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With regards to this:
Me: What about people who call other people chavs or who start fights on that basis? Is this not a classist hate-crime? Or not as much of a hate-crime?
D.I.: Sorry I still don't see how the class-war angle is relevant to violent assaults conducted by gangs of youths.
This all depends on what you mean by relevant. I'm not suggesting that it's okay for working-class people to beat up middle-class people; it's not okay for anyone to beat up anyone else. What I'm saying is that violence happens in a context, for a reason, which reason is by its nature relevant - and I don't see how that's very controversial. I'm also suggesting that people who commit violence are often themselves the victim of other violence.
Further, I still think that [to associate all instances of animus between 'goth' teenagers and young people by 'urban' teenagers and young people with hate of the order of racism/homophobia], but not [to associate the current trend for calling people chavs with a virulent, unpleasant classism with dangerous, circular effects - with hate, in other words] is a mistake.
To put it another way, if calling someone a goth is as bad as being racist, then so is calling someone a pram-face or a scally. We're more likely to hear about how horrible it is to be beaten up for being a goth, and I'm not happy about the other side being drowned out. We do, as Sophie Lancaster's mother said in a press interview, have an 'intolerant society', but it's not just white middle-class gothic teenagers who suffer from it.
We could talk further about how the goth dress sense signifies rebellion against middle-class politeness, a disposable income, usually consists of non-practical (therefore non-workman's) clothing and so on - in other words how it sorts rich kids from poor, and how the choice of being a goth or a hip-hopper among schoolkids nearly always parts along class lines. I think this is part of what's being reacted to by those who react to it with violence (it's the same with the bad reactions my usual glasses and bag of books have earned me). That doesn't justify anything, much less this horrific murder, but it does show that there's more to this than nasty mainstream jocks bullying those who don't fit in. |
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