Nobody is in any doubt that the po-po in London racially profile black folk and consistently stop and search black people more than any other race. In a perfect society where everybody was law abiding, then this would be unnecessary and blatantly out of line. There’s a problem though… I took a few moments to think about all the black / mixed race people I know in London, and probably around 70% of them smoke weed, or hash and have no moral issue with that.
What’s the problem with that? It’s indicative of the fact that there is a huge problem in the black community with abiding by the law. Why single out black folk in this post? Because black folk get a raw deal already, and are under constant vigilance by British society in general. Like it or not – each and every black person in a white dominated society such as Britain, is a representative for their race. When one black person commits a crime, such as in the photo accompanying this story of the 2011 London Riots, white society will use things like this to reinforce their incorrect and bigoted racial stereotypes that all black people are criminals.
The way to solve it? Don’t whine about the cops racially profiling – instead put all your energies towards beating the system legally by not standing for your mates who are breaking the law by smoking narcotics, or dealing illegal substances, or handling stolen goods etc.
The United Kingdom is very similar to Canada in the respect that regardless of government initatives, immigration etc… the majority of British born white folk are at heart a bunch of closet racists, and it will always be that way. It’s a white Anglo-saxon country and the people want to keep it that way. So black folk are never going to gain more respect by protesting against police actions.
The only way forward is for black folk to beat the inherent prejudice in Britain’s society, institutions, culture, ethos, schools, employers, police and judiciary by becoming better than they are. In the same way female soldiers or police officers need to be twice as good as their male counterparts, black folk need to be twice as good as their white counterparts. This can be achieved by going to school, then to college, then to University… and ending up as respected politicians, philanthropists, scientists, doctors, emergency service workers, multi-millionaire business owners, etc. Beat them at their own game – don’t reinforce their negative stereotypes by breaking the law.
