7th August 2024
A statement from Let’s Talk About Loss in response to the racist and Islamophobic riots happening in the UK
The racist and Islamophobic riots seen in the UK over the last week are horrifying and heartbreaking. These far-right protesters are displaying disgusting behaviour fuelled by Islamophobia and anti-migrant hatred.
We know that many people are terrified right now. It is the time to check in on your Muslim, Black, people of colour, refugee and asylum seeker friends. We are also angry that the grief of the families of Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice Dasilva Aguiar and Bebe King has been so cruelly hijacked and our thoughts are with their loved ones as they come to terms with their devastating losses, and for all those harmed and living with trauma from the attacks. The immediate hijacking and politicisation of the deaths of three children will almost certainly have been triggering for many people who have experienced something similar, and our thoughts are with you too.
At Let’s Talk About Loss, our first value is safe, and we seek to ensure safety as the foundation of all our spaces. We invest heavily in equity and inclusion work: developing our Racial Equity Advisory Board, training our volunteers, staff and Trustees, and creating a culture of inclusion across all of our work. We also offer bereavement counselling support for our volunteers and meet in inclusive public spaces for our meet ups.
Today, we have emailed everyone who works with Let’s Talk About Loss to deliver our grief support, to check in with them, send our love and support, and to support them with postponing or moving online any upcoming meet ups, so that we can keep everyone safe. We have shared practical support and signposted accounts which are doing excellent work right now, including @muslimgirl and @kidsofcolourhq. Our meet ups are safe spaces for all young grievers, but racism will never be tolerated and anyone sharing racist or Islamophobic views will never be welcome with us, and we’ve reminded our team how we can support them to uphold the safety and security of our spaces.
We add our voice to those calling on the UK government to act strongly against this violence and racism. It is completely unacceptable and goes against everything we stand for at Let’s Talk About Loss. As always, anyone aged 18-35 who is grieving is welcome at our meet ups, and if you would like to speak to us about coming along to a meet up, whether it is safe and how we can protect you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Beth French, Director, and the Trustees of Let’s Talk About Loss
