14/06/2026
Two years ago when the far right marched, I closed the restaurant and went home.
I was scared. I’d watched what was happening across the country on the news. The violence. The hatred. So I shut up shop and went home. I didn’t go to the counter protest. I felt gutted. Weak. A little ashamed. Like I’d let these racist fools dictate to me. Like I’d failed my kids.
Growing up in northwest London in the 80s, “paki” was just a word people said to us. We were never taught to challenge it. Just quietly accept it. I remember being called it getting breakfast at a holiday camp. I was 7. The man was in his 20s. I don’t think my parents even knew how offensive it was. Maybe because they came from somewhere else. Maybe they were just trying to survive. My dad wasn’t a weak man. But he took it. A lot of Ugandan Asians just took it on the chin. They had to.
Today the fascists came back to Brighton. I woke up with a migraine. Exhausted. Ten days to opening. The last thing I needed.
But I told Susie — we have to go.
Me and Ettie walked down. I was trying to explain to her why these people were marching. Why they had so much hatred toward brown people. She looked up at me and said “what, people like me and you daddy?”
Yeah baby. People like me and you.
We found the sound system. Tunes blaring. And then the people. So many people. Familiar faces and unfamiliar faces. The energy. The solidarity. The sheer love in that crowd. 4000 of us. 200 of them.
We danced. We chanted. We kept the line.
We even bumped into one of my favourite singers, , right there in the crowd. She’s on , one of my favourite labels. Of course I had to pitch her to come sing at the new Kitgum. 😏
They did not pass. They turned around. They went home. WE WON. THEY LOST. Get out of our town.
I told Afia afterwards that they couldn’t finish their march. She said “aww poor them.” How beautiful and innocent.
But yeah. Poor them.
Poor them because they’re so lost they ended up in Brighton on a Saturday thinking they’d win.
They didn’t.
Whose streets?
OUR STREETS
Fayaz X
