Riots in Britain

In 2001, a racial riot has taken place in Bradford, a nothern industrial town in Britain. Can we link it to multiculturalism ?

The riot in Bradford is part of one in a series, following the same pattern and involving the same actors, Asian and white young people, and the police, as the previous ones. The causes are the heat wave, the provocative attitude of a few extremists but there are also racial, social, economic and historical ones.  The riots do not testify to the racism of the British society : they are the consequences of a multicultural policy that finds support across the political spectrum and that has made assimilation a taboo subject.

The social policy of the governement has promoted the right for difference for minorities, disregarding the fact that some degree of assimilation alone can avoid a racial divide. Lord Ouseley, in a report on Bradford, pinpoints the problem of housing segregation, whereas Ceri Peach establishes a parallel between the black and Asian communities that reveals the will of the latter to remain alone. 

Maybe the multicultural policies implemented in Britain should have put less emphasis on minorities' duties than on their rights. Nevertheless, if the black community has managed to integrate, it's thanks to this multicultural policies implemented in the 90's by the conservative government. After the 1981 riots, decisions had to be taken to prevent the racial gap from widening and to prevent young blacks from becoming outcasts. 

Obviously, the multicultural policy has succeeded with the black community and it is to be hoped that it will eventually succeed with the Asian community. There are no limits to the multicultural doctrine but there would probably be more dangers in not accounting for a whole part of the British population.