Letter: Opinion about riots not racist

Here, Abertay University sociologist Dr Stuart Waiton, writing in a recent issue of Scottish Affairs, is accused of saying that Scotland’s more homogenous racial make-up protected it from the last summer’s riots that occurred in England.

I am worried at how easily Dr Waiton appears to have been vilified and his comments dismissed by the National Union of Students, the University of Abertay Students’ Association and an unnamed group “representing ethnic minorities” without any of these groups appearing to have read and engaged with the substance of the article. If they had done, they might have read how Dr Waiton attacks the culture of welfare state professionals and lays blame for the riots on fragmenting communities and the apparent loss of authority exhibited by politicians, police and adults more generally.

In fact, in explaining the reasons why Scotland did not experience riots, he speculates that Scottish national and regional identity, the west of Scotland’s tribal football support and Glasgow’s community-focused Muslim population may have played important preventative roles. He also speculates that it may have been just a matter of luck.

At no point does Dr Waiton blame black people – in fact he explicitly dismisses the idea of a unitary black culture – or any other ethnic group for the rioting down south. On the contrary, and consistent with his argument, the targets of his condemnation are those banal and relativistic welfare state professionals who work with excluded “ethnic young people” and do not offer anything meaningful for them to aspire to.

Dr Donncha Marron, School of Applied Social Studies, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen

I WAS shocked to read the article regarding the “racist” comments by Dr Stuart Waiton of Abertay University within his article on the recent riots in England.

I have known Stuart for many years. I know he campaigned vigorously throughout the 1980s and 1990s against racism. He put his money where his mouth was directly challenging racists and skinheads on marches.

I don’t know why some people decided to falsely paint Stuart as a racist. Perhaps his outspoken (and correct) campaign against the attack on freedom of expression contained within the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill rattled a few government cages. I don’t know. But I do know Stuart Waiton is no racist.

David Fagan, via email