#142
A month ago I was at a mates birthday in Burgess Park.
We were playing rounders, cricket, football, drinking beers and GnT's
Listening to music and having a laugh
I jumped on my mates bike to have a cycle around the park and see what was going on
There was a huge gathering, it felt like Notting Hill Carnival.
Afrobeats music, the smell of jerk chicken in the air.
I felt like I’d entered a new world, suddenly I was the only white person around trundling through on my mates bike.
Loads of young kids started running and converging, like a mob.
I’m slowly cycling through, watching.
A fight breaks out and I see a young black boy get knocked to the floor in a sea of young black boys fighting
They can’t have been any older than 18/19 and many younger.
Others around watched, shouted, some laughed as if it was just another day, i’m sure it was
Everyone started running, so I cycled a bit faster, back to my friends.
We packed up our things and left, walked out, picnic blankets in hand.
The sound of sirens filled the air.
We got up and left, because we could.
I found out later that night someone was stabbed in Burgess Park
And I just can’t stop thinking about how easy it had been for me and my friends to leave
Yet not for the others, that is their world and they can’t just pick up their things and leave, whereas we could, so easily.
Seeing those young black boys fight and knock each other down, it’s stayed with me
And hearing about the stabbing in that same park that same night has stayed with me
I’ve seen violence and fighting growing up, but not like this. Growing up, I always thought people should know better, that they had the chance to be better, yet here - I got the sense of hopelessness, that there was no escape or no other path.
It’s stayed imprinted in my memory since I was there on August 1st.
And now I can’t unsee it. Just like I’ve been way more aware of racism since George Floyd’s murder, I can’t unsee what I saw in London, a few miles away from a Gail’s and a Vegan coffee shop selling overpriced Banana Bread there were gangs fighting and people getting stabbed.
I can’t unsee the systemic racism, the injustice and inequality on my very doorstep in London.
I can’t unsee it yet I don’t exactly know what to do about it other than share it here in the hope something presents itself.
At the very least, if I share what I saw, hopefully you’ll feel what I felt too.
James x