Last week, 17-year-old Aneeqa Akhtar’s door was kicked in and her family’s car is now a write-off. When a mob of rioters charged through Middlesbrough on Sunday, they came to her home and the homes of many others – and changed their lives.
I spoke to Aneeqa on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme at the start of this week and she recounted that her two younger siblings, with whom she was huddled upstairs at home after they locked all of the doors and windows, asked if they were going to die. Understandably she described the experience as traumatic. Those that did this were seen smashing car windows, as they walked the streets and a racial slur was used.
Aneeqa’s mum moved to the UK 20 years ago and works as a carer, relying on her now destroyed car to do her job. But it was what this 17-year-old said at the end of our interview that I keep replaying in my mind.
When they went outside to assess the damage, Aneeqa felt that the family was being looked at in a different way. She said: “You could just see people looking, staring, seeing what’s happened. The car was a survival resource. We have nothing now. This is going to stay with us for a long time. The way this targeted Muslims is scary.”
It is horrifying on every level. The idea that in this country a Muslim family are huddled upstairs on a Sunday evening, terrified for their lives as their door gets kicked in and racial abuse is shouted on the streets where they live, is hard to fathom. But it happened.
The psychological damage of this week will live long after all the physical damage is hopefully repaired.
Going into work on Thursday morning, we were braced, alongside many other parts of the UK, for a morning of reporting and reflecting on the night before of what was expected to have been one of far-right carnage. It wasn’t the case. The only thousands of people thronging the streets of some cities and towns were counterprotesters, holding banners decrying racism, with thankfully nothing really to counter.
We breathed a little and tried to capture what had happened and crucially what hadn’t. Although it should be noted that it had still been a rough night in Belfast. And when I interviewed a representative from the Police Federation that morning, we were told in no uncertain terms that this period of violence and unrest was not over.
But what was striking was how much healing needed to be done and was already taking place, through the random acts of kindness bubbling up throughout the UK.
From the manicurist in Liverpool raising thousands for her local library and community hub which had been set alight, to the man in Hartlepool fundraising for the mosque that was targeted (but thankfully protected) to show support for the Muslim community, people were moved to try and help. And by the end of the week that was, these stories were becoming as much a part of the riots as the riots themselves, and it was heartening.
It is easy to feel powerless in the face of senseless violence and racism, but a picture was emerging of how big and small acts were changing the face of the week that took everyone by surprise, from politicians to police to those simply living their lives.
The story we covered by my last shift of the week on Thursday went right to the heart of that emotional carnage. Mohammed Idris runs Bash Café in Belfast, and came to this country from Sudan seeking asylum in 2008. He is a British citizen and his café was burned to the ground. It isn’t the first time that he and his business have been targeted in a racist attack.
But Stephen Montgomery, a man he doesn’t know, has now raised more than £100,000 to help Mohammed rebuild once again, alongside four other businesses targeted by violence. He had been in Liverpool, watching online the horror unfolding in his home city, and set up a GoFundMe page which cleared £100,000 in 48 hours.
Both of them, never having met, came on the Today programme together. And it soon became clear, as Mohammed shared the pain of being the victim of a racist attack, that Stephen’s actions, alongside all those who had donated to the fund, had a deep impact on him.
Speaking of the fundraiser, he said: “That is the brighter side of this story. I am impressed by the support I received from the majority of the people. I see and feel this solidarity and kindness and generosity. This has changed my mind.
“First, when I see my business burn completely – I was at home and my friends sent me a video – I decided immediately, no, this is not the place. I should close down and go somewhere else. But after I see how the people are supporting me – people like Stephen and the thousands coming together to support me to open [the café] again – this changed my mind.”
A full post-mortem examination of this period will have to take place: why people took to the streets; what is going to happen now; what worked as a deterrent – the counterprotesters’ stance or the threat of tough sentencing; and how to curb the misinformation that started this violence in the first place.
But in a week of reporting that began with Aneeqa’s fear and horror, I hadn’t expected to end it talking to Mohammed, who has had his mind changed by the actions of strangers.
And yet that’s the news. You don’t know what is going to happen. How it moves and can totally surprise you, sometimes pleasantly so.
The news is about people – how we act and how we respond. Breaking news only becomes clearer after the event. And sometimes, even then, a bigger picture is hard to see. This story of what happened in the 10 days since three school girls were fatally stabbed while dancing to Taylor Swift at the start of their school holidays is still developing. Southport is very much still reeling and those families are grieving.
What we shouldn’t lose sight of are the parts we cannot see and easily report: the emotional impact of such events and how there are a lot of people right now who feel, as Aneeqa put it, like they are being looked at differently.
Something shifted this week. It is our job to capture that – and not forget about it.
News needs to have memory as well as immediacy. And the random acts of goodness also need spotlighting – not just because they teach us a great deal about who some of us are, but also because these stories may just help someone to feel a bit better in their very bruised skin.
Emma Barnett presents BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme