You may well have seen this by now. Rod Liddle writing in the Spectator has shared his views on the black community in a piece where sadly the only irony appears to be the headline: "Benefits of a multi-cultural Britain":
It could be an anomaly, of course. But it isn’t. The overwhelming majority of street crime, knife crime, gun crime, robbery and crimes of sexual violence in London is carried out by young men from the African-Caribbean community. Of course, in return, we have rap music, goat curry and a far more vibrant and diverse understanding of cultures which were once alien to us. For which, many thanks.
The first half of Liddle's argument, is a controversial point but he's not the first person to make it, and nor will he be the last to be lambasted for a selective analysis of crime statistics. But let's not even dwell on that part of this offensive flame-bait when there is some gross generalisation to discredit. Black people: they will stab you but at least they cook a mean goat curry.
I wonder why Liddle didn't mention the tremendous sense of rhythm they all have or the endownment of all black men. The big dick.
Sorry to "dwell on that part of this offensive flame-bait" but it warrants making the point that the fact “the majority of crime in London is carried out by young men from the African-Caribbean community” is due to poverty and lack of education rather than an inherently wayward nature. Take the Islands of Montserrat, St. Barts, British Virgin Islands, Bonaire and Dominica (all inhabited by African-Caribbean males) they have low crime rates - because there is money. In conclusion - black or white, crime is a product of poverty and unequal opportunity.
Posted by: Harriet | Dec 08, 2009 at 12:36
I notice Liddle's blog post went up at 12:49am. Now I'm guessing Spectator subs or staffers don't work at that time, so he probably put this straight up himself.
Therefore, the 12:49am post time raises some questions. Had he been in the pub?
Had some black chappy had the audacity to impinge upon Liddel's nice white middle class night out so he came home and produced this shit sandwich about black people in general ('can't have the spicy food without the inevitable crime that follows them around'...what a twat!)?
Seems likely, given all white people like to drink and the vast amount of drink related crimes (including those against journalistic credibility) are committed by white people!
Posted by: Dominic | Dec 08, 2009 at 12:38
Should be called Rod Lidl ...because he is cheap and nasty!
Posted by: Anon | Dec 08, 2009 at 12:47
Is it?
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/statistics_of_knife_crime_in_lon
Posted by: tpk | Dec 08, 2009 at 12:55
What terrible generalisations. And anyway, I think that everyone knows most crime is committed by scousers.
Posted by: Steve Loynes | Dec 08, 2009 at 12:57
Of course Rod has never been in trouble with the law and certainly HASN'T been accused of something like, hmmm, I don't know, beating up his pregnant 22 year old girlfriend who he took up with 6 months after marrying the mother of his two children. HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST SUCH A THING.
Posted by: JP | Dec 08, 2009 at 13:00
Hang on Liddle is a Millwall fan isn't he? They're ALL racist!!
...or at least they are if we're allowing gross generalisations to slip through the net without any kind of statistical evidence to support them!
Posted by: Jimbo | Dec 08, 2009 at 13:04
Wow. Liddle really is a hateful little minge-bag isn't he?
Posted by: Not a minge bad | Dec 08, 2009 at 14:03
My mate Clive Davis has a great post on "Rod the Hutt"
http://www.clivedavisconfab.com/2009/12/rod-liddle-bad-boy/
Posted by: simon | Dec 08, 2009 at 14:53
Glasgow is just as violent as London per capita and almost everyone there is white. Really really white
Posted by: Rachel McCormack | Dec 08, 2009 at 15:24
There is no reason to expect groups to have equal propensities to criminality though. Testosterone, often linked with violent crime, differs between racial groups.
"Mean testosterone levels in blacks were 19% higher than in whites, and free testosterone levels were 21% higher. Both these differences were statistically significant."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3455741
Also, are readily identifiable clusters of genes corresponding to traditional continental ethnic groups. Two groups that form distinct clusters are likely to exhibit different frequency distributions over various genes, leading to group differences.
MAO-A variants which place people at greater risk of aggressive behaviour (in combination with childhood maltreatment) also show different frequency distributions across groups.
http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/120-1250/2441/
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2007/01/metric-on-space-of-genomes-and.html
Also, note global crime rates are consistent with the rates observed by Liddle.
Rushton, J.P., & Whitney, G. (2002). Cross-national variation in violent crime rates: Race, r-K theory, and income. Population and Environment, 23, 501-511
http://psychology.uwo.ca/faculty/rushtonpdfs/P&E%20Crime.pdf
Posted by: Schwartz | Dec 22, 2009 at 02:18
Be objective, use critical thinking not emotional based "PC" logic. Facts are facts; A is A no matter how much you want it to be none A. Look around the world, in ANY country, rich or poor. THINK
Posted by: Edward Hamilton | Jan 24, 2010 at 05:38
Edward, I think plenty of people have provided facts which prove Liddle was the one being emotional. Your shallow belief in unreliable statistics I can only assume disguises a nastier agenda.
Because irrespective of what Liddle said specifically, the desire to seek out statistics - or represent them in such a way - that they support a racist agenda is an ugly characteristic, not to be applauded or encouraged, whatever your naive assessment of the situation. You'd do well to educate yourself on the worst abuses of statistics over the years to help faciliate some of mankinds darkest acts. THINK yourself.
Posted by: James | Jan 24, 2010 at 11:33