Akala praised for knife crime debate on Good Morning Britain that made Piers Morgan 'sit up and listen'

Author managed to make a number of points about knife crime and race without being interrupted by the GMB host

Akala has been praised for his appearance on Good Morning Britain where he spoke about why he believes making knife crime a race issue is counter-productive.

The British author, hip hop artist and poet has spoken on several occasions on the danger of calling knife crime “a black problem”.

“The perpetrators and victims appear to be almost exclusively young black men,” host Piers Morgan began, referring to the recent spike in knife crime in the UK. “Do you think there is a racial element to that in terms of cultural issues, racial issues, or is it the same problem they had in Glasgow where they were white, and actually the race part of this is something where we look at the statistics, think it’s a black problem and actually it’s not?”

Akala pointed out that some of the “most horrendous” knife attacks have taken place outside of London over the past few years, where “both the victim and the perpetrators were white”.

“There is one limited sense in which race may be important,” he said. “You could argue that only a very particular demographic of young black boys, only at a very particular stage in their lives, feel a degree of psychological self-hatred or contempt for themselves that they project on to other people.”

Morgan compared the media’s tendency to label knife crime as a “black problem” to the recent mosque terror attack in New Zealand, suggesting that had it been an Isis supporter, the immediate reaction from many would have been to call it a “Muslim problem”.

Akala agreed, adding: “You will never be called upon to explain that not all middle-aged white men are paedophiles, despite the fact that hundreds maybe thousands of them are convicted every year, because it’s obvious that not all middle-aged white men are paedophiles.”

On social media, many admired the fact that Akala had successfully debated Morgan without being constantly interrupted – something the GMB host is somewhat infamous for.

“Has any guest on GMB ever made Piers sit up and listen?” one viewer asked. “No, but Akala has... bravo.”

Another said it was the first time they had seen Morgan “listen properly”.