‘Why racism didn’t cause these riots’: A critical discourse analysis of Oldham’s 2001 episode of ethnic violence

Abstract

This paper examines an article published in the Daily Mail in May 2001 and signed by an Asian British politician. It dealt with the race riots which happened in Oldham (England). The author’s alleged main argument was that these riots were not triggered by racism but by Oldham’s deplorable life conditions. A sympathetic attitude towards the people of his own race can equally be appreciated, while he criticizes whites’ behaviour. Our first objective is to obtain a generic awareness of the ideologically-laden representation of the Asians and whites involved in these events. Secondly, we aim to unveil the textual procedures by which this portrayal becomes subtly intermingled within the development of the author’s main thesis. Accordingly, our methodological instrument consisted in a battery of eight lexico-grammatical categories which were selected to examine these two groups of characters. Results indicate a carefully elaborated formulation of the theses mentioned above.