Oxford Anti-Racist Protest

 

I was in Oxford city centre today when I came across a poster advertising an event in Cornmarket Street. I recall seeing this poster around town several times over the last few weeks, but never planned to attend it; however I decided spontaneously that I would check it out. It was a street protest by a coalition of several organizations united by the mission to "stop racism!" and "stop fascism!" This is an issue I have discussed many times and I won't repeat all the points I've made here; you can read about them in the background links below. The event was advertised as a "march", meaning a mobile demonstration, but it was in fact just a static protest beside St Michael at the Northgate church, opposite KFC and Itsu with lots of Saturday crowds continuously walking past. There were about fifty people there and the different groups had stalls on both sides of the pedestrianized street; the Socialist Workers' Party, Revolutionary Communist Party and a few trades union, including my old one, Unison. There was also a free Palestine exhibition. The protesters were not what I was expecting. I had a popular image of them as all being young students, but they were in fact people of all ages; mostly white, but with a few brown and black. Several wore traditional Muslim clothing. They had a row of placards without poles set up to look like police "wanted" posters. They read "WANTED- FOR RACISM!" and then with the name of the person underneath. These included Elon Musk, shown in the famous still of him supposedly making a Roman salute. Other names included Nigel Farage, Donald Trump, Tommy Robinson and a few people I don't know much about such as Shri Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India. Even though he is, of course, Indian, he is listed as a racist for his alleged anti-Muslim bigotry. Another person I have heard of, but know very little about was Alice Weidel. She is the leader of the AFD "Alternative for Germany" party; and she's likely to become the next deputy chancellor of that country. Strangely enough one of the mugshots was of Javier Milei, president of Argentina. What has he done to be considered a racist? Mind you, it doesn't take much, if anything real, to justify that slur according to those who hurl it. I didn't make myself known to these people and took a few random photos of the church to make myself appear to them like a typical tourist. I don't know if any of them recognized me; if they did they didn't show it. I didn't even get any weird looks as I stood a few feet away watching, taking photos and making notes. They handed out some flyers to passers-by including me, and you can see them below. I think it's ironic they call Nigel Farage a racist when he has recently infuriated many of his former supporters by accusing other people of that, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2025/03/nigels-nasty-side.html.

They began by shouting a series of rhyming slogans and chants. These included: "Refugees welcome here!" and "Black and white, unite and fight, stop Reform UK!" They've been using those for years, but a few were more original: "Brick by brick, wall by wall, racist borders have to fall!" and "No borders, no nations! Stop the deportations!" Then there were a series of speakers and performances. One of the speakers was a city councillor called Jabu Nala-Hartley who hails from South Africa. She described the anti-Apartheid struggle in glorious and romantic terms, carefully omitting what has happened to the white people in that country since. Another speaker took a dim view of Nigel Farage because he said that the Southport protesters had "legitimate concerns". Why is that a criticism? Do they not? Is having our children attacked and killed in a hate rampage not a reason to be concerned? There was only one heckler, which shows how staid and conformist Oxford is. A trio of young men walked past and one shouted: "No, Farage is a fuckin' ledge!" One of the protesters just replied with: "fuck you!" There was a very loud protester who was clearly on the same side as the anti-racists, but he was sitting in the verandah area of Itsu yelling very loudly. He was obviously drunk. This protest was not what I had expected, not just because of the participants' age. A common stereotype is that they are a bunch of rabid haters who despise white people, men and heterosexuals. How much you are hated depends on how many intersections of evil you have... and I am afflicted by all three! Having listened to them attentively for a whole hour I actually suspect that some of them don't literally feel that way, especially the musicians and rappers. They truly believe that a better world can be built by changing it in the way they want, removing so-called "racism" and "fascism"; and that when this is done we will all bask in a utopian paradise, and there will be no retaliations at all against white straight males. All they will do is remove this alleged "privilege" and "white supremacy" people like me supposedly enjoy; and then we will all live happily ever after. History teaches us that this is impossible. In the past, whenever people who feel demographic hatred take power that society enters a very dark place indeed, a cesspit of atrocity and genocide. I could give you an historical example... but you've just thought of one, haven't you? However, I truly do not believe most of these people are evil. They are sincere in their opinions and vision for the future. Sadly, that does not alter the effects such a dystopia would have. Below are more images from the event.
See here for background: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/08/political-correctness-portal.html.
And: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/01/donald-trump-portal.html.