Rashid Nix in conversation with Tyrone Roach
I recently read a piece berating the Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, for the bad behaviour of Bajan youth. Barbados is experiencing its ‘Top Boy’ moment; Where Black life (that no longer matters?) imitates an art which is a manifestation of media producers’ dangerous fantasies about Black youth and criminality. Problematic (for us) and financially lucrative (for them);
Top Boy series dangerously portrays Black youth as gang-affiliated caricatures, and if Bajan youth are inexorably drifting toward violent crime and mindless consumer culture, where does the blame lie? Luckily, we do not have to search too hard for the answer, as the proverbial fruit never falls too far from the tree. The answer isn’t blowing in the wind; it’s we adults, the first generation to prioritise material possessions over our social development. With our eyes off the ball, we left our children vulnerable to the most pernicious. Self-destructive cultural influences ever.
As a secondary school English teacher, I spend much of my time helping students refocus their misconceptions of what they think they are supposed to be. Why are lifestyle choices for many young people limited to stereotypes of thugs, drug dealers, gang members, rappers, trappers, or victims?
I was shocked to learn that, having one of the highest literacy rates in the world, 95% of young violent convicts had a reading age of just 3 years. On a recent trip to Barbados, I visited a secondary school to speak to students about their aspirations and goals, but the topic of Top Boy somehow came up in the conversation. ‘Life imitating Art,’ I said to the students, ‘…becomes problematic when the art you’re imitating is created by a 65-year-old white Irishman, Ronan Bennett.’ They were surprised. I continued: ‘Sagging’ pants and talking slang isn’t your culture-it’s dysfunctional street culture… foisted onto you with the help of black gatekeepers and middle-class liberals, happy to see nihilism replace the pride, sophistication, and self-sufficiency of previous generations.
Across the Caribbean, prominent players are grappling with a situation they have inadvertently helped create by placing materialism over culture. Politics, the Church, School, and the Home have all collectively failed to address the future these young people face. The time for cowardice is over, unless we are too afraid of our collective responsibilities to these wayward young men. The corrosive effect of a nihilistic youth culture is apparent: sullen expressions, sagging pants, and a thorough disregard for pursuing any viable long-term plans.
Social media plays a significant role and has opened Pandora’s Box of psychological issues. News travels fast, but bad news travels even faster and farther. Our young men are more in tune with
I recall a conversation with my father about the knife crime situation in London. ‘You’re the problem solver,’ he said, ‘So what’s the solution here?’ I explained it was a combination of toxic street/youth culture, negative social media, low self-esteem, no role models and an outdated education system failing to keep pace with an ever-changing cultural landscape.
Let me put this into context. In 2000, the BBC launched its Black music channel, 1 Xtra. They promoted it using a gritty, fast-paced advert filmed in Brixton, by an award-winning film director who squeezed in stereotypes about Black life; 60 seconds of screw-faced, street hustling foolishness. A few of us challenged the BBC, but not enough to have them reconsider their narrative: ‘Not every young man in Brixton is a wannabe thug!’
Another example, Fast forward to 2011/12, and the Top Boy series hit the UK’s screens, with an even grimier – but critically acclaimed – image of dysfunctional Black life. Gangs, guns, and ghettos. And then, in 2022/23, under the auspices of actor-turned-rapper Drake TB, it was revisited for another series.
For 25 years, our children have been fed dangerously unrealistic representations of themselves. But there are keys to unlocking the cell doors. Firstly, let them know they do have choices, and their decisions carry consequences that they will live with or die with.
The second key is to explain there is, quite literally, a virtual Bermuda Triangle for Black youth: Education, Criminal Justice System and Mental Illness. We enter the triangle and go ‘missing,’ physically, mentally, and spiritually, eventually emerging, either psychologically scarred or in a box. Either way, with nothing tangible to contribute to society, they are destined for the scrapheap.
Most alarmingly, the UK system profits from dysfunctional behaviour; being placed in a pupil referral unit triples the cost of education to a yearly fee of about £25,000. It’s £50,000 and upwards, compared to the cost of a year in jail. Moreover, 12 months in a secure mental hospital cost £100,000…And Black males disproportionately overpopulate all sides of the triangle.
For no material rewards, adult males must interact, mentor, and work with these boys. There are 168 hours in a week, and if we cannot drag ourselves from our screens for 3 hours, then we have failed our youth. Understand that we are the ones who guide our youth, and we become the reparations. It isn’t easy! They will test your patience and resilience.
Tyrone Roach was in conversation with Rashid Nix a secondary School Teacher in London
