On Lacking Balls

Twice in the last week I have listened to people provide straightforwardly racist analyses of the riots and looting in the earlier part of the week. One began with a critique of the looters' unwillingness to put in the hard graft necessary to get what you want which quickly became a critique of black peoples' unwillingness to put in the hard graft necessary to get what you want. Obviously, there are a number of problems with this, but it was quite striking how quickly the looters became black people in general. The second was more hyperbolic, less a piece of standard Tory excuse-making for being a prejudiced prick and more a kind of hysteria . The person in question complained that since the looting they saw was committed only by black people, a claim I am sceptical about, they felt that they were the object of race hate because of it. This was though they had no actual interactions with the looters and certainly had nothing stolen. It was also after they'd said that the looters' targets seemed to be chosen without any interest in race and mainly focused on getting desirable consumption goods rather than violence, which they admitted had been more or less totally absent. One of the cheering things about it all has been the relative absence of this sort of thing from the coverage I've seen by professional news organisations, but you wonder how many conversations around the country have been marked by it, how acceptable it is or is becoming to characterise looting as a problem of a racial enemy within. You also wonder how many people hearing it were, like me, prepared to let it pass, to at least avoid contradicting them.