In a Sept. 14 interview with Vlad TV, British rapper and activist Akala talks about the racial development of European Black neighborhoods.
The rapper starts the clip discussing Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade saying that Britain only wanted slavery in the colonies.
But the bulk of the interview focuses on the development of housing projects in Britain, France and the U.S.
“You know if you go to the south side of Chicago, or you go to certain parts of the Bronx, I’ve visited family up there, and literally everyone [was Black],” Akala explains. “One of the things France did was chose to put their immigrant community outside of the city in these massive housing projects. In the U.K., we are all inside the city. ”
However, Akala admits that while the racism and segregation in Britain is awful, it does not compare to America.
“There weren’t public lynchings in the 50s and 60s in the U.K. … I mean the police are not pulling drive-bys on 12-year-children… The situation here to me is much worse…”
Akala adds that there are no Black middle-class communities for the few well-off Black Britons.
“… All of the neighborhoods I could point you to are ‘hoods — they are working-class neighborhoods.”
