Zia Teshome is congratulated by councillors after winning an award at the Town Hall

THE rise of nationalistic-fuelled racism in this country is not always as easy to quantify as with the disgraceful riots that took place across the country earlier this month.

Most often it doesn’t involve setting fire to mosques, violence on the streets and clashes with police.

I spoke to Zia Teshome this week, who wanted to speak out after the “whole C11” turned on her and the children she was travelling with last Wednesday.

It was the morning before the second wave of riots was expected to take hold in London – an event that didn’t materialise thanks to anti-racist groups including Stand Up to Racism.

Ms Teshome said she noticed a marked change among passengers who felt emboldened to start “swearing” and throwing “dirty looks” towards her and the nine-year-olds she was with, who she said were rather innocently making a bit of childish noise at the back of the single-decker.

She told me: “It was nasty behaviour. So hostile. It needs to be called out. The whole bus turned on us. These people felt no shame. They made my girls feel so unwelcome, then they had a go at me for being quiet. It was like they all felt safe to attack a black woman and children.”

Zia Teshome

She was with her daughter and two children who were over from America on holiday but will have now “gone back home thinking this is how public transport is in our country”.

Ms Teshome added: “Most black parents would not feel brave enough to go to the newspaper about it. But I thought I’m not going to let this one slide.”

Ms Teshome, who lives in Highgate and runs a black wellness group based in Euston, stayed on the C11 bus from Highgate Newtown to Gospel Oak with the children.

She said: “There have always been hidden pockets of racism around here in Highgate, but now they are feeling emboldened to come out of their shell. There was a general atmosphere that night, a bad feeling in the air. So much misinformation had been spreading about that day.”

She said she had been so proud to see the anti-racist counter protests that came out to protect areas of London threatened by a second wave of riots last Wednesday.

“It was very encouraging to see that, especially in places like Finchley,” she said. “I felt more safe after all that. But I hadn’t been sleeping well the night before. But it hasn’t gone away, they are going to do it again.”

Police chiefs and the PM Sir Keir Starmer said that tough sentences were the reason the racists did not go out that evening.