Exploiting a terrible murder while ignoring reality
JVL Introduction
Nigel Farage, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and far too many others are exploiting the tragic murder of Henry Nowak and feeding a narrative that white people are the victims of a society that favours those from racialised communities. Every piece of research proves this to be false with poverty and policing much more severe for people from Black and Brown communities, despite genuine efforts to address this and some (small) successes. Here Nesrine Malik explores how responding to racial justice movements are seen by some white people “as a surfeit of redress”. When politicians like Jack Straw opine that diversity, equality and inclusion programmes have “gone too far”, we get an idea of how such a view has become entrenched.
Malik looks at the real reasons that white, working class people are feeling aggrieved; lack of job security, dramatic changes to work, to communities all within decades of austerity that few politicians see ending. This is a thoughtful piece and offers a way forward, with hard work but as Malik concludes “what other choice is there?”
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Mon 8 Jun 2026. Read the original here.
What to do as murder is exploited to spread lies about race and privilege? Stand firm – fight back
Too many leaders have appeased the rightwing culture warriors. In the wake of the Henry Nowak rioting, the time for a push against toxicity and untruths is now
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The problems facing Southampton today are the same problems facing all working-class Britons: low and stagnant wages, unaffordable housing, rising prices and declining public services. Workers live with these problems every day and it’s not an accident that protests like these are being organised in the most deprived neighbourhoods of Britain, where people are the most angry and frustrated; where they have serious and genuine concerns about their day-to-day survival and their children’s futures. Housing is overpriced and difficult to obtain. Public services are collapsing. The NHS is being stripped bare. Good jobs are disappearing. Wages are falling in real terms while prices rise relentlessly. The people responsible for the present state of affairs are those who run British capitalism; they sit in parliament and in City of London boardrooms, and they strive to weaken our collective strength by turning our anger away from those responsible for the degradation of our material conditions and directing it elsewhere, in this case migrants. There’s two tier policing, but it’s along lines, not race as the establishment, including corporate media are promoting.