Dancehall artistes disagree with Starkey

Curtis Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Some of dancehall's young minds have spoken out against allegedly racist comments made by British historian David Starkey.

The historian was speaking about recent riots in England on BBC's 'Newsnight' and said "the whites have become black," and implying that violence is inherently a part of black culture.

The historian said "the whites have become black, a particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture have become their fashion, and black and white boy and girl operate in this language, which is this Jamaican patios that has been intruding in England."

The comment has sparked much anger from the black community. Many have described Starkey as racist and demanded a public apology.

The Sunday Gleaner contacted some of our local artistes to get their view on the controversy.

According to the artistes, David Starkey is a troubled individual.

Assassin said patois is not a new thing, and the greatness accomplished by reggae music was executed using that language in a positive way.

"The album of the century (Legend) by Bob Marley was expressed through patois, therefore, Starkey has no credibility because reggae music was uplifting and facilitated empowerment," he said.

Global community

According to Assassin, it all depends on the channel and not the language, because the same mouth that says negative things can be used in a positive way.

He also said culture was not limited to one space.

"We are in a global community so culture is shared, and white people fought for their rights in the US (United States) in the early days, so would that mean that it's because of their language? The very reason patois exists is because of slavery, his analogy does not make sense," he concluded.

G-Whizz also weighed in on Starkey's comments.

"Music is powerful yes, but violence is a choice, a mash him a try mash up di black race man. Madness him a chat," he laughed.

Mr Vegas too, scoffed at Starkey's assessment.

According to the singjay, Starkey was playing the blame game, attempting to get blacks in England to shoulder the responsibility.

"They are trying to blame us even when we are not the perpetrators," he said.

According to the artiste, he has travelled to different countries and people have different ways of expressing themselves, indigenous to them.

"France has their own patois, and at times when they speak it sounds like they are being aggressive, but they are just communicating," he said.

Mr Vegas concluded, making the point that Starkey's comments were far from the truth.

According to him, the violence in England stemmed from problems that had been brushed under the carpet for a long time.

Mr Vegas went as far as to question the Starkey's sanity.

"A mad man dat man," he laughed.

Nabil Abdul Rashid, a young black historian also posted a video on YouTube expressing his disgust in response to Starkey's comment. The video currently has 90,000 views.

A Facebook group was also formed called Public Apology Needed from David Starkey. So far the page has 207 likes.