this wasn’t at all racist, now seem to yearn for an increasingly homogeneously white Christian nation. 

Both Frage and Tommy Robinson are cowards really and should say what they really want and just be upfront with the public. They believe, there are just too many Muslims, Black people, and asylum seekers in the UK.  They really want to ban Islam, shut down Mosques and end all non-white non-Christian immigration to the UK. In essence what this post Brexit ‘we want our country back ‘refrain now means today is “we want our circa 1940’s white Christian country back.  

Yesterday it was Brexit. today’s narrative is about stopping the boats; tomorrow, it will focus on enforced mass deportations. In 2024 as Black and Asian communities we now find ourselves under sustained and brutal racist attacks, betrayed by both the right and the left.

To all the genuine anti-racists defending their communities, I offer my deepest respect. We know there are many more of us than there are of them. We need to make sure communities are educated about the risk and mobilised to take action.  

Talking of action it’s time for trade unions to take decisive action and fund large-scale anti-racism initiatives. We need dynamic Black leadership at the forefront of the anti-racist movement to avoid past pitfalls. It’s imperative to decolonise the left’s traditional approaches to anti-racism and rebuild with strength and resilience. We need a government that addresses the root causes of endemic poverty and austerity, which breeds racism, hostility, and division.

The future appears bleak. We can look forward to more neoliberal falsehoods about the economy and that inevitably leads to more scapegoating. Trapped in an economic straight jacket of their own making Labour’s stunning election win but poor popularity has already be shown to be broad and thin. Maintaining an alliance with Sunderland and Southall is no easy feat. 

When things eventual turn sour for Labour as they struggle to meet expectations, we may see in a couple of years more race riots and a revitalised Farage leading a rebranded Tory party, challenging Labour on race and immigration. The environment in certain parts of the country is becoming increasingly hostile. 

What, then, is the solution? British democracy is at a crossroads, and we need a Labour party that unequivocally rejects racism.

We need a trade union movement that invests in political education for the working class and funds Black and Asian anti-racist organisations. We also need substantial democratic reforms. If racism is to persist as a characteristic of British politics, it is preferable to have these views expressed openly, where they can be challenged. Proportional representation is crucial for restoring faith in democracy, even if it means the election of some racists.

We must unify, demand better anti racist leadership, and ensure our voices resonate in the halls of power. Only through collective effort and unwavering commitment can we hope to build a more inclusive and just Britain, Whether or not we can achieve that goal is not certain, Whether Britain becomes a modern 21^st century multicultural democracy or an antiquated mono cultural relic of the past now hangs precariously in the balance.