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Children matter, let’s fight for them
Disaffected young people must be taught how to express grievances through debate – and be shown greater understanding from all of us, writes Gus John
I HAVE been moved by the testimonies of the mothers of young people caught up in gangs that I have heard.
I attended a funeral recently of one of our children who was stabbed to death on an estate.
I saw hundreds pay their respects as young people from the rival gangs suspended their hostilities that day. Since then they have stayed together. They have talked about what binds them together. I see that as hopeful.
I’d like to start with a short story. When I was working on the Street Weapons Commission last year I interviewed a group of 80 black Year 10 students in Bristol. I asked them to list 10 things they thought were good about themselves.
After half an hour, only three quarters of them had put down four. Then I asked them to list three things they feared the most. In three minutes, they had finished.
The answers were: dying, being stabbed or shot, and the death of a loved one.
Why is it that 80 children, in the city of Bristol in 2007 were preoccupied with death and dying?
It is not evidence of congenital disposition in the black community to murder. It is nothing to do with the way black parents bring up their children.
It is an indictment of society.
When I came to this country my parents had high aspirations for me. Both my parents were illiterate farmers – they walked behind cows. But they assisted me by instructing me to be the best that I could.
They had made that my moral and political responsibility.
One of the first reports into race relations in the black community that came to this country concluded that black people had too high aspirations. They have since seen a lot of anger and a lot of hurt – and they have ended up producing a generation of nihilists and hedonists that are walking around like wolves killing each other.
The Street Weapons Commission is recommending that we have uniformed police officers in schools and search arches on the gates. I wonder what that will do for the spiritual and moral development of our children.
Every child matters – remember that government slogan? Well it seems some children matter more than others. Young people are living in fear and feel the only way to protect themselves is to carry a knife.
Knife arches are not the solution. Teenagers, they are clever and cute. If they know they will be searched going into school they will simply leave the knife somewhere outside and pick it up when they leave.
What we need to be doing is equipping our children with moral values that stop you, or I, from picking up a knife. I am talking about the internal compass that stops people from passing beyond the point that you and I will not go.
We can start at school. It is about teaching young people political methods so that they can deal with their grievances through debate, not violence.
Only then will they stop imploding on each other in the way that they are doing. We keep having these debates and, although the killings keep happening, they are of great importance. We need to repeatedly show that we do not give up on our young people and we will fight for them.
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