People from all walks of York life today joined with the city’s MPs, the Lord Mayor and council leaders to stand against racism and for community cohesion.
The first We Are York gathering saw voluntary and community groups take stalls in the St Sampson’s Centre.
Meanwhile St Sampson’s Square was decorated with both Union flags, and flags of all the nations.
City of York Council leader Claire Douglas spearheaded the event. She told YorkMix: “It’s our community coming together to really think about what it means in York to stand together against racism and hate crime and stand up for our communities at this time, when people have felt threatened and intimidated on their streets.
“We’ve said it needs to stop.
“We’ve had the York Mosque, the imams have been here. We’ve had the rabbi, we’ve had the vice chancellor of the university, a number of city leaders, who all have felt that we really need to show what York is and why we stand together.”
We Are York was organised in the light of an increase in hate crimes following the mass flagging of the city.
Cllr Douglas said: “To start off with, our city was almost paralysed with what was going on.
“They saw these flags. They thought, What’s this? Who’s doing it? Why are they doing it? And over time, we have seen that actually, it has been quite sinister.
“There’s nothing wrong with flying our flags. We really value our Union flag and St George’s flag, when they go up in the right place – not when they are put up by people outside bedroom windows, on ladders in the middle of the night, when communities don’t want it.
“I’m really happy to see that communities are coming out, they’re standing up for themselves – and today is part of that.”
She said most people who had contacted her were patriotic about the British flag, “but they don’t want to see them used in a negative way.
“And those people have felt intimidated. They haven’t liked seeing them going up in their communities.
“It’s been the majority who’ve said, we want them to come down from the lampposts, and we want them to be flown respectfully on flagpoles in a way that we can all respect and enjoy.”
Cllr Douglas hopes the We Are York movement will grow. “We really want to see this going out into other parts of our community, into our suburbs like Acomb and Tang Hall, so that our communities across the city can come together, get to know each other better, find positive ways of contributing in the community and show that we are really strong and united.”
If you’d like to get involved with We Are York in your community, you can contact the council leader at cllr.cdouglas@york.gov.uk.
