Race and Ethnicity in the London Riots

In August 2011 a plague of rioting broke out in London spreading from Tottenham to encompass the whole of London in which huge destruction and violence spread through London’s streets.

The riots began in Tottenham with the death of Mark Duggan, shot dead by the police. Duggan was black and the riots in Tottenham sparked after a protest by members of the Tottenham community protesting against what they felt was a racially motivated killing by the police. After this over the next 4-5 days riots spread through London and the country.

What can be drawn from the riots was that there was no real pattern designating what ethnicity was participating in the riots, although it is clear that a notable number of the rioters were of a foreign background and many had a poor educational background and as such were used to this kind of behaviour, the average rioter had 15 previous convictions to there names. Also it is clear that post-riots those of ethnic minorities have seen an increase in racism towards them with racism vastly becoming a top story amongst journalists.

Three Muslims were killed in a hit and run incident when they were trying to protect there mosque which proves that not every member of every ethnic group was involved in the riots but some were trying to stop the riots and unfortunately against the tide of violence they were swept aside.

In conclusion these riots were racially motivated and on the whole carried out by a wide mix of ethnicities although a notable number were of foreign background and almost all were of a poor and uneducated background maybe pointing to an area of society which needs changing.