That's my fiancée now coming to me saying she's tired of being a brown person in the UK and doesn't know what to do with so many racists about. She was born here, has grown up here, lives here, but doesn't feel safe in her own country. Her mum came over from Malaysia in the 70s, her dad fled Uganda as a refugee after escaping Idi Amin. All that history and opportunity, all that sacrifice, and it's wound up with me and my fiancée having tentative discussions about moving to somewhere better, fairer, more tolerant.
But that only wound up with us realising that our options (aside from third world countries) are just bits of Scotland and, much further afield, Canada. Scotland the only realistic option and even then we'd have to live in a city centre to feel like we were in a cosmopolitan area.
Her mum lives in north London and rumours of more riots on Wednesday in places like Lewisham and Harrow have made her frightened of going outside.
Things will go back to normal after a few weeks but regardless, these are upsetting times. The genie is out of the bottle. These thugs are gleeful at the terror they're causing everyday people.
And anyone trying to defend the riots or their causes on this forum needs to hang their heads in shame. Far too many of them still haven't been banned from this forum. If the weeks go by and they're still here I might have to think about whether I want to spend any time here at all.
A shameful, depressing week.
