[Image 1: A wide shot of a high-rise building in London with almost all of it blackened by fire. Image 2: The same building with the damage hidden by scaffolding and a large banner reading “Grenfell, forever in our hearts” opposite a green heart symbol.]
–
Today (June 14) is the first anniversary of the Grenfell Tower disaster. 72 people died, the vast majority of them working class, black, migrants, disabled, or Muslims. (Or a combination of more than one of those descriptors.) Many were young children, as well. The whole terrible, avoidable incident remains a massive stain on modern-day Britain. The survivors and the families of the victims still haven’t got justice for what happened.
I think about Grenfell a lot and I really want to do something, but there’s so little useful stuff I can do, especially since I can’t get to London easily from where I am in the UK. So today I’m gonna do the one thing I actually can do, which is post detailed tributes to all the 72 people who died, quoting the family members they left behind and explaining who they were and what they did.
Obviously, this comes with huge trigger warnings. Any details about victims’ deaths, rather than their lives, will be described as clinically and distantly as possible. However many family members have made it clear that they want the world to know the exact way their loved ones died, and I’ll be posting quotes from those people as well. It’s incredibly difficult stuff to read so all posts will be tagged “grenfell” “grenfell tower” and “trigger warning.” I hope that’s sufficient.
For more about Grenfell, the Guardian has covered it very extensively. You may also want to look at the hashtags #justiceforgrenfell and #justice4grenfell on twitter, where many survivors’ groups have made their voices heard.
Once I’ve finished posting about the victims I’m going to make another post talking about all the people who came out to help that night when they didn’t have to, and all the people who are still fighting for justice.
Prime Minister Theresa May has said she regrets her reaction to the tragedy, and she should. Many of the people she promised to rehouse still don’t have houses.
Again please be sure to blacklist the trigger warnings if you need to! This post is tagged with them too.
#Justice4Grenfell
–
Edit: Here are all the tribute posts, in alphabetical order by last name:
Fatemeh Afrasiabi
Sakina Afrasehabi
Amal Ahmedin
Mohammed Alhajali
Fathia Ali Ahmed Elsanosi
Mohamed Amied Neda
Alexandra Atala
Hamid Begum
Hanif Begum
Husna Begum
Kamru Begum
Rabia Begum
Leena Belkadi
Malak Belkadi
Omar Belkadi
Raymond “Moses” Bernard
Vincent Chiejina
Bassem Choucair
Fatima Choucair
Mierna Choucair
Nadia Choucair
Sirria Choucair
Zaynab Choucair
Joseph Daniels
Jeremiah Deen
Zainab Deen
Tony Disson
Eslah Elgwahry
Mariem Elgwahry
Abdulaziz el-Wahabi
Faouzia el-wahabi
Mehdi el-Wahabi
Nur Huda el-Wahabi
Yasin el-Wahabi
Logan Gomes
Marco Gottardi
Berkti Haftom
Biruk Haftom
Farrah Hamdan
Firdaws Hashim
Yahya Hashim
Yaqub Hashim
Abufars Ibrahim
Isra Ibrahim
Rania Ibrahim
Fethia Ibrahim-Hassan
Hania Ibrahim-Hassan
Nura Jemal
Hamid Kani
Hashim Kedir
Khadija Khalloufi
Victoria King
Deborah Lamprell
Amna Mahmud Idris
Gary Maunders
Mary Mendy
Ligaya Moore
Denis Murphy
Isaac Paulos
Maria del Pilar Burton
Steven Power
Hesham Rahman
Khadija Saye
Abdeslam Sebbar
Shelia Smith
Gloria Trevisan
Mohamednur Tuccu
Amaya Tuccu-Ahmedin
Jessica Urbano Ramirez
Ernie Vital
Marjorie Vital
Ali Yawar Jafari