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Sophia Ankel
Mar 18, 2019
Hip hop artist Akala has been praised, after he said that making knife crime a race issue is counter-productive on Good Morning Britain earlier today.
The British artist, whose real name is Kingslee James McLean Daley, said that the media's tendency to call knife crime "a black problem" is dangerous.
He compared it to the recent terror attack in New Zealand, saying that if the perpetrator would have been an Isis supporter, the reaction by many would have been to call it a "Muslim problem".
Akala, was responding to a question posed by Piers Morgan, who asked:
The perpetrators and victims appear to be almost exclusively young black men.
Do you think there is a racial element to that in terms of cultural issues, racial issues, or is it the same problem they had in Glasgow where they were white, and actually the race part of this is something where we look at the statistics, think it’s a black problem and actually it’s not?
To this Akala, who is also an author and poet, said very accurately:
There is one limited sense in which race may be important.
You could argue that only a very particular demographic of young black boys, only at a very particular stage in their lives, feel a degree of psychological self-hatred or contempt for themselves that they project on to other people.
Akala also added out that some of the “most horrendous” knife attacks have taken place outside of London over the past few years, and have also included victims and the perpetrators who were both white.
People were quick to applaud the musician for his powerful and articulate words, with some pointing out that it was the first time they saw Pier Morgan listen (a true rarity!).
Piers Morgan seemed to agree, responding:
Akala might have become the first person ever to leave Piers Morgan speechless.
More: Tory MP says every knife sold in UK should have a GPS tracker and the internet has some thoughts
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