In evolutionary terms what is familiar and similar to us we like and what is unfamiliar or dissimilar we do not like. Generally this made sense because something would be familiar if it had not eaten us during our last encounter with it. We are tribal and have been hardwired to favour and relate to members of our own tribe which conferred an evolutionary advantage. Our mirror neurones in fact respond preferentially to members of our own racial background although this can be trained out.
By allowing different ethnic groups to coalesce in concentrated cultural hubs all crammed together in the same city without any sense of integration then the phenomenon of racism will be expressed naturally as you have dissimilar and unfamiliar groups in close contact. This is a disintegrated society with poor national identity and therefore is a sign of a badly run society. You can avoid the expression of racism by having an integrated society with a clear national identity to which everyone not only belongs but feel they belong. Subordinate to this can be a degree of cultural diversity but no more than is compatible with the national identity and culture being dominant. Anything less than this will lead to a society weakened from within by its own discord and strife.
How can events in another country cause demonstrations and riots in the UK? Two reasons: Mirror neurons ie events abroad remind people here of their own resentments with the second reason being sublimation of the stress of fear and anger of lock down, its lack of purpose and clarity and the forthcoming economic catastrophe as furlough is withdrawn from ghost companies no longer viable or even in a position to pay redundancy. All this to deal with a virus with low fatality which peaked back at the beginning of April and has followed the same course in countries irrespective of lockdown, no lockdown or partial lockdown. The fear of a second peak is more media hysteria in part driven by a second peak in Iran after lifting of lock down there without understanding that is a measurement artefact ie the incidence has increased as it is being measured more. In fact mortality is currently running below seasonal norm.
We conclude that the country is really run by the media with a vested interest of selling print while they pass responsibility via the excuse to the right of free speach to politicians greedy for election or re election who pass responsibility to scientists who are working with government grants and the principle one of whom believed so fervently in his lock down model's necessity that he broke it to have sex with someone he met on a dating site. If it was Ebola raging through the London streets he may well have chosen to remain abstinent. The Hansard report has already concluded that the media are responsible for misinforming the public and making them cynical about politics yet the public are also expected to vote with this knowledge. We speculate that the media should be heavily regulated and paid a fixed salary with bonuses for those sticking to the truth and ruthless sanction for those exaggerating or lying. Free speach is a precious powerful and dangerous commodity and cannot be conferred to anyone with a vested interest apart from the good of the community and in some instances preferably behind closed doors in order to protect the integrity of the fabric of society. Otherwise we get the media circus of destructive scavenging with a zombie political class chained to the stakes of media influence and the country carried by the ebb and flow of the tide of fear and chaos and destruction.