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Do black boys need better role models?

cpj1987

Pernell Whitaker

Email 10 Downing Street for an answer. Emaill the independent bodies who carry out this research day in, day out.

If you don't like it, you can always vote for the Tories or Lib Dems, they wouldn't be interested in helping failing ethnic minorities...oh wait...yes they would, especially if Cameron follows through with what he says.

Damn, you're only left with a couple of viable voting options now...the BNP or UKIP. They will no doubt share your views...your choice!

Ethnic minorities aren't failing any more than any other people; they're just stereotyped more, and covered more by the media.
It's racist to seperate/segregate the races, which is what you're implying you want.

Reply 21

Gilliwoo

Pernell Whitaker

Email 10 Downing Street for an answer. Emaill the independent bodies who carry out this research day in, day out.

If you don't like it, you can always vote for the Tories or Lib Dems, they wouldn't be interested in helping failing ethnic minorities...oh wait...yes they would, especially if Cameron follows through with what he says.

Damn, you're only left with a couple of viable voting options now...the BNP or UKIP. They will no doubt share your views...your choice!

Woah...dude.

I think she was just pointing out that some issues can be addressed without making assumptions on the basis of race. I agree with her on that- it's patronising, inaccurate and probably damaging to the cultural confidence of those affected, when they are always being lumped together as a bloc.

But I take you to be saying that some issues are inextricably linked with race - in so far as identity and social experiences tend to correlate with race to a large extent. I agree with you in this as well: it isn't necessarily racist to divert attention or resources disproportinately to those who are clearly more affected by an issue.

But in the end, this is one of those many things that the government can fix through policy, not through studies and initiatives. As ever, I remain of the view that the education system and creative law enforcement are the best starting points from which to address most of society's ills.

Reply 22

hermaphrodite

15

Have Your Say

Would a national programme of mentors help young people?

Black boys need positive role models from within their own communities to tackle underachievement, a report says.

The Reach panel of experts says too often role models for young black men include rappers who glamorise guns.

The report calls for a national programme to encourage lawyers, doctors and teachers to become mentors. It also calls for stronger relationships between schools and the parents of black boys.

Does everybody need a role model? Is it helpful to see someone like you in a job you want to do? Who was your role model?

Click here to read the main story (on the BBC website)

No. I think Bengali/Bangladeshi girls and boys need a better role model to tackle underachievement.

what? ...

Gilliwoo

There is no necessary link between race and good qualities that a black person needs a black role model and a white one needs a white one. Good qualities are colour blind. I'd go so far a to say that it's implicitly racist to assume that just because somebody is black, white, or Asian, they need a role model of the same colour. There's one problem here, and it's boredom and a pathetic tribalistic "tough man" mentality that prevails in deprived areas in general (irrespective of race). I'm not giving any more credence to this than it really deserves. What these kids need is their mothers to give them a good slap once in a while. That should fix it.

i'm not being racist, i was being realistic. doesn't matter what we think because that's all theoretical and they don't go 'real-life' usually. it's true that black people (at least, the black people in my school) do sometimes 'look up' at their own people leik rappers. in fact, they seem to be quite obsessed and self-awared about being black. i made a comment (wasn't even a negative one) about their culture when joking with them and they took it as a racist one and i was leik 'wtf?' my asian friends don't seem to have that kind of attitude even though there's discrimination against them too. this is all entirely based on my personal experience btw; i am not making a concrete general statement about every black people.

but yeah, you're right, at the end of the day all they need is a whack from their parents. it's a pity that society see it as child abuse >_>

Yah...

I think that the term "role model" can be a bit ambiguous. My opinion is that they're referring to role models close to them i.e. a father, a brother, a neighbour in addition to the whole violent gangster rap role models.

It's true that a black guy should be able to identify with people who have a different skin colour to him, which at the end of the day, is rather irrelevant. As much as the black rebel kid in London would like it, there's very little in common between him and some black hoodlum in Compton apart from a slightly similar skin colour.

What this probably refers to is the collapse of the Afro-Caribbean family structure. In the 60s, a lot of people from Jamaica, Trinidad moved over here and they brought with them strong family values where hard work was important. The same applies to families which arrived a bit later from the African continent. These days, it's more likely that a black kid's parents are divorced, that there's no father around, that one of his parents is alcoholic or one of his brothers is trafficking. It's not so much that these problems are specific to black kids but the family structure hasn't been able to adapt. That's where the whole concept of a mentor comes into play.

Reply 27

Alan Smithee

Original post by G&#949

I am new to this "Have Your Say" things, but how does it work? Who comes up with the topics..?

The BBC Have Your say website.

Reply 28

blrep88

doggyfizzel

After the whole slavery thing, anyone saying anything about black people lives is often taken to be speaking offensively, unless you know someone very closely its not a good idea to make any sort of comment. This is because when someone (usually white) makes a comment is usually a negative one.

probably because its still a sensative issue with racism against ethnic minorities still being a very integral part of british society, something which is usually overlooked,therefore its likely for people to take offence to comments because more often than not when a comment is made its usually made to be offensive.

Reply 29

Alan Smithee

doggyfizzel

After the whole slavery thing.

Sounds very glib.

Reply 30

Gilliwoo

Pernell Whitaker

Sounds very glib.

lol I was about to comment on that..."The whole slavery thing" :p:

Reply 31

34253

2

Black communities choose to respect and idolise people who can speak fast, rather than people like drs who heal people. I don't really think the government has the power to choose who they idolise.

Reply 32

Chezua

12

doggyfizzel

After the whole slavery thing, anyone saying anything about black people lives is often taken to be speaking offensively, unless you know someone very closely its not a good idea to make any sort of comment. This is because when someone (usually white) makes a comment is usually a negative one.

i was commenting that they all seem to like to wear large gold ear rings :indiff:

wasn't even specifically aimed at 'black people' but then the whole group's black so they thought i was making a racist comment. funny that they all seem to hang around by themselves and don't get involved with other people of diff colours and races. i just hate it when they start going 'that's racist' to almost everything, hell, asians even joke around about their doner kebabs.

Reply 33

MC REN

14

Gilliwoo

Get someone to take them to the zoo or something.

Are you saying black role-models will be found in a zoo?

I don't have the statistics to hand but a higher proportion of lower class whites are failing in schools than blacks according to some article I read the other day (probably about that super-teacher guy, who has been accused of supporting the BNP for pointing this out iirc), focusing on class seems more/at least as important as race.

Reply 34

blrep88

Chezua

i was commenting that they all seem to like to wear large gold ear rings :indiff:

wasn't even specifically aimed at 'black people' but then the whole group's black so they thought i was making a racist comment. funny that they all seem to hang around by themselves and don't get involved with other people of diff colours and races. i just hate it when they start going 'that's racist' to almost everything, hell, asians even joke around about their doner kebabs.

lol where the hell do you live? hav you even met a group of black people, most ethnic groups hang around together, and its funni you said that about doner kebabs coz they are turkish...

Reply 35

Sticky

Chezua

asians even joke around about their doner kebabs.

Doner kebabs are turkish...

And usually we don't use the word "Asian" to refer to a Turk. In the UK, it's usually just for South Asians.

Reply 36

Chezua

12

^ lol, that's a random dish that came in my head, i think they were making jokes about chapati or something like that :redface:

lol where the hell do you live? hav you even met a group of black people, most ethnic groups hang around together, and its funni you said that about doner kebabs coz they are turkish...

i live in a nice community, i'm glad :smile:

but my school is what you'd call 'full of working-class people' :smile:

Reply 37

all red and ermine

Back to the original idea of the thread, I agree that there are so many role models that anyone can aspire to be whether black, white, asian etc

However, to the question of: are there any role models for asian boys? There are loads! Lakshmi Mittal, the country's richest person worth $32 billion, is an easy role model for budding Asian entrepreneurs.

However, just even looking at this list: http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/list.html is proof that there are MANY BLACK ROLE MODELS. Diane Abbot is another obvious one too. The list to an extent is questionable because it has Craig David in the list LOL but still.

There are black people, asain people etc within their own communities who are providing excellent services to the community. It is just the parents or the black boys themselves that need to be exposed to this and educated on the achievements of their community.

NB: I've just woke up, sorry if none of that makes ANY sense lol

Reply 38

blrep88

Chezua

^ lol, that's a random dish that came in my head, i think they were making jokes about chapati or something like that :redface:

i live in a nice community, i'm glad :smile:

but my school is what you'd call 'full of working-class people' :smile:

so is myn but most of ur generalisations seem to suggest that you havent really lived or spent much time in an ethnic ghetto

Reply 39

Sticky

MC REN

I don't have the statistics to hand but a higher proportion of lower class whites are failing in schools than blacks according to some article I read the other day

It's quite a well-recognised phenomenon now: in lower-income families, white kids perform worse than any other ethnic group.

There was an article in the Economist about Britain's "forgotten poor whites".

Do black boys need better role models?

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