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CAMPAIGNERS warned today that anti-racists must mobilise against the hostile environment to avoid racial violence becoming the norm.
Stand Up to Racism (SUTR) hosted a meeting in Parliament before a planned protest in London on March 21 to mark UN Anti-Racism Day.
Attendees included Labour MPs Diane Abbott, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Claudia Webbe.
Ms Abbott said that she expects PM Boris Johnson to express more “ruthless and unscrupulous views on migration to appeal to certain voters” on the far right.
SUTR co-convenor Weyman Bennett said that the most “visible” black and ethnic minority people, such as Muslim women, will be targeted the most because Islamophobia has become “the accepted” form of racism.
The meeting heard about El Harding, a 20-year-old black man who was attacked by a gang of six white men while working at the Duke of Wellington pub in west London.
Family friend Alley Eugenicos said that no arrests have been made despite police having CCTV footage of the attack and details of the men’s cards used to make payments.
She said that, after Mr Harding confronted them for eating food which they had not paid for, they forced him into an isolated back room, called him n*****, threw a chair at his head and pulled his chain off.
Ms Eugenicos said: “His place of work did not bother to call the police or seek medical assistance for El.
“He made his way home and his mother called the police and sought treatment for the injuries he sustained.
“The family have been left completely in the dark with no support.”
Mr Harding had to drop his university studies due to having his shoulder dislocated, and his anxiety and depression have been heightened, she said.
Ms Eugenicos continued: “That night was not his first experience of trauma. In 2015, his friend was murdered and died in his arms.”
Leicester East MP Ms Webbe said that she recently visited a school in her constituency where about 100 Indian children had to be bussed to and from home due to “beatings and racism” from other children.
Ms Webbe said: “This is the level of racism we are dealing with.
“It’s important that we unite and take the fight on. Boris Johnson and his ilk are imitating the kingpin of them all — US President Donald Trump — and we need to stamp it out.”
