I've been looking for a way to write about last week's riots since they started, but it is David Starkey who gave me the inspiration I needed.
A week ago, I said to my family, "this is gonna turn racial", and boy, was I right! The riots in Tottenham on Saturday were justifiable, in my opinion. The police executed a man in the street, wouldn't give his family any answers, and the frustration of being ignored turned into violence. I do not condone the violence at all, but I can definitely understand why the situation escalated. What followed over the week was mostly a mixture of opportunism and copycat violence, but it has thrown a light over some of our societies issues, particularly the issue of racism. Photographs and videos from the London riots were dominated by black faces, but the looting did not discriminate. People of every race, religion, background, colour, and social class found their way onto the streets to destroy their own cities. And as the riots moved further away from London, into places like Manchester, where the population is predominately white, it became increasingly evident that these acts of destruction transcended race.
So when idiots like David Starkey realised that it wasn't only black people rioting, he did what he could to exhonerate his white counterparts by saying "the whites have become black". As I watched him express his racist thoughts live on the BBC, I became increasingly frustrated at that cretinous "scholar". But as he sat there and defended his words as "plain speaking", it became clear to me that his view was one likely shared by more people than we would believe. David Starkey is the idiot stupid enough to say out loud what many people were most probably thinking.
So what happens next? My theory is one you might not agree with, but here it is anyway: racist bastards like David Starkey will continue to have their ignorant say on national television, and spark up enough sympathisers to stir up racial tensions. Police will become more discriminate against young black Londoners. The BNP get more votes than ever. The knock-on effect these riots will have is bigger than we could possibly conceive.
I think you are right. The whole thing obviously turned racial as a way for people to detach themselves from the actual problem which is our society's youth. I was appalled and ashamed to be associated with them.
ReplyDeleteWe like to think that we as a nation have moved on from racism, but what David Starkey showed when he said what he did demonstrates how prevalant racism still is. Why were black people singled out like this when it was obvious to everyone that they were not the only group of people rioting and looting? We like to think we do not discriminate, but I think you hit ona good point when you said that obviously Starkey was not an individual opinion, he merely stupidly expressed what so many others were thinking. It makes me sad to think, then, that although we, as a nation, like to give the impression we have moved away from discriminatio, in reality, we have not. Great post, Leighan!