‘We didn’t take Elon Musk’s bait’: community spirit shines on in Dundee town of Lochee.

Musk spread anti-immigrant falsehoods about a local arrest, but the Dundee town focusses on inclusivity.

The historic mill chimney stack still stands tall over the high street in Lochee, a Dundee area formerly known for its jute industry. This “village within a city,” as locals describe it, regained national prominence last month after Elon Musk spread anti-immigrant falsehoods about an incident purportedly involving a 12-year-old girl charged with possessing offensive weapons.

Scotland’s first minister, John Swinney, accused the multibillionaire X owner of harming community harmony after sharing widely distributed video evidence from the incident. Later, authorities verified that a man and a woman were charged.

A month later, Lochee residents are still processing the fallout: far-right influencers, including Tommy Robinson, hailed the ‘Dundee girl’ as a hero, with memes depicting her as Braveheart, while mainstream media dubbed the area “Scotland’s Bronx,” highlighting “tower blocks stuffed with addicts and migrants.”

What the hot takes and hatchet jobs failed to mention was that this internet frenzy marked the end of a tragic summer in Lochee, one in which community spirit triumphed over divide. Dr Fortune Gomo, 39, a Zimbabwean physicist who graduated from Dundee University, was found fatally injured in the street in early July.

Later that month, Gary Kelly, a well-known adolescent and ice hockey champion from the area, died while on vacation in Ibiza.

“It’s been a really sad time for Lochee, but it’s also shown it at its best,” says Heather Henry, chair of the Love Lochee community organisation. “Despite the tragedy and terrible coverage, there is an incredible communal spirit.

And we’ve seen that over the last month, all the love that has poured out for those impoverished families.” Henry rejects Musk in one word: “Clickbait.” People have remarked, ‘This is not who we are.’ But you must come here to see it.

Because what has also escaped national attention are the tireless efforts of volunteers, many of whom are women, to face Lochee’s undeniable obstacles on the street. Henry’s group commissioned the vibrant murals that adorn the alleyways off the high street.

Kayley, who grew up in Lochee and is shopping here with her mother, says she adores them but wishes something could be done about the exorbitant rents that have resulted in empty flats where once strong independent companies were.

A group of street drinkers gather on a bench at the top of the hill, but Kayley claims that local efforts, including a new drop-in centre for addicts, have improved bad conduct among drug users, and she praises the community hub across the road.

Councillor Siobhan Tolland takes a brisk tour of community endeavours, including the library, which provides a warm space to visit for a cuppa in the winter, a food bank that is struggling to meet demand, and the community garden, which has a laden apple tree:

“There’s a lot of poverty in Lochee and it’s not an easy life, but [after Musk], there was a sense of ‘don’t put us down’.”

While police concluded Dr. Gomo’s attack was not racially motivated, her death inspired women from all ethnicities to speak out about a recent shift in tone on Dundee’s streets.

At Dundee International Women’s Centre, both service users and staff have reported an increase in angry glances, tuts, and racial comments from both children and adults.

Asma Hussein, the project’s organiser, works with local colleges to educate young people about hate and disinformation. She recounts students spreading stories about immigrants “coming over here and raping our girls”.

She intends to utilise ‘Dundee Girl’ as a case study: “Everyone looked at the weapons, not what was going on behind it.”

And the aggression is not limited to recent arrivals. Back on the high street, Joanne Wodkowska, the Polish owner of a vintage clothes business who has lived in Scotland for 17 years, recounts how her shop was attacked last year by children hurling eggs and using anti-Polish slogans.

Earlier this year, a white Scottish customer walked out of the business, telling her, “I’m not buying clothes from someone who doesn’t speak English”.

Last Saturday, an anti-immigrant protest arranged on the other side of Dundee drew a few hundred protestors and counter-protesters, but it ended with nothing more than angry chanting and egg-throwing.

Tolland thinks there is a genuine desire in Lochee to focus on diversity following the summer’s events. “Lochee is a city of immigrants, from the Irish who came here to work in the mills to the New Scots who arrived this century.

“Some of us were concerned that Elon Musk may incite violence here, and it is a testament to the people of Lochee that they did not take the bait. They should be proud of their resistance.

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