After recently gaining praise for his views on knife crime in Britain, now Akala has articulately defeated infamous presenter, Piers Morgan in another debate about youth violence in London on Good Morning Britain.
On Monday morning (18th March), the daytime television show brought Akala (full name Kingslee James McLean Daley) on the show to give an insight to the UK’s rising knife crime and the blame being placed on young black youths.
The British author, poet and hip-hop artist has spoken on numerous occasions in the British media about the dangers of calling knife crime a ‘black issue’. Host, Piers Morgan directed his inquiry to Akala, referring to the recent increase of knife crime, stating, ‘The perpetrators and victims appear to be almost exclusively young black men.’, after awkwardly stumbling on the word ‘black’, he then went on to ask, ‘Do you think that there is a racial element to that in terms of cultural issues, racial issues or is it the same problem they had in Glasgow, and actually the race part of this is something where we look at the statistics and think it’s a black problem and it’s actually not?’
Unfazed, Akala fired back by pointing out that there have been ‘more horrendous knife crimes that have taken place outside of London’ where both perpetrators and victims have been white. The former newspaper editor went on to highlight that the media tend to label knife crime as a ‘black problem’, comparing the issue to New Zealand’s recent mosque attack, proposing that if it was an ISIS attack, that it would be classified as a Muslim problem.
Akala then put into perfect words to Morgan, how strange it would be to make such a generalisation for white men when they’re found guilty of heinous crimes. ‘You will never be called upon to explain that not all middle-aged white men are pedophiles, despite the fact that hundreds of them are convicted every year, because it’s obvious that not all middle-aged white men are pedophiles,’ he reasoned, to which Morgan had barely any response.
The rapper was trending on social media this morning as many admired his way with words and his successful debate with Morgan without being interrupted, which is what he is mostly known for.
‘Piers had an actual conversation with Akala,’ a Twitter user wrote. ‘Clearly realised his inferior intelligence would shine through and sat back and actually listened’. Another user said, ‘I’m surprised that Piers Morgan wasn’t deliberately obtuse and difficult like he always is. Also, Akala is exactly the type of voice we needed on such issues.’
We’re always glad to people of influence using their platform for good – here’s hoping that through Akala’s appearance, this marks some change in the way that knife crime is discussed on TV in the future.
