From a foreigner in the UK: Am I shocked by David’s opinion?!?!? Not at all. The UK today (I’m generalizing) is the USA in the 70’s. minorities are to blame for EVERYTHING that has gone wrong with the UK; from lack of family values and moral, loss of economical/financial stability, educational standards etc. as far as the rioters the majority were young white male, but that depended on what western news broadcast you watched.

At just a minute and a half in, I feel the need to stop the video and correct the recorded man on something. The language of gang violence has never been racially exclusive. Even in terms of recent history, a language of short-sided, un-educated and under-educated violence has been one of the great ethnic equalizers.

The Dead Rabbits and the "Natives" in early New York (okay, Gangs of New York isn't entirely accurate, but those gangs did exist, and it did list off general categories thereof). Oh, let's not forget the gangs that are explicitly racist as opposed to just incidentally so. From KKK to Neonazis to skinheads... need I go on?

So, "the whites have become black" fails on his first premise. I steel myself and go further.

At about six minutes in, my next comment. Then he goes in on rap. First, let me say that I'm not a big fan of rap. It's not my cup of tea. Then again, I'm not generally into music. That said, even I can tell you that rap originated as a subversion of violence. Look at any category of music and you'll find all the same themes that I constantly hear people complaining about in rap. This, by the way, includes friggin' minstril songs.

Don't tell me that, around the early campfires of humanity, you didn't have a few storytellers that told stories of their own great hunts and managed to sneak in lyrics to speak of their own stamina, virility, and how all the women want to bare their kinder.

Is there self-congratulation and violence in rap? Is it easier to convince recording company to record a song of self-congratulation and violence than it is to convince them that a song about getting an education and living a long and humble life will sell well? Maybe there's a corelation.

Now at nine minutes twenty seconds and I'm catching the line "this type of black male culture militates against education." Name me any populist or feux populist movement that doesn't have a problem with being anti-intellectual. Here in America, most of our self-idenitified ethnic groups have a large anti-intellectual, and therefore anti-education mindset. In this day and age, that's best exemplified by the Tea Party, which doesn't present much ethnic diversity beyond Southern.

In fact, most of American history has an anti-intellectual mythology, including mainly uneducated "down home common sense" or "street smarts" outwitting and generally being better than people who have taken any time to study something.

Okay, I've finished this off and I don't feel any better a person for it.

But, I'm going to make an analogy of this guy's culturally self-serving attitude to something I deal with as an atheist. (Disclaimor, I'm not saying that any other part of the issue is analogous, just and only this guy's attitude.)

I can barely mention the fact that I'm an atheist without people bringing up Pol Pot, Stalin, and Mousellini as examples of how evil atheism is and how having a faith makes people good. Like our friend the... person, they're ignoring the beam in their own cultural eye in order to point out the mote in mine.

We humans have a tendancy to be blind to our own cultural flaws. After all, our own culture isn't so easily viewed as something we can affect. It's something we're in, like our hometown. Look at a different town and you're going to see the flaws that you missed in your own. Look at someone else and you're more likely to notice their flaws than you are to notice the exact same flaws in yourself.

And, this... person is rather comfortable within his culture which, when he thinks of it as culture at all, he probably thinks of in terms of the high culture of Shakespear and Chaucer. So, when he looks to another culture, isn't noticing that it's exactly the same culture he's been dealing with.

Did anybody actually think that riots didn't happen in Brittain before we Americans had our little revolution? And don't think he gets out of those riots just for being an educated upper class Brit. The upper class, throughout Brittish history, have had riots in the traditional ruling class method, by forcing lower class members to do the fighting and dieing for them in wars.

So, yeah, I think I've got an idea of the mindset he's coming from. But, it's one of those mindsets that, by this day and age, we, as a species, are at least supposed to recognize as an internal red flag. When we catch ourselves thinking like that, we're supposed to stop and say "Okay, what I just thought was stupid, let me see if I can find out where."

We're not supposed to spout it out as though it was well considered cultural criticism.

Wow WB! Excellent points! You've nailed it!

This is such a hot topic and I'm at a loss, words fail me. Lol! I guess I'll start with how disturbing I found his argument not so much his comments (don't know if that makes sense). I “get” what he’s saying about hip hop (some rap music does glorify, materialism and violence) HOWEVER to insinuate that rap culture IS Black culture is completely wrong! As Judy said yes it can be very influential, but to place the blame for the downfall of a society on ONE group of people is bogus! It’s unfortunate really because here is a well educated man spewing this nonsense. According to him, Black culture embodies, uneducated, violent and dishonorable individuals.

I just love how he argues that Blacks are the dark forces tainting pure White culture.

Agree, black people are not a monolith, BUT, we tend NOT to speak out against the harms being done to our communities by our own, eg, out of wedlock children from multiple partners, high HIV/AIDS/STDs rates, colourism, gang culture. In my opinion, we're collectively to blame for how we're being viewed by others, by virtue of not clearly distancing ourselves from certain negative influences and lack of economic power to buy said virtue.

Hope I'm making sense, as English has become a third language to me.

OMG!. I normally do not make comments of a political nature, My father told me to keep my opinion of political and religious views to myself because those two subjects make people lose their minds. I was just browsing my computer and stopped at this site because it always has something interesting to share.

I think that I am going to have to pay more attention to what is going on in other parts of the world. I had no idea that England had such racial tensions going on over there. I was under the impression that they had less than the US. After listening to the speech "River Of Blood" I remembered from my history class when I was going for my Master in Psychology that after WW2 that the United States limited the number of Jewish immigrants that were allowed in to the country, so I dont think that racial prejudice ever goes away. It just seems to change with the times which nationality is the cause of all the problems that a country might be facing at the time. I think that some people forget that every person no matter their nationality all they want is for their family to be safe and to be able to provide for them.

I grew up in NYC in a Jewish, Black,Italian neigborhood in Queens, joined the Navy when I was 21 and realized that we were so shelted living as we did. I raised my children to not judge a person by the color of their skin but by their actions and their heart that is what is important to me. When I hear a speech or watch television and see peple making ignorant statements I realize how far we still have to go.

I'm British and can't figure out why everyone is shocked by his comments? His views have always been off-colour. He called Scotland, Ireland and Wales "feeble little countries". Wiki it.

Dr. Starkey is one of our best exports however Michael Wood is a better historian because he doesn't taint the facts with his opinions, and he treats his grad students like adults rather than pack mules.

Not all Brits share his views.

Isn't it true though that black lower class men tend to be more blindly violent? I understand where Dr. Starkey is going with his theory. I agree with him too that with the globalisation of the US rap culture, young black poor people in England have gotten even more aggressive in their behaviours. In recent years there have been killings of teenagers done by young gang members as initiation rites. It sounds horribly racist, I know, but this is because, like Dr. Starkey responds, we're not honestly talking about the issues, rather keeping on patting certain black people on the back and continuing their victimisation.

@ Antonio: Nope, the Germans are still not forgiven for their "treatment of the Jews". It's like every year Hollywood spouts out at least 2 films about the Holocaust, least we forget!. I know of not one German who can or will openly speak about the Holocaust without feeling guilty as fuck as if they, in 2011 were the actual murderers and not (some of) their ancestors. See, it's called economic power. THAT'S what the Jews have.

Hi monique32,
I don't know if I believe this completely, but facts and the evidence that prove these facts can't be denied. Grant you, there were a mixture of races rioting in England, but most of them were young lower class black males(and some females) who appeared greedy, materialistic and willing to sate this through violent destruction of their environment. I'm sure if you were to survey what kind of background these young black Brits came from, it would reveal: single young overwhelmed mothers, absentee fathers, who repeat a destructive cycle of getting pregnant because the dole supports each child she births. I can only imagine what it must be like growing up in such an environment, hence my question, really, and my understanding of where Dr. Starkey could possibly base his very stark analysis on.

We really need to discuss the issues (and find solutions) that are affecting black communities the world over without taking offence. To not do so will definitely leave us behind in this globalisation of our world.

I don't find people dumb enough though to believe the media, at least not where I'm living. Talk with non-blacks around you and you'd be amazed how they can separate the BS. I do tend to think though that black Americans spend way too much time watching the telly, reading gossip rags and blogs and worse of all being influenced by them. I'm basing this opinion, mind, on when I visit back home with family and friends, and some I/R blogs I peruse.
As for the black population in Britain, could it be around 3%?. I'm not living there even if I come across as I know what's going on, but I have lived there for nearly 2yrs prior to moving to where I am now, which is 11/2 hrs by plane away. The only divide I've noticed in England is mostly by class. Neighbourhoods are not self segregated by race like in the US. The African Brits though are considered ways more industrious and educated than Caribbean Brits(rightly so, as their families are very much together and old school, which is unfortunately changing I've heard), who made up the bulk of those young (black) rioters. The personal survey I've carried out concerning the amount of black(male AND female) expat Brits working here for one of the biggest banks in the world supports this. They're well liked because of their education combined with work ethics and totally sought after by headhunters.

Agree it's a case of responding to your environment, but this does support my opinion that it's mostly lower class people, no?. "Lashing out" is ok in the form of demonstrating, but these people viciously destroyed their neighbourhoods and stole property out of materialism. That's criminal. Period.

Unlike you and Tracy, I grew up poor (if I told you the part of PA I grew up in, you'd be shocked, especially since we're really simple island people) when my family moved to the US and only know wealth since I married into it. Suffice to say my siblings and I never thought of such destructive behaviour but then, we may have been financially poor, but rich in love and togetherness. That's what I'm missing in the black Western societies today. Sad indeed!.

my mind is blown right now....
This all clearly comes from what this mans perception of what "black" is. Clearly being educated or being above savages does not encapsulate his belief of what being black is. To him 'black" is only negative hip hop culture, low income project living, high school drop outs, pregnant teens, gang violence, and improper speech. By his definition it is entirely true to say that white has become black; as all these negative images are prevalent in "white" culture (furthermore in red, brown, and yellow culture which I guess by his perception must be "black" at this point as well.)
My mind is blown right now there is so much to comment on here.