For Black Britons, UK riots leave lasting scars

LONDON — “Please do not go out until this blows over,” Sarah Akinterinwa, messaged a friend on August 7.

“I’m going into town tomorrow. Should be okay,” came the response. “Alone?” she asked. The messages from Akinterinwa, an illustrator and writer from London, are typical of the concern that spread among Black Britons as racist riots erupted in towns and cities across the country at the start of August.

The violence was ostensibly aimed against Muslims, immigrants and the police after misinformation about a deadly knife attack on young girls spread online. But it morphed into a much wider threat that has left the Black community shaken.

“My mother lives in Harrow, so I told my brother to make sure she doesn’t go anywhere,” said Natalie Foster, a software developer who learned that the London suburb was on a list circulating among far-right groups of places to gather next. The targets were mainly immigration lawyers’ offices and immigration centres, but the violence was broader.

White rioters attacked hotels housing asylum seekers, mosques and police officers as well as smashing and looting shops on the pretext of false online information that the suspected killer of three young girls was an Islamist migrant.