I had been living in Seattle for less than a year when I observed my first “riot.” I just completed an evening work shift and arrived home sometime after midnight. I decided to watch a few minutes of television before I went to bed. To my astonishment, the local channels were filled “live reports” from breathless reporters racing about downtown Seattle from one “hotspot” to the next. So what was going on? A riot was going on. Funny how I hadn’t noticed anything suspicious, seeing that my place of employment at the time was a only few blocks north of the Westlake Center. Since my apartment was a stone’s throw from downtown, I decided to take a stroll and see what all the excitement was all about.
It turned out that the “excitement” was essentially a copycat reaction to the rioting in Los Angeles following the acquittals of the police officers who beat Rodney King in 1991. What was surprising was that most of the people I saw where white kids. The initial activities were likely initiated by black youths who were genuinely angered by the verdict--or were thugs using it as an excuse for thuggery--but it soon became an “event” where kids either observed or took part in vandalism and looting; I recall someone trying to break a jewelry display window with a brick, which ended up getting stuck in the glass. It looked like some surreal artwork. I walked around, noticed that some newspaper stands had been knocked over, and some car windows broken, became bored by the pointlessness and went home; I noted that in a few places there were lines of police in an intimidating stance, but otherwise they did little to stop the goings-on.
I suppose it could be said that other than the initial outrage at a perceived injustice, there was little that could be said to justify the subsequent activities. Most of these white kids were from middle-to-upper class families, bored with their easy life, and now given the chance to do something “naughty,” they engaged in the thrill of “civil disobedience.” In the future, they might expand on their adventure, telling their kids and grandkids the thrilling story of how they took to the streets, faced down the police and defied the economic and political elite—all in the name of a holy crusade for civil rights and justice. In retrospect, it is remarkable how an incident and its aftermath that occurred in another city and state could have such an effect on a nannytown like Seattle, especially when today police shootings and beatings are fairly commonplace—which save of rare circumstances, like the John T. Williams shooting, hardly merit more than handwringing. It is as if people had become accustomed to such behavior and satisfy themselves that the victim must have done something “bad”—either at the time or in the past.
Now, the riots in the United Kingdom seem to have caught some people off-guard, since the Brits are supposed to be superior, and with that accent that can sell any American schlub a paper sack full of dog doo-doo (I saw that in a one of those old Mad Magazine paperbacks). Of course, riots don’t simply occur in a vacuum, and they need not have occurred if politicians and the police had been less insensitive to the passions they were dealing with. A black man, a father of three young children, was shot dead by police. At the first the police claimed that the victim was armed and he had shot at them first. However, in a scenario we in the states are all too familiar with, the initial story was unfortunately contradicted by facts, and the police admitted that the victim was unarmed. When the police and government seemed less than forthcoming with answers, a crowd of demonstrators was organized to demand said answers. Police confronted the demonstrators, telling them that they were “heard” and should go home. Unsatisfied, a 16-year-old girl separated from the crowd and approached the police, angrily demanding an explanation for the unjustified killing. According to witnesses, the police “set upon” her, enraging the crowd; it was from that point that events got out of control.
In reaction to the scenes of looting and burning, you might find reactions such as the following I found on the internet: “Time to break out the bayonets and introduce these feral rats to the 'feel of cold steel.'” Prime Minister David Cameron, didn’t go that far, but as typical of conservative politicians, blamed an apparently unBritish “culture” of disrespect of “boundaries” of acceptable behavior, and refusal to recognize your place in a class-riven society. Historian David Starkey worked-up a storm by declaring on a television discussion panel that “A substantial section of the chavs have become black. The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture has become the fashion…Black and white, boy and girl operate in this language together. This language which is wholly false, which is a Jamaican patois, that’s been intruded in England and this is why so many of us have this sense of literally a foreign country.” Odd how that attitude sounds so familiar—and just as hypocritical. Starkey proceeded to bring-up the sore subject of conservative politician Enoch Powell’s “River of Blood” speech in 1968, in which he gave voice to paranoid racists and cultural xenophobes in Britain with the following “prophecy”:
“For these dangerous and divisive elements the legislation proposed in the Race Relations Bill is the very pabulum they need to flourish. Here is the means of showing that the immigrant communities can organise to consolidate their members, to agitate and campaign against their fellow citizens, and to overawe and dominate the rest with the legal weapons which the ignorant and the ill-informed have provided. As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see ‘the River Tiber foaming with much blood.’"
What Powell was so up in arms about was an anti-discrimination law which he feared would allow dark-skinned immigrants to demand redress for unequal treatment, and once receiving satisfaction through the courts, compete on an equal footing with “native” Brits—perhaps even with the possibility of some of these immigrants surpassing natives in the social and economic hierarchy. In his speech Powell’s provides an anecdote to “bolster” his position, about an older white woman who owns a boarding house, and who refuses to rent to “blacks” out of principle. She is clearly a racist, but Powell treats her as a “victim” of a fearsome society peopled by animals in human form: “When she goes to the shops, she is followed by children, charming, wide-grinning piccaninnies.” Powell in fact praises her racial prejudice, and steps into Ku Klux Klan territory when he goes on to say “The other dangerous delusion from which those who are wilfully or otherwise blind to realities suffer, is summed up in the word ‘integration.’ To be integrated into a population means to become for all practical purposes indistinguishable from its other members.” Powell gave this speech before a group of fellow conservatives, none of whom expressed any discomfiture at his remarks, and as many people in Britain praised as condemned his sentiments. Starkey admitted that the country hasn’t seen the “barbarians” seize control of the political and economic institutions of the country that Powell predicted—to be the occasion of “blood”— but rather it was seeing the annihilation of white Anglo culture, replaced by one “barbaric” in nature: white Brits were becoming “barbarians” themselves.
There are other opinions, of course. There is a “joke” making the rounds on the internet involving Cameron and his Parliamentary coalition partner Nick Clegg (a so-called Liberal Democrat) that goes something like this: “Cameron looked at Clegg, chuckled and said, ‘You know, I could throw a £1,000 note out of the window right now and make somebody very happy.’ Clegg shrugged his shoulders and replied, ‘I could throw ten £100 notes out of the window and make ten people very happy’ Hearing their exchange, the pilot of plane said to his co-pilot, ‘Such big-shots back there. I could throw both of them out of the window and make 28 million people very happy!’” But in the main, voices criticizing the conservative government’s policy of deep spending cuts that have had the effect of sending the economy into a shambles with unemployment in the “immigrant” neighborhoods particularly devastating, are ghosts in the wilderness. Even when voices are heard, their message is deliberately marginalized and vilified. Take for example a video that was being passed around the media circuit: Two 17-year old girls in the London suburb of Croydon were apparently standing in front of a shop, helping themselves to wine they had apparently relieved from the shop. The girls justified their actions by rather boldly asserting that “It’s the government’s fault—the conservatives—in a way it’s showing the police we can do what we want—that’s what it is all about—showing the police we can do what we want, and now we have…this is why this is happening, because of rich people, we’re just showing the rich people we can do what we want.”
It is such bold-speaking, apparently middle-class and articulate white youth that conservatives like Cameron and Starkey should be fearful of. Instead of staying in their “place” and towing the party line, they are identifying with those who perceive as insensitive government policy turning a blind-eye to suffering, expecting everyone to be quiet and not make a fuss. Cameron and Starkey would prefer that they stay with “their own” as Powell counseled, and pay no mind to the “others.” The girls’ message should have been a powerful antidote to the one being conveyed by the forces of conservatism, forcing the Brits to actually take note of the inequality of their society, and that maintaining an unjust society does have consequences. But instead of showing the poverty, despair and injustice the girls were alluding to, the video juxtaposed their comments with scenes of arson. Instead of providing a context to their views, they were made to look like young, hypocritical thugs who were merely excusing their actions in phony, juvenile-level moralizing; their concerns could be dismissed out of hand.
None of this was lost on right-wing commentators, of course. Extremist blogger Steve Gill declared that “Most of what is driving the violent riots in London is racism, pure and simple (meaning “black” racism). But some on the streets who are looting and burning are doing it for “good fun”. They are the product of a liberal, socialist culture who are showing the “rich people”, you know, BUSINESS OWNERS in neighborhoods who have invested, created a business, and HIRED people, that their property doesn’t really belong to them because they are the “evil” rich! This is where Obama’s class warfare will take us soon. So arm yourself and your family so you can protect what you own from those who will try to take it from you!”
Fortunately, there were a few more clear-thinking people who preferred to take a deeper look at the circumstances surrounding the riots. Jon Davis of The Guardian observed that “It is becoming clear there was a wide variety of motives for those who rioted a fortnight ago. Though there was a wide spread of ages involved in the disturbances, it was marked how many young people took part. Some spouted about "taxes", "government" and "the rich", as if some of the doom-laden analysis of their generation's prospects – that they will have to work harder, for longer, for less – had translated into blunt political messages.”
Is it all just “envy” of the rich and anger at the insensitivity of the political right—or is there something to the rage? We can first look at the UK economy, which like the U.S. economy experienced the “noughties”—that is the “naughty decade,” synonymous with lack of accountability by many sectors of the economy and financial firms. The U.S. should take a lesson from the UK’s response to the 2008 recession, which implemented fiscal austerity programs and tax cuts, which instead of leading to an economic rebound, merely led to economic flat-lining. Although all races in Britain are affected in some measure by the uncertain economic and financial instability of the country, helped not at all by rising inflation that far outraces wage increases, and because of stagnant growth, a sharp increase in unemployment looms on the horizon. As in the U.S., recent job creation has tended on the lower-income side.
As might be expected as well, racial minorities suffer out-of-proportion with their numbers. The Asian and Afro-Caribbean communities have nearly double the unemployment rate of whites, and even those who are employed are twice as likely as whites to have no savings—a fact rather strongly attested to by a 2009 wealth and assets survey that showed that the average white household possesses three times the assets of black Caribbean households, and 10-times that of Bangladeshi and 15-times that of African. Government austerity programs that target social safety net programs have naturally tended to adversely affect these communities more. Chancellor George Osborne, the power behind the austerity pogrom—has made some noises about “eradicating” the various economic disparities in the country, without addressing the continuing problem of discrimination; in 1968, 70 percent of those polled in Britain agreed with the views expressed by Powell in the “River of Blood” speech. Why should we think the numbers are significantly different today? The British education system has also failed its minority population; even though Cameron called the miniscule presence of black students at the major universities “disgraceful,” instead of improving opportunities for advancement, the Conservative government has only offered policies that increase the difficulty for advancement and opportunity. While Cameron and his government have expressed concern for the lack of moral “boundaries” among youth in the aftermath of the recent riots, he and his government have sent a clear message that they have no interest in addressing the suffering being experienced, once the everything returns to “normal.”
Davis noted the incongruity of the UK’s current ruling coalition that has given the Conservatives an authority not justified by any “mandate,” and that their scheme for governing for the minority had consequences. Neither the Conservatives nor Labour have a majority in Parliament on their own, thus making the Liberal Democrats the “swing” block. Logic states that because they are technically to the left of Labour, they should have joined with their ideological brethren to form a parliamentary majority, but instead “made a “180 degree U-turn from a professed need for an urgent budgetary stimulus to an emergency austerity package. Deputy prime minister (and Liberal party leader) Clegg's prediction in April 2010 that riots could result if a future Conservative government sought to slash and burn swathes of the public sector without a popular mandate seemed risible at the time, but has proved tragically correct. More and more, it appears that their joining the coalition represents the single greatest betrayal of electoral trust in modern times.”
This betrayal of trust is much different than the variety one’s sees in the U.S.; in our country, even when a party receives an apparent “mandate” for “change,” the minority party is supplied with weapons—particularly the U.S. Senate—to engage in legislative obstruction for the most obnoxious of partisan reasons. In the UK, despite the fact that an apparent majority of the electorate who voted to the left of the Conservatives, it is they who been able to thrust their ideology on the nation with the aid of cynical power politics without regard to principle.
If in the UK the conservative government chooses to attack the result rather the symptom of the problem, in the U.S. there is a tendency toward a lack of empathy for the poor, based not necessarily on “culture” but prejudice. A 2001 study commissioned by the Brookings Institute examined “Why Doesn’t the United States Have a European-Style Welfare State?” It found that “altruism” crossing racial lines is at a premium, something we can plainly see by “philanthropists” who prefer to spend their largesse overseas when we have poverty and hunger right here in this country. The study concluded, after dismissing the likelihood that differences in economic and taxation variables between the U.S. and European have an observable impact, recognized an electoral system that inordinately favors the majority white against racial minorities (regardless of what the majority of these groups feel), and that
“Racial fragmentation in the United States and the disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities among the poor clearly played a major role in limiting redistribution, and indeed, racial cleavages seem to serve as a barrier to redistribution throughout the world. This history of American redistribution makes it quite clear that hostility to welfare derives in part from the fact that welfare spending in the United States goes disproportionately to minorities. Another important difference is that Americans dislike redistribution because they tend to feel that people on welfare are lazy, whereas Europeans tend to feel that people on welfare are unfortunate. Apart from the fact that, in the United States, there is indeed a stronger connection between effort and earnings than in Europe, we do not know what explains these differences in beliefs…Our bottom line is that Americans redistribute less than Europeans for three reasons: because the majority of Americans believe that redistribution favors racial minorities, because Americans believe that they live in an open and fair society and that if someone is poor it is his or her own fault, and because the political system is geared toward preventing redistribution. In fact, the political system is likely to be endogenous to these basic American beliefs.”
So what does this mean? In the UK it appears that part of the problem the riots should have exposed stems from a regard of Asians and blacks as a “foreign” presence that exists on the peripheries of the national consciousness—until such time that they make their presence “known” and then everyone is “shocked” to discover there is a problem. But these groups being ignored or despised is not considered a reason to end social safety net programs; poverty in Britain was a fact long before immigrants from colonial past arrived on its shores. But in the U.S., the white population, from the time of its first encounters with the native population, marginalized and demonized non-Anglo peoples. Whites would make even there own suffer if it means discomfiting minorities who they stereotype as being solely at fault for their “condition.” The only way whites could be poor is if they were also “lazy” and “stupid,” just as the so-called Army IQ tests conducted during World War I classified certain Caucasian “races.” Both the U.S. and the UK have similar views on race, but in the UK the concept that the maintenance of a civil society requires something communal in nature mitigates against wholesale destruction of social and health care programs based on racial prejudice; in the U.S.—especially if we believe the rhetoric of the Tea Party “movement”—a large segment of the population is to each their own, everyone is responsible for themselves, even when the actions of one are consciously a detriment to another; laws and government are not permitted to intervene when one commits an injustice against another in the name of greed and selfishness.
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