The 14th of June was the three year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower disaster, in which a tower block in North Kensington, London, caught fire, burning for 60 hours, killing 72 people and injuring and traumatizing hundreds more.
During the investigation into just how the fire became so deadly, it was found that the cladding on the outside of the building was highly flammable and released toxic cyanide gas when burnt. The residents of the tower block had approached the local authority several times in the years leading up to the fire to complain about the poor maintenance and health and safety within the flats, but had been ignored almost every time. It was also discovered as part of the inquiry that hundreds of similar tower blocks across the country are clad in the same flammable material, and despite government pledges to change this, three years on nothing has been done.
The government response to the crisis was a series of disastrous media appearances, offensive soundbites and poor decisions. Those that got caught in the fire had the blame for their injuries and deaths directed back at them, as Jacob Rees-Mogg claimed that the victims were to blame, lacking 'common-sense' for not following the advice of firefighters, which was to remain inside their apartments whilst the building burnt around them. Prime Minister Theresa May visited the tower in the days after the disaster, but refused to meet with any of the residents who were now traumatized and homeless. Over half of Grenfell residents are still not in permanent housing today, three years after the disaster, and as of January 2020, 21000 households are still living in tower blocks wrapped in the flammable cladding which made the Grenfell fire so deadly. Additionally, the government has used the Coronavirus crisis to suspend the Grenfell Tower inquiry, without setting a date for it to continue or llowing it to continue digitally. Just before the suspension of the inquiry, it was revealed that Studio E, the architects of the tower, had not read the appropriate fire safety guidelines before designing and constructing the tower. Nobody, thus far, has been held responsible or prosecuted for what happened at Grenfell.
The Grenfell disaster has become symbolic of the deeply-embedded, institutional class and racial inequality which is so prevalent in Britain today. The unsafe construction of housing built in typically working-class areas with large ethnic minority populations is indicative not only of governmental neglect and disregard for ethnic minorities and the working-class, but a deliberate attempt to exclude them from society. Tower blocks like Grenfell were hastily and unsafely constructed to house those displaced by slum clearance and gentrification of formerly racialised working-class areas. This resulted in a kind of hyper-segregation, where the living standards of the working class, with a high proportion of ethnic minorities, became very poor, whilst the living standard of the middle class, who had taken over working class areas, improved exponentially. This strategy of gentrification followed decades of governmental strategy during the Windrush era, which denied BAME people socioeconomic and political rights, in order to try to deter more BAME immigration.
The government's fleeting and performative response to the Grenfell disaster is characteristic of their attitude towards ethnic minorities and the working class. Welfare cuts, unsafe housing and gentrification of traditionally working-class areas are all tactics used deliberately by the government to restrict social mobility, and perpetuate a state whose institutions suppress the racialised working class and prevent them from taking up positions which might 'threaten' the privilege of the white, the wealthy, and the males, which is so beneficial to those who run our country. The recent global push towards racial equality reminds us that America is not the only country with a race problem. Here in the UK, people are still targeted because of their race, and people still die because of it.
This moment, then, offers promise. Whilst we remember those who died at Grenfell, let's use the anger we feel over this tragedy, and apply it to the present. We can use the momentum already gained by the anti-police brutality and Black Lives Matter movement to force change, change the government should have made of their own accord following the disaster. It is shameful that the government should have to be forced by the people to make the obvious moral choice to prevent the death of their citizens, but now is the time for us to do it.
You can find out more about the Grenfell disaster here:
How Can You Help?
The Grenfell Foundation continues to collect donations which go towards raising awareness of the disaster, looking after the wellbeing of those affected by it, and organizing events to remember those who died and keep Grenfell in the public eye - https://grenfellfoundation.org.uk/
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