Jasmina Bide Co-Director of Round Table Books, Brixton.
Marvin Gaye mural depicting a riot with picket signs with the title of his 1971 album“ What’ s Going On”, Brixton.
Fruit and Vegetable shop, Brixton Village Marketplace, Brixton.
Photos by Micheal H. Cottman this bad attack that happened,” Felone said.“ And that can be the perception, when you’ re looking at more mainstream media.”
Brixton became a key destination for Black migrants from the Caribbean around 1948. In the years since, Brixton has had to face some challenges, including the 1981 riots, which, allegedly, were a result of police brutality, inadequate housing, and social and economic inequalities.
Today, Brixton is known for its distinct Afro-Caribbean and diverse multicultural neighborhoods, a strong cultural scene, social justice forums with Black authors, artists, and scholars, community health and wellness campaigns, boisterous activism, and lively open-air markets where the aroma of curry chicken hangs in the air, where the beef patties are hot, the ginger beer is cold, and where mother’ s push babies in strollers while shopping for fresh fish.
Wayne Campbell was born and raised in Brixton, and, at 56 years old, has never left the area. He still lives steps away from where he grew up. He is part photographer, part historian and part community activist. He’ s a consistent, outspoken, and welcomed voice for Brixton’ s Afro- Caribbean residents.
“ I grew up in Brixton at a time when it was considered in the same sentence as Johannesburg( South Africa), and Compton( a section of Los Angeles), as being one of the worst places in the world to visit,” Campbell told me. Many outsiders saw Brixton as a crime-ridden place to be avoided.
That perception, Campbell says, is entrenched in the media’ s coverage of Brixton and it’ s the reason why Campbell says he mostly steers clear of mainstream British media
– television, radio and online publications.
Joseph, a Brixton Uber driver who didn’ t want me to use his last name, agrees. Originally from Guyana, Joseph says he gets his news about London’ s Black community from“ pirate” radio stations because he doesn’ t trust mainstream media. He doesn’ t consider Brixton a“ news desert” because information is readily available, but he says the public is misled about Brixton by the mainstream media.
“ I don’ t watch,” he said.“ I don’ t, and I don’ t look at social media.”
At the spacious newsroom of the Brixton Bugle, a free community newspaper, editor Alan Slingsby said the publication strives to be a positive voice in Brixton. Residents deserve to be properly informed about all aspects of their community, he said. But the paper, which is struggling financially, can’ t fill all of the needs that Brixton residents have for news and information.
In the United States,“ news deserts” are often found in urban areas, like Baltimore, and rural areas and certain parts of the United States, particularly the South. States like Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana have a high concentration of counties with no local newspapers.
But in Brixton, Slingsby said, the problem with mainstream media can be summed up with one word: Neglect.
“ There are areas we’ d love to cover, but we just don’ t have the resources – human or financial,” Slingsby said.“ One of our main aims – given our shortage of resources – is give young people, particularly from communities that find it hard to break into journalism, a byline. Just one
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