[Livia]

I think poor white males suffer in much the same way as young black males; they are castigated, will probably leave school without qualifications and if they do look for a job they will struggle to find work. Like young black men they have few role models and may well lack a male influence in their life. They have also been overlooked historically in favour of people from ethnic minorities due to positive discrimination. No wonder so many have absorbed themselves into black culture because being white and working class is not a good thing be these days. Black culture is seen as cool, where as white working class culture has been reduced to one word: “chav”. I saw a post on Yahoo during the height of the riots which said, “If the white working-class of this country had any fight left in them, it would have been them rioting”.

I want to say that this is a difficult and potentially inflammable subject dealt with on this thread with great eloquence, subtlety and tact.