August 15, 2024

Cumbria CVS CEO, David Allen, gives us his views on the recent violent and racist abuse against sections of our communities:

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When something terrible happens, many of us feel like we ought to “do something”. We may have an immediate emotional response; we may want to talk to our friends and families about how we feel about it and try to understand how they feel; we may even want to challenge the status quo and “make it better”. Our responses often depend on a multitude of factors: our core values – and how we were parented ourselves; our knowledge – and the opportunities we have had to learn; our immediate worries and needs – do we need food or “fulfilment” and the chances of getting it; the opportunities we might have to work out how we can help rectify matters and our skills to then implement this.

In the case of the tragic deaths of three young girls and injuries to many others in Southport – and the immediate demonstrations of public support for those affected – we can see that many people wanted to grieve, to commiserate, to recognise the sudden and terrible loss happening to all involved.

It seems that some people used this “opportunity” to deliberately mislead others about the attacker’s religion and race and to encourage a far-right agenda of terror, racism and xenophobia. It seems that many of those who accepted this misinformation without question decided to accelerate its spread through social media, to riot and commit attacks on individuals, buildings, communities and members of our emergency services. And yes, perhaps there was also an opportunism to take advantage of this civil unrest and exacerbate it further. So why does this happen?

At best one could argue that there is a kind of “twisted logic” involved – one that attributes the blame for the actions of a single person against an entire population, religion, or race – that it is ignorance or a lack of critical thinking behind this. Some may argue that those involved were already members of right-wing organisations or had sympathies towards the arguments used; others that some “just joined in with their mates”. Some may argue that this group is just plain angry and used to expressing this anger through violent, anti-social behaviour. I suspect that all of this is probably true to a greater or lesser extent, on the sliding scale of “rationale” we might attribute to those responsible.

But in trying to make sense of the vile and violent actions of recent weeks, we must guard against falling into the same trap of “simply” targeting blame, making accusations, finding simple explanations to complex issues, focussing our ire on the “otherness” of those responsible – as a group of people who can be treated as an homogenous mass, when the reality is more complex.

Our society condemns the rioter’s behaviour and seeks to use the legal framework established by those we elect to power to take appropriate action. But all too often the action is to rapidly punish those found to be responsible – and almost as importantly from a political standpoint, to be seen to do so – but this so often fails to understanding and tackle the root causes of this behaviour.

History has shown time and again that it is inequality and injustice that breeds civil unrest – and this is deep-rooted in our systems, structures and institutions.

We know that this inequality represents itself in geographical areas of massive deprivation – we even have detailed maps describing it at neighbourhood level. We know that some of the people committing these acts are from these areas; from generation on generation of workless households; those for whom education was a trial, not a pleasure; those for whom health inequalities and shortened life span have been facts of life for generations with little opportunity for social change or mobility.

We can blame the years of austerity; the cost-of-living crisis; the pandemic; the rhetoric from media who need to sell their wares – or politicians who wish to be elected. All of it has contributed – and will continue to do so until we either see or make some changes ourselves.

• Government at all levels needs to recognise and invest in community-building as a necessary, ongoing part of civil society – not a knee-jerk response to crisis. The VCFSE sector plays a key role in this community-building work: we know that working in, with, for communities can be as challenging as it is rewarding – but without this commitment we will all simply continue to fire-fight.
• We have to take the difficult decisions as a society about reducing inequalities in society. The potential benefits are clear to see but hugely difficult to achieve. But so was getting to the moon, and we managed that 55 years ago…
• We can also engage people who hold opposing views, and talk about the issues that arise. We can try to understand them, to really listen, to use our skills and knowledge to gently bring about changed perspectives. Confrontational approaches that use shows of force, of scale, of might will only ever generate winners and losers. We need to increase equality to change perspective.

David Allen
CEO
Cumbria CVS
15.08.2024

 

Other Useful References/links

Guardian commentary on history of race riots
The Office of National Statistics
The Migration Observatory – based at Oxford University
The House of Commons Library

 

Support at a Local Level

• Whilst we are not currently aware of any large-scale civil disturbance in Cumbria, we do know that black, brown and other members of our communities have been – and continue to be – affected by recent events, with some anxious about being in public settings.
• We can all make a positive difference: reaching out to people in our communities who may be directly affected – providing warmth and reassurance can really help.
• There are many sources of advice and help available, including that provided by Cumbria CVS: for those who want to change perspectives, the guidance provided by Praxis / People’s Action Institute gives some great pointers on how to handle difficult conversations about migration.
• Members of Cumbria CVS can also access our Directory of Organisations – a searchable database of members active across Cumbria. Membership is free and joining us means we can better represent your views and provide services that support you.

Anti-Racist Cumbria
Multi-Cultural Cumbria
Proud and Diverse Cumbria
Furness Refugee Support