UK Riots

On Monday evening, I watched on the news a shop around the corner from my home go up in flames. I was lucky. Some people have lost their businesses; some people have lost their homes; some people have lost their lives. And for what? A flat-screen TV, an iPod and a solitary trainer from Foot Locker, apparently.

While the violence and acts of crime that we have seen reported on the news and in newspapers these last few days are disgusting and inexcusable, I am struggling to really align myself with the police or the government on this one. Somewhere beneath the burning buildings and smashed-in shop windows, I can see a deep-rooted anger towards the state for the prejudice, stereotyping and vilification certain groups have faced over the years. Stealing a mobile phone is not a direct result of Mark Duggan being shot last Thursday in Tottenham, nor is it a direct result of being stopped and searched by the police more times than you could count on one hand; it is a result of a combination of things: poverty, capitalism being shoved down our throats at every given opportunity, in the form of the phone we must use, the trainers we must wear and the music we must listen to, and a total lack of understanding and appreciation this government has for anything less than a two-parent family with 2.4 kids and a dog named Fluffy.

Poverty breeds contempt. Whether people realise it or not, we have been conditioned to want things that we can’t have and to expect lifestyles usually reserved for Hollywood actors, popstars and footballers. We live in a culture where everyone wants to be a singer, a rap artist, a footballer or a WAG, and yet we live in a society where if you are not born into money, you will struggle. You will struggle in school because schools will not encourage you, you will struggle to get into higher education either because you don’t have the self-belief or because you can’t afford the extortionate tuition fees, and you will struggle to find work because there is no work, and those few existing poorly-paid jobs are now open to graduates only. You might overcome these struggles, but then again you might not, and if you don’t, you will personally be blamed for your ‘failings’ and everyone will call you a ‘chav’ and a ‘pikey’; they will make you feel ashamed of your ranking in the social hierarchy, and the same fortune will be written out for your children. At the same time, we are ever-increasingly faced with influences from the Unites States, which makes coming from ‘the ghetto’ seem like something to be proud of, and even if you live in a nice four-bedroom house in Ealing, you are still ‘hard’ if you pull on a hoodie and fake a South-London accent.

I must reiterate that I do not condone the rioting, and it is important that those guilty are stopped and punished accordingly for their crimes. But this is only a short-term solution to the problem; if we really want to address why this happened and stop it from happening again, we seriously need to take a look at those in positions of power and question whether they are doing enough for those who weren’t given a head-start in life, or whether they are simply perpetuating the problem with their constant vilification of anyone out of work, on benefits, from a single-parent family or of an ethnic minority.