By James Simons-
Author and rapper Akala shined today on Good Morning Britain when discussing knife crime, and its . The British hip hop artist and its categorization as a predominantly black problem amongst youths.
The articulate poet warned of the dangers of calling knife crime “a black problem”. Piers Morgan said:
“The perpetrators and victims appear to be almost exclusively young black men,” began, referring to the recent spike in knife crime in the UK. “Do you think there is a racial element to that in terms of cultural issues, racial issues, or is it the same problem they had in Glasgow where they were white, and actually the race part of this is something where we look at the statistics, think it’s a black problem and actually it’s not?”
Akala, who also works with schools, spoke eloquently about the underlying psychological elements surrounding knife crime during his discussion withy television presenter, Piers Morgan and his co-presenter,(who Morgan joked to be his tv wife) Susanna Reid, about the epidemic that is rapidly claiming the lives of thousands of young males in Britain’s, particularly young black teens.
He responded: ”Listen to what you just said. When you think blackness is the most important thing to emphasise about these young men, almost half of the young men in prison in Britain regardless of ethnicity were in care as children. Almost half of young people in Britain were expelled in school as children. When you offer blackness as an explanatory factor as if we don’t know anything about them.”There is one limited sense in which race may be important.You could argue that only a very particular demographic of young black boys, only at a very particular stage in their lives, feel a degree of psychological self-hatred or contempt for themselves that they project on to other people”.
Akala sought to refute the idea that knife crime was most prevalent amongst black males, highlighting that some of the “most horrendous” knife attacks have taken place outside of London over the past few years, where “both the victim and the perpetrators were white”.
“There is one limited sense in which race may be important,” he said. “You could argue that only a very particular demographic of young black boys, only at a very particular stage in their lives, feel a degree of psychological self-hatred or contempt for themselves that they project on to other people.”
COMPARISONS
Akala intelligently drew comparisons with the media’s tendency to label knife crime as a “black problem” New Zealand terror attack, suggesting that had it been an Isis supporter, the immediate reaction from many would have been to call it a “Muslim problem”.
Akala said: “You will never be called upon to explain that not all middle-aged white men are paedophiles, despite the fact that hundreds maybe thousands of them are convicted every year, because it’s obvious that not all middle-aged white men are paedophiles.”You will never be called upon to explain that not all middle-aged white men are paedophiles, despite the fact that hundreds maybe thousands of them are convicted every year, because it’s obvious that not all middle-aged white men are paedophiles.
Morgan, on occasions attempted to interrupt the rapper’s flow, but the dynamic authour and poet insistently prevented the television host’s interruptions, saying ”hang on”, forcing Morgan to step back and allow the 35 year old continue his point. Akala pointed out that many gifted black youths, particularly from Nigerian and Ghanain backgrounds who were more likely to go to University than black children from other nationalities and white children. At one point, Akala named a particular teenager whom he said had a higher IQ than Albert Einstein, but gave no evidence to back up the claim.
However, he did a good job of challenging some of the general views about black on black crime, but was not fully accurate to suggest there isn’t a particular and specific problem of black on black crime-because there is. But that problem is much broader that just a question of these teens being black. It has roots that apply to other races but manifest themselves among particular black youths of a certain demography.
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