It is easy to regard, and thus disregard, the riots following the conviction of Henry Nowak’s murderer as an explosion of reaction by a flammable and motivated minority. The more uncomfortable truth is that a specific notion, that people of colour have been privileged over and above mere equality, and been given dominion over white people, is now mainstream. Whether it is in the rejection of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or in claims of “two-tier policing”, the current moment can seem as though it is about all sorts of disparate things: immigration, concerns over housing, cultural dilution, basic fairness. But it’s really broadly about one thing – equality has gone too far. The black man has the whip hand over the white man.
As you can tell by the previous line, this is not a new notion, now recycled by Nigel Farage when he says that there is “a two-tier culture in this country, where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities”. It is, at its most simple, backlash. The sort of pushback that has followed every single wave of civil rights progress and efforts at enfranchisement.
