RISING ABOVE YOUR SURROUNDINGS

There is something about living in an area where so much negative things come within easy access. In some areas drug dealing for example is so blatant on the streets, even a pre-teen can point the dealers out! When I was growing up in Brixton you had the ‘Front Line’ on Railton Road, where you would have reggae music ‘shubeens’, gambling dens and Jamaican food shops. It was like a ‘little Kingston’ or ‘little Jamaica’ but those raised in Kingston may beg to differ! My description is from my imagination, not experience in Kingston. Growing up near Railton Road Front Line, weed was easily accessible.

Brixton had a bad name especially after the 1981 Riots, but today, with gentrification many have been priced out of the area. I remember going to college in Putney in the late 80s and I remember shockingly a student who lived in Clapham, had never been to Brixton! I was shocked. even though this was a white girl I was still shocked because I knew many white people who lived in Brixton. I don’t recall why she had never been, or if I even asked her, I was just surprised. Brixton is where it all happened it was an exciting place to be, live or just party. Then, that may just be the problem, too much was happening there and for young people sometimes this is not a good thing. Why? Like I said earlier in happening places there is an expectation to always be entertained, hyped or just excited.

EXPECTATION

If people are always expecting a party and there isn’t one they tend to make their own party. The same if people only see their loved ones, always ‘surviving’ this doesn’t look attractive. Smart children go to school and for a time, enjoy being smart until its ‘uncool’. Many can live with it and others are more influence by their peers than their teachers. So if a Black boy plays around in school to show ‘he doesn’t care’ whether about the teacher, or being taken out of class. If the teacher cannot see through the charade, then she as its usually a female teacher, gives up on him. Alternatively the expectation is for him to misbehave and not fulfil his education. Expectation changes, his as well as hers. And usually he is triaged as less priority and the other more engaging children will be engaged.

Moreover, if the child is engaged at home, educated, listened to, and there is a high expectation, then it is likely that the child will not be, on the pipeline to a Youth Offender Institute (jail). But, If there isn’t for whatever reason, the parent is too busy working, has mental health issues or substance misuse, or ‘just surviving’ then there are various outcomes.

A Choice is defined as an act of choosing between two or more possibilities: but many believe that they did not have a choice when they acted, got caught and have to face the consequences.

In the TV/Netflix series ‘Top Boy’ Dushane played by Ashley Walters, ask Sully played by Kano ‘ What else are we going to do!” In the context that they were not good enough to do anything else but be drug dealers! It was a conclusion to their environment of living on the block, in an inner city where there were no fathers, Black role models or other ways out.

COURAGE

I understand this narrative, but I also understand COURAGE. The same way a child may find it easy to cuss out a teacher, fight, jump on a train to the North of England to run a phone line. Is the same courage that is needed to want to learn how to be a Trader, a Doctor, a Petroleum Geologist, or an Architect for instance. The thing is most Black people including myself see more of the former than the latter. Therefore, it is easier to have an expectation of being able to carry out successfully the bad behaviour in or outside of school. Or accept that way of life.

SELF-CONFIDENCE

This is defined as a feeling of trust in one’s abilities, qualities, and judgement. What many don’t realise is that self-confidence starts at home, with your parents, siblings etc. However, many of us have had to find our own, which sometimes feels like the geologist digging for oil. For me it was a matter of educating myself with the information that others who looked like me were able to achieve. Despite them being in another country (USA) it gave me some confidence that it was possible. Later it came from a spiritual aspect that I wasn’t made to fail, Just being born was a success. I have continued to feed my self-confidence on a regular basis, because being in the U.K. as a Black person, feeds failure.

Take Care,

Akilah