Published by Far Our Magazine on Monday 26 August 2024
This bank holiday weekend, the Notting Hill Carnival, often described as ‘the biggest street party in Europe’, returned to the streets of London. Yet, alongside the event’s association with hedonism, striking colours, and loud music lies a far more significant cultural history.
Over the last month, Britain has been plagued with some of the worst racist violence in more than a generation as organised groups of fascists and racists rioted through British towns and cities, targeting mosques, asylum seeker accommodation and Black and Brown people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Shocking and frightening as the scenes of large-scale racist attacks were, it is sadly not a novel occurrence in British history. The early 20th century was littered with racist upsurges across the country in 1919, 1920 and 1958. However, in 1958, the role carnival played as a creative response to racist violence can guide us in beginning to address the divisions the far-right sought to entrench in communities across Britain earlier this month.
