Britain’s history is littered with race riots

JVL Introduction

Are race riots as entrenched a part of the English social scene as Ascot, Henley and the Lord’s Test as argued here by Robert Winder and is the progress he also refers to a cause for optimism? Winder lists a number of heinous racist attacks from the 12th century on, including the murders of Jews in York in 1190 and in London in 1263, the race riots in 1312 against Flemish weavers, and even within the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381 and later against Scandinavian works and against Italians in 1456 and many more. In the last century we can add 1919 race riots in Liverpool and Cardiff as well as Notting Hill in 1958 and Southall and many other places in the 1970s.

Winder makes these references but asserts that violence was the main issue for the summer 2024 riots, that even labelling them as Islamophobes gives them more credibility as links them to a cause, albeit not a righteous one.  It is true that the media and politicians’ references to “underlying concerns” could be used to excuse the violence but the motivation and the stirring up of violence is rooted in that long standing “othering”, scapegoating and institutional racism that provides the framework under which we are all living.

LL

This article was originally published by The Guardian on Sat 10 Aug 2024. Read the original here.