St Pauls Carnival Anti-Racism Statement In Response To UK Riots

We are deeply saddened and disturbed by the violent scenes in our city, and the rest of the country, over the weekend. We are an actively anti-racist organisation and call out this violence as clearly racist and particularly Islamophobic. We stand with our Muslim Brothers and Sisters and despite the horrific scenes in Bristol this weekend, we are heartened by the acts of solidarity and defiance. These acts show who we are and the best of humanity; we must not allow a noisy, angry minority to divide us.

St Pauls Carnival was founded by migrants and our organisation celebrates their contribution to the UK. As a community cultural event, we welcome everyone, from everywhere, to join us while we celebrate our heritage. Events like Carnival have become well established in the UK and are attended by people from many different ethnicities and faiths, and we celebrate this. This is the best of us.

As we mark Jamaican Independence today, it serves as a reminder of our shared histories, which is not always comfortable, but must be acknowledged and learned from. 

We thank those allies who are doing the work in our communities, keeping people safe and calling out racism for what it is.

We call on national and local media to be mindful of language. Do not legitimise these actions with the words ‘protest’ or ‘protestors’. This is violent and racist behaviour that must be described as it is.

We call on our national and local leaders to work together to send a clear message that racism and violence is never acceptable and will not be tolerated.

We call our friends, neighbours and allies to be ever vigilant and actively anti-racist.

St Pauls Carnival CIC