Lucys Work, Email to BBC

Dear BBC

I am writing to complain about the comments made by David Starkey in the Recent showing of News night, I feel it was wrong for him or anyone to blame the Riots in the United Kingdom on Black gangster culture and also by quoting the subject of race has become unmentionable, by whites at any rate, I feel he is almost trying to justify people being able to criticize other peoples culture and race which is basically open racism.

I am also not happy about how he reacted to people taking offence to his recent comments, he mocks the public and say there opinions are “hysterical” he also says that a breach in what he calls the taboo on discussing race. He also accused the “whites are becoming blacks” saying that white people are starting to become almost disobedient like black people which I feel is wrong on both halves of the argument you cannot blame one race for the actions of another.

I also feel by him mentioning the work and speeches of the racist diplomat Enoch Powell did not help his cause, whose 1968 Speech Rivers of blood attacked and condemned immigration. He then went on to mention that part of the legacy of the reaction to Powell had been “an enforced silence on the matter of race”.

I have also carefully read through the BBC producers guidelines and would like to list some points which i feel are appropriate to this letter. the following quotes are taken from the BBC producers guidelines website. the points i took out of the website to review for this letter state that the bbc are accountable for their audiences, and you say that the bbc will acknowledge mistakes which have been made and encourage a culture of willingness to learn from them and in my personal opinion as well as thousands of others this Starkey programme and the things he said is a mistake but nothing has been done about it by your orginisation.

1.2.5 Harm and offence

We aim to reflect the world as it is, including all aspects of the human experience and the realities of the natural world. But we balance our right to broadcast innovative and challenging content with our responsibility to protect the vulnerable from harm and avoid unjustifiable offence. We will be sensitive to, and keep in touch with, generally accepted standards as well as our audiences’ expectations of our content, particularly in relation to the protection of children.

1.2.11 Accountability

We are accountable to our audiences and will deal fairly and openly with them. Their continuing trust in the BBC is a crucial part of our relationship with them. We will be open in acknowledging mistakes when they are made and encourage a culture of willingness to learn from them.

The race relation act 2010 received royal assessment in April 2010. This is a reference taken from a website called www.raceequalitytoolkit.co.uk which I used in my research of racial discrimination and to understand the meanings and laws of the race relation act.

April 2011: the public sector equality duty, the socio-economic duty and dual discrimination protection comes into effect, replacing the current public sector duties in the race relations (Amendment) Act 2000, the Disability Discrimination act 2005 and the Equality act 2006.

The equality act 2011 incorporated all prior legislation including the Race relations’ act 1976 (as amended). As race is one of the protected characteristics, it is unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of race against anyone, irrespective of their racial group.