Far-right rioters use violence to try to control what I feel but I refuse to give them the power

LOOSE WOMEN STAR CHARLENE DEFIES RACISTS

- JANINE YAQOOB

WHEN far-right riots broke out around the country, the scenes of hate brought back bad memories for Loose Women’s Charlene White.

Born and raised in south-east London, Charlene grew up a couple of miles from Eltham - a stronghold of the racist far-right National Front, and the place where black teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racially motivated attack in 1993.

Charlene, the daughter of Jamaican parents, says the language used in the recent riots was the same language she heard frequently as a child.

She says: "I grew up knowing the rumblings of the far right and racism - I've certainly had racist abuse thrown in my direction.

"But I know my worth. Those people believe that through violence, dissent, and aggression, they can control what I do with my life.

"The sort of language they were using was the same language of generations ago.

"I choose to not let those people have control over how I feel about myself."

The riots followed the fatal stabbings in Southport of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar on July 29.

The ugly scenes across the country, hijacking the nation's grief, were organised by the far right.

Newsreader Charlene adds: "There's a small section of society that feels through behaving in that way, they can control what happens to those they don't like those they hate simply because of where they're from.

"I choose to not give them power over me. I choose to still do the things that I want to do in my life."

And she points to the contrasting scenes in Walthamstow, north-east London, where thousands turned out for a peaceful counter-protest and drowned out the extremists.