This diary will be short, but this is a video that I think everyone needs to watch. As the title to the video says, the BBC will never replay this. A man, an immigrant to London yet one that seems to have been there for a long time (two generations or more), talks about the riots in a way that the BBC official line does not seem to want to be heard.
Watch as the newscaster tries to make him admit that the riots are totally unwarranted and random. Watch as she tries to get him angry. Watch as she incredulously insinuates that he was part of rioting in the past (really not sure where she gets that from, and I hope the obvious thought in my head isn't true). Watch as he, in a four minute video, is able to express the reasons behind this rioting, linking it to disorder and unfairness everywhere, including Arab countries.
Even calling it an "insurrection"....
I'll try to get a transcript or something, if I can find one or have the time to write it out, off to a class now.
Update- wow, just drove across MD for a class, and find this towards the top of the rec list. Thanks guys, really a great video that everyone should see.
In terms of the comments- I was probably wrong to call the man a immigrant to London for two generations. Additionally, to the commenters that say there is no excuse for looting shops, I completely agree, but I don't think that means we should not examine what led us to this.
Update 2- Thanks to Denise Oliver Velez for her comment about the man in the video, Darcus Howe. Comment in full:
he is a well-known broadcaster and Brixton resident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/....
Howe was born in Trinidad and Tobago, the son of an Anglican priest. He left Trinidad for London aged 18[1] to enter the legal profession at Middle Temple, but he swapped the law for journalism. He returned to Trinidad, where his uncle and mentor, radical intellectual CLR James, inspired Howe to combine writing with political activism. A brief spell as assistant editor on the Trinidad trade union paper The Vanguard was followed by return to Britain as editor of British magazine Race Today.
Update 3: Huge thanks to SwedishJewFish for the transcript. Posting in full, for those who have computers that aren't YouTube fans ;).
BBC: I am now joined by Darkus Howe, who is a writer and broadcaster. Darkus Howe, are you shocked by what you've seen there last night?
DH: No not at all, I have been living in london for 50 years, there's so many different [unintelligble] moments when I was certain about, listening to my grandson and my son, is that something very, very serious was going to take place in this country. Our political leaders have no idea, the police have no idea, but if you looked at young blacks and young whites with a discerning eye and a careful hearing, they have been telling us, and we would not listen, that what is happeneing in this country to them-
BBC (interrupting): Now, now Mr. Howe let me just stop you for a moment. You are saying you are not shocked does that mean that you condone what happened in your country last night?
DH: Do-do I condone? Of course not! What am I gonna condone it for? What I am concerned about more than anything else, there is a young man called Mark Dunham. He has parents, he has brothers, he has sisters. A few yards away from [where the] guy lives, a police officer blew his head off!
BBC (interrupting): well, uh, Mr. Howe, we have to-
DH: Let- let me finish
BBC: Mr. Howe we have to wait for the official inquiry before we can say things like that. We don't know what happened to Mr. Duggar but we are going to wait for the police report on it
[in the background DH is speaking but BBC chick is talking over him, so it's hard to make out what he's saying exactly- but it sounds like "I understand, but Marcus Dunham is dead, he does not have any inquiry]
BBC: if i can take you on a little bit, you were talking about your grandson, you were talking about young people...
DH: They have been stopping and searching young blacks for no reason at all. I have a grandson, and he is an angel. And he began to think, as he was coming of age, and the police slapped him up against the wall and searched him, and he thought, he had no other [unintelligible] now. And I asked him the other day, aprpopos of a sense that something was going seriously wrong in this country. I said "how many times have the police touched you?" He said "Papa, I can't count, there are so many times”
BBC: Mr. Howe, that may very well have happened, and if you say it did I am not going to go [against] you, but that is not an excuse to go out rioting and causing all the sort of damage we have beeing seeing over the past few days.
DH: Where were you in 1981 in Brixton?
BBC (interrupting): Mr. Howe, if I can just ask you, you are not a stranger to riots yourself, I understand. Are you. You have taken part in them yourself. (note that this was not really phrased as a question)
DH: No I have never taken part in a single riot. I have been in demonstrations that have ended up in a conflict. Have some respect for an old west indian negro and stop accusing me of being a rioter. Because I...you don't want to get abusive. You sound idiotic. Have some respect. I have grandchildren...
BBC: Darkus Howe, thank you very much for joining us...Darkus Howe there, writer and broadcaster.
Also, I just want to repost a quote I saw on a friends facebook. While burning of innocent peoples stores can never be justified, neither can government actions that we've seen far too often lately in the U.S. and Europe.
“I must remind you that starving a child is violence. Suppressing a culture is violence. Neglecting school children is violence. Punishing a mother and her family is violence. Discrimination against a working man is violence. Ghetto housing is violence. Ignoring medical need is violence. Contempt for poverty is violence.”
— Coretta Scott King