Urban Stories

Yeah, I wear a cap, sometimes a hood over that.  I wear the cap for no other reason than I like the style, New York Yankees and I know I live in Camden Town but that's my team man!  I wear the hood not to hide my face but because it looks good with the cap.  Now for me this is a fashion statement, it says I'm here this is me.  It's an identity. You may see three or four mans' wearing nike tops, trainers, hoodies but all will be wearing them in a different style, in different ways because to us, it's just fashion, youth culture!

I get up for college every morning, every morning.  I get good grades, they're not brilliant but like I always say to mum and dad "there's no point in peaking too soon," but everyday I either read or hear about a statistic, that pushes me specifically and my peers generally further down the pecking order, It's tiring.  Every time I get past one stereotype, another is held up on front of me.  According to the media there aren't enough "positive role models." I'm a role model! Plenty of young people have had to find their own because all the old leaders, the people our parents and grandparents used to look up to are now outdated, dead or socially removed from young blacks today. Black role models are now survivers of the street, not in any modern day history book.

So how’s a young black man supposed to move forward in the current climate, when every time we take a step up we’re pushed back down?  Check it, they wanna blame gun crime on the music young blacks listen to, what’s that all about?  Listen,  you're always gonna get your nutters, people that will hear things on a tune or see something in a film or book that will trigger of some madness that was already there, I mean, check the bible…

Rap music is the diary of the streets, it catalogues what the artist goes through on a daily basis and because of social and economic depravation, they talk what they see because that’s how there living.  I don’t condone slackness lyrics but the media needs to understand,  that it’s the media that perpetuates the myth.

Let’s just imagine that you're one of those people, that sits in your house and every time you turn on the television you see riots in carnival or Brixton. More black on black violence, gun men shooting up the streets.  Unless you’re pretty liberal minded and are prepared to go and find out for yourself, then what you see and are told, is pretty much what you believe.
In some schools, instead of being taught to use our minds we are encouraged to use our bodies because let’s face it, black people have rhythm, so they must be good at sport.

I am a young black man growing up in a society that doesn't trust or respect me simply because I choose to have an identity? That can't be right.  My parents have contributed to the fabric of this country for thirty-five years, they've lived through the heydays of marching in the streets, police brutality and the ignorance of people in no way better than them,  just different. Isn’t it about time we celebrated diversity? Heaped joy on the fact that we are all unique and beautiful in our own ways?  

So, the next time you see me, remember this is my country too. Don't walk across the road and whisper and point, don't judge me by the way I wear my hair or my tracksuit or via some government statistic.  Smile at me and you know what? I just might break down those stereotypes, surprise you and smile back.

Tony Dallas copyright 2008