London Riots: David Starkey on Newsnight

Quite a bit of controversy has been caused by David Starkey's appearance on Newsnight commenting on the recent riots in London and other cities in the UK.

One could say that David Starkey is a historian who specializes in the Tudors or royals of other periods and not the best suited individual to have an informed opinion on the riots. Indeed during the 11 minute discussion on Newsnight he seems to make a fundamental error: he equates 'gangsta' culture with black culture. Actually both of these terms are non-precise and what they represent is debatable but I do think that for a moment during the discussion David Starkey uses them as a 60-year-old white male that is out of touch. On the other hand he remarkably catches on to current trends by noting that there is heavy cross-fertilization between different cultures and in particular youth cultures in Britain. His remarks show that he is aware of particular types of Jamaican music and 'language' or discourse that have significantly influenced and shaped an inner city, council estate subculture. Not bad for David Starkey! This is anything but new in Britain, however, as music, linguistic and cultural norms have often transcended racial and class boundaries to produce a rich milieu of youth cultures in the past. David Starkey is worried that the youths partaking in the riots exhibit various levels of conscious disengagement from mainstream society and are subject to alternative values, personal goals and lifestyles.

Of course David Starkey's point is fatefully underpinned by an assumption that white culture (as his use of black culture implies) was or is something fixed and homogenous. What he sees evidence of though, is a hybrid culture that has taken root in some parts of Britain and tends to be associated with the 'lower' classes. David Starkey's analysis would be better served if he included a conception of class dynamics and how successive immigrant groups have merged culturally with the white working class in some areas of this country. Since he is a historian he could well place this within the changing face of Europe overall.

Although David Starkey's point has been seen to condone a moral panic against a perceived 'clash of civilizations-cum-values' (the diluting of 'white culture') and borders on racism, the crisis lies in the continued disenfranchisement of new social classes from mainstream political processes and not in some imagined or real change in the culture of the white working class. The continued socio-economic disenfranchisement of the 'lower' classes can only lead to a deepening of their dissociation and the further development of alternative values systems and even power centers.