2024 September
Autumn has come. Nights draw in, schools are back and summer’s events suddenly seem a long time ago.
The racist violence and rioting on our streets in July and August are no longer making headlines, but that doesn’t mean it’s all over. The fear and trauma for those people on the receiving end of attacks or threats continues, especially for people already marginalised and living with trauma.
And the racism focused on people of colour, Muslim people, refugees and recent migrants in particular, hasn’t gone away either. The summer media focused on individual and mob acts of aggression, but the racist structures and institutions that uphold inequalities in so many lives were little challenged and remain intact.
Magic Me condemns all racism whether individual, group or corporate. We stand in solidarity with colleagues, and our participants, neighbours and partners in our local community of Tower Hamlets. In August we joined with many others to sign a Collective Statement responding to the far-right racial violence, which you can read here.
Initiated by Tower Hamlets Community Voluntary Sector it contains the lines:
We recognise the power of peaceful action as a deterrent but also the need for continued vigilance. We also note that there is much disinformation being spread, designed to provoke and create more fear.
For centuries London has been a mix of long established communities and a very mobile population. One in 5 people move in or out of Tower Hamlets every year; change is constant.
Magic Me brings together people different in age and generation, younger and older, meeting and making, exchanging ideas and points of view. Changing populations over decades mean that these groups often also include people of different cultures, races and faiths, a rich mix of insights and experience.
This Autumn, as our projects restart and new programmes begin, our focus is more than ever on creating opportunities for conversations which challenge assumptions and unpick misinformation. Through meeting together we can all find common ground and creative ways forward.
Susan Langford, Director / Founder