"Nobody colonises another group of people because they love them and want them to have democracy" reality check

The Guardian not exactly building bridges are we.

Great interview, but too short! Akala is someone I can listen too all day. Legend.

That interview was criminally short!

I'm far more cynical than Akala. I think the establishment knows full well what solutions would work. How could they not? The scientific evidence showing the causal pathways between child abuse/neglect and neurobiological damage is crystal clear. The brain imaging data is not controversial, neither is the observation that almost without exception the most violent individuals themselves suffered serious physical and sexual abuse as children. Thankfully there are many exceptions going the other way. We know which socioeconomic conditions foster abuse and neglect, we know the mechanisms by which abuse leads to neurobiological changes, we know how these neurobiological changes manifest in behavioural deficits that predispose people towards violence, and we think the solution is to create more prisons or employ more police? This is as stupid as understanding what causes tooth decay and then proposing that training more dentists will solve the problem. The reason they don't want to acknowledge the etiology of violence is because mopping up after crime pays handsomely, it also guarantees that vast inequality persists. They need depth to society because the greater the gulf between the bottom and the top, the greater they feel. Vast inequality must persist for them to live the way they live. That's why they pretend they don't know the solutions. Perhaps that's true, or perhaps the truth is even scarier: the people making the decisions are themselves neurobiologically damaged through boarding schools and neglectful workaholic parents. The violence they permit in society is a wilful projection of the terror they themselves felt as children. They are compelled to be complicit in its perpetuation in the same way child victims of severe abuse are compelled to project it onto others.

Akala the definition of living in the past racism will always exist with a mentality like his its imprinted on his brain he'll look for it anywhere its not

Interview Douglas Murray, or is he the wrong type of Gay Owen?

That line about it being easy for people to be outraged about the forms of racism engaged in by those with no power, but difficult to get people to see the racism of those with lots of power. Akala says stuff that just makes you feel like an idiot for not seeing it before. Like it's such an obvious thing, and your kind of subconsciously cognisant of it without it really clicking home what it actually means.

Thank you to all of you who suggested Akala. Sorry it took so long to arrange! Hope you enjoy it.

The interview should have been ten minutes longer. Akala was just getting started.

Akala is good at lyrics and he can talk well, but he managed to go through the entire interview without making any single factually verifiable claim

FULL INTERVIEW NOW!

There is an easy way to dispel the 'black-on-black violence narrative': the government and police should release more information on people convicted of murder including their ethnicity. I look forward to Akala demanding a new era of openness.

Owen, I am glad you said that you were fascinated because, there were times when your facial expressions looked like you were baffled.

I’d honestly love to see Akala go up against American conservatives such as Steven crowder and Ben Shapiro. It would be absolutely fascinating.

Why does Owen always sound like a thirteen year old on a kids tv news show 😂

Douglas Murray vs. Akala. Now that would be an interesting one.

Not heard your take on the muslims kicking off outside the school yet...wonder why?

Denying the majority of knife victims and culprits are black is actually a disservice to the black community. Much like in the U.S. where people don't want to address gun violence in the black community because people like this guy scream racism. Meanwhile those communities don't get fixed because no one wants to admit the problem

OK, we can debate the benefits and detriments of Empire indefinitely, but it won't help tackle knife crime in present day Britain. You could argue that brutal treatment of a colony has left a long lasting and damaging legacy on a significant portion of the population. What has been shown more broadly is that offenders are much more likely to come from dysfunction families with a history of antisocial behaviour or criminality. There should be proper research on how to break the cycle of destructive behaviours and attitudes with children growing up in these environments. Education is important, but should encompass more than just academic aspirations.

"The idea that groups were ranked hierarchically by inferiority and superiority really only arose in the 19th century and really only arose in Europe". This statement is an outright lie and Owen just lets it slip through like it's a fact because Akala said it and he sometimes has some good points on knife crime. Every human civilisation/empire/religion thinks it's superior to everyone else, from ancient Egypt to the Ottomans, including the British Empire.

Why do peoples memory of empires only go back a few centuries? Most continents have taken part in empire building, but everyone seems to forget that. The Mongolian Empire, the Timurid empire and the Ottoman Empire to name three. Not forgetting that Britain has also been on the receiving end of empires expanding with the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings, the Normans and the Gaels.

Please post the full interview!

Whats the British empire got to do with a black kid knifing another black kid through the heart in Peckham.

Hi Owen. Why don't you do an Owen meets Douglas Murray?

Yes we know bad bad whitey colonised half the world and that's why black people are in America and britian now and yes there is still racism but what's happening now it's nothing but culture as akala said it's nothing to do with skin colour everything to do with gang and drug war/culture

It was fascinating. But why not longer???

Where's the uncut interview?

I've been very impressed with 'Natives', particularly as it highlights the falsehoods upon which some of my own right-of-centre sociopolitical beliefs have been [unconsciously] based. A well-researched work providing insight to the 'black' and more general 'minority struggle', Akala's book has been central to challenging the narrative of the UK as a post-colonial, post-racial paradise.

First Akala. We also need an interview with lowkey and Dave!

Akala go on russell brands podcast already?!

Hierarchical prejudice didn't exist before the 19th century? Tribes & different peoples around the world have been prejudiced against others going back to the Aztecs & beyond

Should perhaps be mentioned that the British empire abolished the trans Atlantic slave trade and policed this. It was also British missionaries who helped to end the East African slave trade. Lots of huge failures Of The Empire but should also remember to successes.

Interviewees and interviewers can have discussions and debates which, quite frankly, goes over the my head sometimes, but this discussion with Akala I can fully understand everything he says. He gets us all thinking.

Interesting video, Owen. But please post the full interview. There's no reason to cut things short on YT.

Just remember Owen Jones is the name of a Nazi spy in the BBCs "Goodnight Sweetheart" from back in the 90's.... lol.

Freaking LOVE Akala. First came across him about 5 years ago and was absolutely blown away by his power as a speaker. Thanks for this Owen - is a full, unedited version on the cards?

What have the Romans done for us?

The knife crime epidemic has nothing to do with race and everything to do with culture

5:09 - What's the name of the doctor he mentioned who did a PHD on prison systems?

So his solutions are?

After a masters in African studies, I ran across a few interviews of Akala and learned more in 5 hours of interview clips uploaded to KZfaq than 120 hours from a respected, 550 year old university in the heart of Europe. Akala, you’re sooo underrated! I wish you’d go on a tour of universities with departments of African/Africana Studies in America and Europe.

Where can we look at the data?

By that title - in reality it is the Zulu Empire, old School Great Zimbabwe and olden Ethipoia among others

And I think most people except that locking more and more people up doesn't stop crime. But what's the alternative for career criminals.

He is very intellectual but I don’t agree with the violence of black people in this country stems from the legacy of the empire. The communities that came from the Caribbean in the 50s and 60s were not violent and wanted to work hard. It’s the subsequent generations that have fallen into this perpetual cycle that education is not cool, but being a “gangster” is. I have black friends who are professionals but still like to portray that image. My wife is a teacher and she deals with a wide range of ethnic groups, and she says the black kids are one of the hardest to turn around. They themselves as a community need to stop blaming others and change it themselves. I do agree that they were the worst victims of colonisation. I am Asian and our lands were also stripped of our riches and Asian countries are just as brutal as African countries, but there is some difference in the values at home that has made the Asian communities generally more successful. I have worked in the Finance and IT sectors in London, and there is a real lack of Black employees. That is probably down to some type of institutional racism as well as the fact that there aren’t enough Black people who are wanting to go into white collar jobs. If the parents push their kids to get the right education when at school, things will change, but from what I have been told the parents are generally are not parenting in the right way.

Did he just conflate policing and sentencing?

This conversation does nothing, the best way to help someone is by not helping them. They will help themselves.

Now interview Peterson.

We all need to be more educated on the past. It's from our past we build our future. We need to own past mistakes.

why was there a cut at like 1:13? probably just someone sneezing but it made me lose concentration

London is very very stabby stabby. It never used to be.

I bet Owen lives in an all-white area.

I like Akala's hunger for information. I will contribute this, though... The reason why the British Empire went into Nigeria was to shut down the slave trade, which was a national industry. It's complex and symbiotic. I'm with Wole Soyinka: oppression can be done by anybody. One of the most worrying aspects of the 20th century has been the growth of the P.R. industry. This has given a lot of people exposure to the American politics, which is not indicative of the complexities of international history. Sadly racism and religion are standard ingredients of much of the old-world politics. Wars and empires. Temples and taxes. Leveraging organisational narcissism.

Where can we do the while interview??

The only criticism I have of these videos is that they're always too short. Long form discussion would be much better! :-)

Post the whole interview please!

But, what did the Romans do for us?

Have you seen the BBC Storyville documentary ‘The House I live In’ ? Changed my world view. Amongst other brilliant documentaries. Full respect to your mission Owen, peace and love.

Where's the rest of the effing interview? 9 mins. That's a joke

3:03 - 3:11, you can tell by the vigorous flower wobble Akala's speaking some truths.

Consuming this in the midst of BLM / George Floyd (RIP) protests. Thank you Akala, thank you Owen 🙏🏽

I agree with many of things Akala says about prisons, socio-economic conditions, irresponsible foreign policy and so on. In the interest of discussion and debate I’m going to pick up on an opposing point though, the headline is ‘the black on black narrative is rooted in empire’. Ok, but China was part of the informal empire and India was part of the empire, I don’t hear a narrative about Chinese on Chinese violence or Indian on Indian violence? I agree that as I understand it a false sense of superiority was created with the empire, but it doesn’t in itself explain this particular issue. I agree difficult socio-economic conditions and austerity and so on create the negative conditions for a lot of issues to happen, but these conditions apply to many communities and are not racially specific. The impression being created at the moment is that this kind of violence is a particular issue in black communities. Now I’m not saying that it is, the impression created by media and perceptions are not always aligned to reality. The answer to that question would be more in the statistics and I don’t know what the statistics are on this? However if the statistics show that this type of violence is more common in black communities then you need to consider what other reason there could be. For example could it be the some types of music and famous black artists promote certain behaviours, a random example is 50 cent has an album called ‘get rich or die tryin’ , and I think ‘drill music’ has much worse lyrics? Although I think Akala raises many excellent points and it’s good he has a platform, I feel that, perhaps naturally given the history, his default position is to never consider such community specific issues. To be clear, I haven’t seen the statistics and I don’t know if the statistics support the perception of this issue. I also absolutely agree it is completely wrong to label a whole community because of the actions of a minority. I also agree that history, austerity, socio-economic conditions and so on are massive contributing factors to these issues. I am simply making the point that to really get to the root of a problem you need to honestly consider everything. There is a risk of anecdotally trying to fit everything to one particular narrative.

brilliant inteview

Akala needs a larger platform, this guy should be giving talks around the globe.

Flippin' brilliant. Could have watched an hour of this.

Quality editing. :S

Learnt more on this video than I did in my history lesson in school

Fantastic. Thanks for uploading Owen!

That was amazing. Please upload the full interview.

No one is currently teaching young black boys to hate themselves. This guy thinks they’re reading up in the history books and then deciding to go out and kill each other? It’s always “im a victim” for the next 1000 years will these people have the same excuse?

What a bright guy.

I might not agree with your political views but full respect for not disabling comments on this. Really interesting interview.

Laws are made in order to conspire against certain minorities, and to give jobs to middle class people who work as psychologists and prison wardens? This sounds like conspiracy theory nonsense. I'd like to hear some examples to back this up

Mark Duggen had a white mother and a Black father the media reports him as Black Barak Obama, Lewis Hamilton had white mothers they become mixed despite the fact that on many occasions they call themselves Black, these discussions are rooted in Empire. And Akala is exactly right Japanese stopped being so inferior when they proved that they could master the technology and be as brutal while expanding as any European nations one African country that could have gone down the same route if factors like the desert and strong Muslim states like Sudan. Ethiopia they were an expansionist African power there was one point were imperial Japan were going to help Ethiopia industrialise, but Europe put a stop to it mostly because England harboured ambitions to attach Ethiopia to it's East African Empire. You can't get people who spent a good couple of hundred years owning other human beings to build a banking system, Industrialise to not have a population who will believe anything their betters tell them,the average Brit can't speak a foreign language and knows little about Europe outside going on holiday to Spain.

That was really good

Interview Noam Chomsky or Abbey Martin

You cannot put this any other way. ''This is about 2 knob jockeys,having a conversation about white guilt''.

When's he meeting Eldin?

Brilliant mate! Your never to late to the party when akala be dropping them jewels! Help his voice reach the platform it needs and maybe we can all get to see these changes in our life time!

And he is saying that governments are locking people up costing the tax payer £30k a year per prisoner just to create jobs really...

Stuck in his sisters Shadow! (Who accepted an MBE!)

Almost no one thinks that genes are involved in any behavioural differences between races; and people's views on these matters are very clearly based on their own personal experience, not historical traditions of thought in the British Empire. Even if people did base their views on other groups on historical narratives (which they obviously don't), people have been educated for at least the past 10-15 years heavily to view empire in an almost exclusively negative light and to be set up to be ashamed of any identification with it whatsoever. I'm with Akala on the idea that totally ignoring economic factors is not helpful. But its also not helpful to deny the statistical disparities and their obvious link to cultural differences. Clearly factors like hyper-masculinity, denial of mental health problems and inter-generational trauma are the main cause of the observed behavioural differences- externalising the blame by somehow linking it to historical narratives that bear basically no relation to how people think about these issues in the modern day is not helpful.

Over Christmas, I got in the car with my dad who is sixty and he was listening to Akalas first album. Which I actually had before he became a political commentator.

I don't see anyone making the argument that the modern day Germans, or Japanese, should feel guilty for the invasions, war, oppression and extermination of people in the 1940's. Because those modern day Germans and Japanese have nothing to do with what happened 75+ years ago. And those actions were on an enormous scale back then! Yet there seems to be a campaign to make British people feel guilty and responsible for their country's actions 250 years ago... despite the fact that it has nothing to do with modern day British people. Therefore it can only be for the sake of gaining political ground that people like Akala & Dr Kehinde Andrews spout these views. I am a fan of Akala, and nothing Akala said in this interview was controversial, so to speak. But it is obvious that it is part of this wider picture of making out that Britain is evil and that British people are oppressive and responsible for all of the world's problems (despite the fact we give the 2nd most aid to poor countries). But again, this kind of commentary is done to score political points and paint a particular race or type of people as inherently bad and guilty. And also to present another group of people (in this case blacks) as victims of oppression and stuff that occurred centuries ago. You have to remember that the people spouting these views aren't historians, they are political commentators with an agenda to pursue. If you spoke to a black historian, I think you will find they have very different views about modern day stuff as they do not work for the sake of political gain. In regards to the black-on-black violence, we also see the exact same thing happening in African & Caribbean countries. So it is not surprising that when a large proportion of black people migrate to London, that we start seeing those same problems there. This problem that is plaguing London is linked to gangs, rap music and cultural issues that promote this kind of behaviour. A lot of black kids think it is cool to carry knives, or guns, and to be in a gang and to go around terrorising or killing people. That is a fact. At the same time there are lots of white kids who are also in that same position, but due to the large scale migration of blacks into London, it is hardly surprising that black-on-black crime is now the main issue. So stop spouting off BS about it being due to colonialism, racism, or the fault of British people. We see all this black-on-black crime because there has been an enormous scale of black migration into London. And that is the sole reason. If London was pretty much just white, we would be having problems with white-on-white crime. Although not at the same levels, as it is the gangs, rap/drill music, cultural differences and impoverished backgrounds that have helped create the chaos we are currently seeing on the streets of London in regards to black-on-black crime. A large proportion of people in Africa are also poor due to their corrupt governments stealing the money and not distributing it evenly, or providing infrastructure in their countries. So trying to blame modern day issues on colonialism and stuff that happened 250 years ago is not only pathetic, but a pretty desperate attempt to gain political ground. They try to make an argument that simply does not exist anymore.

There have been other empires, for example the Roman one.

One of the most intelligent speakers I've ever come across (Akala, obviously). However, he is another who confuses racism with explanation. Somebody can argue that knife crime in London is a black problem without being racist. Yes, there are other factors involved, but facts are facts regardless of how you try to paint them.

Wish it was 3 times as long !!!

Not heard too much of Akala's stuff but from this limited snippet he is both right and wrong on these issues. Many aren't arguing that bobbys on the beat should lead to more criminalisation of crimes, Peter Hitchens for instance wants them to be a preventative measure of community engagement, allowing communities to feel secure because of their very presence. He even argues that they shouldn't be partnered, increasing their engagement by stopping them only chatting with each other but of course demolishing their ability to criminally convict people because you generally need corroboration for convictions. Hitchens is more right wing than the Tories. In this 10 min video Jones is perpetuating the Left wing trope that the right are racist and hasn't allowed Akala to talk about what he thinks the actual problem is. It perpetuates the modern polarising Identity Politics Narrative which is nothing but divisive and damaging. I think the issue in the black community isn't about an genetic or cultural inferiority but about a myriad of issues traditional Lefties and Cons can agree on and do care about, poverty, joblessness, lack of education, the drug war, lack of family structure. If the left is going to speak properly across the political divide then they have to be inclusive of other perspectives and come up with solutions aren't just "don't be racist" because as far as I can see the overwhelming majority of 21st century problems are not directly linked to racism but instead have unintended consequences which disproportionally affect underrepresented people in society.

Akala is the play thing of white middle-class liberals. They interview him because he says everything they want to hear

I wonder when people will stop blaming the past for their actions?

Was that a materialist critique of racism?

This guy just wonts to bring up anthing to blame the white man

Why don't you interview Douglass Murry, Owen?

Tell it like it is. But we shouldn't point these things out. We should just be glad we have a "higher" standard of living than most of the world.

Ngl I don’t think we got half a sense of everything he was talking about from that. Only whetted my appetite for the full interview

I like Akala but he focuses too much on the victim portion. He always blames the establishment. There are many poor people out there for don't kill others

Owen!! Can you interview Lowkey?!?

Police are very much important and anyone that thinks there not in my opinion is useless. Secondly the best way to stop racism is to include everyone. Instead of constantly separating each other

Akala looks like Predator here lol