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Are teds racist?

This gruesome symbolic cartoon published in the Daily Mail shortly after the Notting Hill riots in 1958 powerfully illustrates how the worst kinds of violence could be associated with the teddy boy dress styles.

cartoon by Emmwood from Daily Mail 03 Sep 1958

There is no doubt that the teddy boys of the 1950s could be capable of the worst kinds of violence. Neither is there much doubt that some teddy boys were involved in the Notting Hill race riots. However, the trouble is that by the mid 1950s ‘teddy boy’ meant more or less any group of teenage and adolescent men who were up to trouble, ‘hooligans’ to use a word employed before and after that time.

 

I came across this wonderful guy in Harlow, in Essex. I tried to talk to him, but he just could not stop bopping. And why not? 🙂 (*EU Today YT upload May 2017)

See also articles on 1958 Notting Hill Riots, 1959 Teds and rude boys, 1958 National Association of Teddy Boys.

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