Angry, White and Proud- sparking hate into the nation.
Angry, White and Proud aired on the 14th January, Angry, White and Proud is a one off documentary about growing racial tensions and the rise of splinter cell nationalist groups, documenting the travels and adventures of a small section of white nationalist Englishmen.
I feel Channel 4 has developed a suspiciously deliberate knack of playing on recent tragic events, and coming so soon after the France terror attacks I can’t help but feel disappointed at Channel 4’s decision to use a tragedy to boost its viewing figures. Nonetheless, ‘Angry White and Proud’ runs through a similar vein of programs about social tensions that are very much present nowadays, and are admittedly hard to avoid.
Colin, a member of a far right splinter cell, states how he went from ‘Football’ to ‘Football Violence’ to ‘Going into the Far Right, the Far Left, because your basically the same really, y’know what I mean?’. At this point I’m struggling to understand Colin’s apparent uncanny resemblance between fighting men who support a rival football team and regimes which systematically exterminate whoever opposes them, but hey-ho I decide to give Colin another chance to win me over.
However when Colin takes us on a journey with his obnoxious friends on a sad little St. George’s march in Brighton, it becomes apparent how abhorrent, distasteful and downright ugly he and his friends are. I use the word march lightly, and this ‘march’ is not on the scale of the BNP or EDL, rather an alcoholics anonymous day out with a few overweight uneducated skinheads thrown in. Colin and the gang are only fooling themselves when trying to portray their undying devotion to doing whats right for the English as ‘Patriotism’; rather what comes across is a down right unjustified hatred for anyone associated with Islam.
One particularly harrowing scene occurs later on when cell leader ‘Robert’ marches down the streets of Rotherham revoltingly calling for those shopping to join them, more worryingly is the sheer mass of people who follow, making Robert look like the modern Muslim hating, xenophobic Pied Piper. This begins to flag an issue in modern society, which is the attractiveness that these hate filled ‘cells’ have towards the abundance of young people who find themselves unemployed, in trouble with the authorities and disenchanted by the current government. As Colin says himself earlier on in the program, joining the group gave him a family and sense of belonging he never had, he had gained life long family and friends who he knew he could rely on. If we are to really stamp out people being unknowingly lured into these repulsive ‘cells’ more has to be done to get more young people into employment.
Ironically, as is later revealed, Robert is half Cypriot and Colin is half Italian, and still they feel the need to moronically abuse those who are not ‘English’; their twisted labelling Muslims as being ‘JIhadi’s’ is admittedly a product of the blame culture of modern media. Nevertheless, nothing can stop Colin’s fellow ‘Patriot’ from teaching his Daughter the Goose Step, but we can only hope that those raised by these borderline Neo-Nazis do not follow in the footsteps of their fathers.
Written by Jack Stevens
