I am walking through a caf? in Brixton when I run into a young black man who I know from the area.
He is in his early thirties, and his friend seems to be in his late twenties. We nod at each other in recognition.
“Hey! Hey!” He smiles. “I saw you! I saw you! You made that speech.” His grin turns into a frown.
“But… but… wasn’t it at the… Conservative Party?”
I roll my eyes. “Yes, yes, it was. But you know, forget about the Conservative Party for the moment.
” I walk right up to him. “You know me. You’ve known me for years. You know how I love these kids, right?”
He nods. “Yeah, yeah.”
“So all I’m saying is that we need some Right-wing thinking. What these kids need is a sense of responsibility.
They need to know that they are responsible for their own lives and decisions. You know, pull yourself up
by your own bootstraps kind of thing.”
He is nodding as I speak. “Yeah, yeah, I get it, I get it. Yeah, you’re right, you’re right.”
His response is like a red rag to a bull as far as his friend is concerned. His friend steps forward.
“Nah, man! Nah! I totally disagree, man!”
I look up at him, taking a deep breath as he starts to shout about what’s wrong with the education system.
“I’ll tell you what’s happening in schools! These racist white teachers! These teachers, man!
Black kids don’t stand a chance! These teachers, they just shove them into a PRU [Pupil Referral Unit] for nothing!
And then where can the kid go from there? These teachers, man!”
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/katharinebirbalsingh/100061359/kids-need-some-right-wing-thinking/#dsq-content
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/files/2010/10/classroom_1605235c-1.jpg