The Stark(ey) (un)truth about culture

Like innumerable others, I was inexorably drawn to the "whites have become black" comment by British historian David Starkey during the BBC's 'Newsnight' programme on the England riots that mushroomed out of a peaceful protest by about 300 people outside a police station in Tottenham. They were protesting the shooting death of 29-year-old Mark Duggan. He was shot in the chest when the police stopped a minicab in which he was travelling, as part of a pre-planned operation. The circumstances of his death were not clear.

Within hours, police cars, civilian cars, a bus and shops were set ablaze and widespread looting was taking place in Tottenham. The violence rapidly spread to Brixton, Hackney, Lewisham, Peckham, Woolwich, Ealing and Clapham. Within a relatively short time, approximately 10,000 extra police flooded the streets, but by then the violence had spread to Croydon, Birmingham, Manchester, Wolverhampton, Bristol, Nottingham, and Liverpool.

Within five days order was restored, but property damage was almost incalculable, many (police and civilians) were injured, hundreds were arrested, and unprecedented night courts were in session to deal with the enormity of cases before the judiciary.

Because the unrest and lawlessness took place in overpopulated cities where a fairly high proportion of underprivileged minorities reside, there was chatter blaming race on the widespread disturbances. Although Prime Minister David Cameron alluded to the "gang culture" as the driving force behind the wildfire rioting and looting, he never ascribed it to race, ostensibly because, evidently, several races and mixed races were involved in the wrongdoings.

Violence as fashion

In responding to a question directed to him by the host of the BBC's Newsnight programme asking if the riots represented a "profound cultural shift", Starkey postulated: "The whites have become black." He went on to assert that the profound cultural change was because "a particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion. And, black and white, boy and girl operate in this language together. This language, which is wholly false, which is a Jamaican Patois, that's been intruded in England and this is why so many of us have this sense of literally a foreign country."

Starkey explained that he was not talking about the 'black' skin colour, he was talking about the (negative) 'black' culture. He erroneously, albeit maliciously, ascribed the rioting to it. He even called it an 'intrusion' (which is akin to an invasion). He never considered that it was inevitable that parts of his 'white' culture would absorb parts of the resident 'black' culture. He never questioned why it is that it (especially the Jamaican culture and Patois) was being absorbed and what it is that England is not providing that makes our culture so attractive.

During his impassioned, prejudicial and seemingly premeditated tirade, the historian failed to acknowledge the full spectrum of our culture and erroneously blamed the riots on a cultural insertion. He never discussed the need for 'blacks' to search for a new cultural identity because of the immoral, dehumanising, violent, shameful and 'culturoclastic' history of slavery that his 'culture' visited upon people of African descent. Naturally, several other cultures have also been de-marginalised and are seeking out the strongest 'culture' for solace and kinship.

Culture is a contemporaneous and dynamic entity representative of the prevailing and influential socio-economic circumstances. Although we certainly do not agree with David Starkey, we must be mindful of the fact that every culture has negative traits that sometimes seem to outshine the positive ones. Perhaps a very good friend of mine was right when she opined that culture is so integral to a nation that it should be directed, but that's another topic for another time.

Garth A. Rattray is a physician with a family practice. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.