[b]At the moment, many are still wondering. And asking questions such as, what could have caused a young man from a Christian family to become a Muslim. And more confusing, an extreme form of Islam. The only people that can answer those questions, are Michael Adebowale and his younger accomplice. Will we ever find out? Maybe yes. Maybe Never.

While still pondering over the above questions and many others, it would be interesting to take a look at this article “Why London Is No Place For A Young Black Man.” It was written for the UK Guardian a while ago by Peter Akinti, a British of Nigerian parenthood.

In one of the paragraphs, Peter wrote,
"It has become fashionable for both black and white people in Britain to act as if they don’t have the slightest idea about racism, about why black men reach the point where inertia sets in, where we can’t seem to connect properly with the world, why we are absent, why we end up unfocused, directionless, trying to rob and kill."

Do peter and Michael share any similarities? You can read the full article below and share your thoughts. It is long, but certainly an interesting read.[/b]

I grew up in the East End of London, in an area called Forest Gate, where you could get your arse kicked if you didn’t learn fast to keep your mouth shut and your eyes constantly averted. My best friend, Alex, and I spent our free time hanging around, robbing bus conductors, breaking windows, stealing cars and challenging people to fight on the flimsiest pretexts. When I was 15, I bought a gun from a dread in Notting Hill Gate and Alex and I committed an armed robbery. Alex got caught and went to prison. I got away.

My parents, Nigerians, found out about the robbery from Alex’s mum and vowed never to let me out of the house again; I could study and go to church, but that would be it. Nigerian culture doesn’t allow for parent/child negotiations, so I complied, perhaps because I always wanted to be a good Catholic boy – and because I was terrified they would make good on their threat to hand me over to the authorities themselves.

Like many black men, I had reached a place from which there seemed no way out, gripped by the fear that all our efforts will come to nothing, that our whole lives may fall apart in our hands. It is a place where we easily forget any allegiances, feeling instead as useless as unstrung beads.

I have felt like this twice in my life. Ambition dulled, aspirations exhausted, my frustration became so all-consuming that I felt compelled to lash out against the system that I was convinced had been set up to make me, and others like me, fail. I had friends with older brothers who tried to live by the book. I watched many of them fail miserably. Breaking the law made sense; it felt like an easier option.

In Britain we are not generally honest or open with each other about racism, even within black families. When I was five, I spent the first of many summer holidays going to work with my father at Chelsea Barracks on the Kings Road. I would eat lunch with the soldiers in the mess hall and towards the end of his shift we would walk around the beautiful grounds switching on the dim lamps before it got dark. My father, tall and shiny, would lift me up and tell me bogeyman stories about the IRA (who nail-bombed his beloved barracks in 1981), and whenever he passed a soldier he would get all stiff and address him as “sir”. I loved the camaraderie of the soldiers, the way they saluted each other. I was going to be a soldier, just like my old man.

I was 12 before I realised my father was a security guard. He didn’t lie about his job, but for some reason I had always assumed he was the same as the soldiers I so admired. I felt so embarrassed. In the general confusion of adolescence, this discovery (and the feeling that I had been betrayed) made me lose all respect for him; I couldn’t forgive him. Our relationship became quarrelsome and violent, and we grew apart. How could my father, who spoke to me of nothing but education and gainful employment, end up as a security guard?

It was only after I left home that I learned that in Nigeria he had been a governor of 12 schools. He came to London with the spirit of African independence blowing behind him but was refused teaching positions because he had a hard edge to his Nigerian accent. At some point he gave up his idealism. But at 12 I doubt this knowledge would have meant much to me – or made a difference.

I would find out how hard it was soon enough, when, at 19, I tried to find a career for myself. Almost 30 years had passed since my father arrived in Britain, but not so much had changed. I wasn’t sure what to do after I left school. I wanted to write a novel but in the meantime I was working Saturdays in Topman on Oxford Street, selling suits to my mates at inflated discounts on the side. One day my mother, ever a believer in progress through hard work, sent me, trussed up in a suit, to the career advice centre on Hoe Street in Leyton. The room was heavy with the smell of piss; discarded ticket stubs littered the floor. In a corner was a huge binder full of jobs for school-leavers.

I noted the three or four that looked interesting. One was at HM Treasury Chambers. Then this chubby white woman with Leo Sayer curly hair called out my number. She spoke at me for 20 minutes before concluding with the offer of a job at the local McDonald’s in Walthamstow, east London. “It’s very popular,” she said. “Ideal for boys your age.”

What’s wrong?” My mum asked when I got home and burst into tears.

“Fat bitch said I should work in McDonald’s,” I sobbed.

“Don’t say ‘bitch’,” she said.

Then, having listened to what happened, she wiped the snot from my nose, embraced me, and said, “Where’s that piece of paper, the one with the jobs you were interested in? There is nothing to stop you applying for them yourself. And don’t let me catch you crying over something like this again.”

It was 1991, 10 years after the riot in Brixton, six years after the Broadwater Farm and Handsworth riots. In all the years I had spent in education, not one teacher had asked me what I wanted to do. Not one had offered me a book that I could relate to, nor spoken openly about race and social justice. My school was mixed-race but all the more confusing for it. The rugby team was mostly white; the football team mostly black; rap music was not allowed at the summer disco and we all spoke urban slang. I wasn’t bullied but I grew up with a sense that I was less than “black”. I was an African, laughed at by everyone because starving “Ethiopians” were always on the telly, because of my surname, my father’s tribal marks, his accent, my mother’s funny clothes. When I left all I knew was that I wanted to leave the area I had grown up in.

In the end, I read law at university to please my mother and then worked at HM Treasury Chambers in Westminster for five years. To some this might seem like a turning point, but I don’t believe that education saved me. Lots of well-educated black men I know are unemployed or in jail. For me, staying out of trouble was more about listening to the voice inside that says you don’t want to end up where you know you could, where lots of people expect you to end up. My motivation has always been to resist the image that many people have of black men.

For a while I felt I had arrived. I was earning decent money, bought my first suit (Kenzo) and a tacky Ford XR2 (white with all the trims), I got married and became a father. I thought I was the business. On Gordon Brown’s first day at work as chancellor of the exchequer I was one of the few hundred or so Treasury staff who, still riding high on the promise of New Labour, lined the marble steps to welcome him. I even shook his hand. The political landscape had tilted and everything felt right. But of course it wasn’t. When I looked around at all the anodyne black men in that fancy building it scared me to death.

I soon became bored of office life. I was terrified of turning into one of my black colleagues who had been working there for decades, making the same complaints about the illusions of equality within the civil service being worse than the obvious inequality. (Yes, there are lots of black people in the civil service but they’ll spend a lifetime waiting to be promoted, unlike their white counterparts.) So I wrote a letter to Tony Elliott, the founder and publisher of the Time Out Group, about a fantasy I had to start a magazine for black men. After a year of an internship (after work, I would take the tube from Westminster to Tottenham Court Road), he agreed to invest. He gave me £100,000 in instalments, and I launched Untold, a style magazine for black men. It sold 30,000 copies a month and ran for five years. Advertisers paid top dollar for pages. I interviewed Tony Blair, Nelson Mandela, Quincy Jones, Youssou N’Dour. But the £100,000 didn’t go far. Soon I was on my own, trying to extract money from reluctant advertisers.

It is not only because of their small circulation that so many magazines aimed predominantly at black people collapse. It is about racism. I ran around London trying to sell advertising space for five years and mostly got nothing but absurd excuses. It was like banging my head against a jagged wall. Then one day I turned up for work at the magazine offices, bright and early as usual, and a bailiff, a tall white dude in a bomber jacket and scuffed boots, greeted me at the front door. “All right, Pete,” he said, smug as you like. He knew my name because he had come knocking so many times before. “Bollocks to all this,” I thought, and I never went back.

And then for the second time I found myself in that dark place. Only this time it was much worse than when I was 15. Like all company directors who lose their businesses, I felt a huge sense of failure. My magazine had banged on about successful black men. Now I couldn’t afford a travelcard. I was 32 and immersed in anger. I had lost my business and my home. I was bankrupt, divorced, and finding it difficult to come to terms with my absent/weekend father status. My world was falling apart. I started making bad decisions under stress. I was tired of constantly being reminded that I was not good enough, of having to be better than average just to be considered normal. I went into free fall, tempted to do things I had never dreamed I could contemplate doing. Instead of simply reacting to what was happening, I wanted to act: think I’m a thief? I’ll show you a thief. Think I’m violent? I’ll show you violence. I wanted to fight everyone, to repudiate all allegiances, morals, values, loyalties and sentiment. I just wanted to lash out.

But what I really wanted was to curl up like a dead leaf and allow myself to go wherever the wind blew. To me it seemed that the systems – those historical conditions that shape advantage (government, economy, judiciary, education, mass media, pop culture), so drenched in racism – were geared to make me fail.

I had to get out of east London fast. I spent a year living in west London, four months in Paris, a year in Nigeria. Whenever I spoke to my mum she reminded me (nicely) just how much of a bum I was. Then, two years ago, I moved to Brooklyn. It was like taking a deep, warm bath. America has always had its problems dealing with race. Accepting black men into positions of power isn’t necessarily one of them. I’m no expert; I just prefer my chances in the US, where I’ve met more than enough successful black men to lift the lid on my kettled anger.

At first I returned to London every three months. It was when I started to dread these trips home that I realised how completely I had lost faith in my country.

I had my first punch-up in Chingford; I scored my first hat-trick over on Hackney marshes on a Sunday morning; I lost my virginity one spring among the hyacinths by the pond in Victoria Park: I could buy you a beef patty from a Jamaican spot in Dalston that might be the best in the UK, if not the world. But I can’t walk around London without wondering what has happened to all the black men of my generation.

The lack of any significant social reform is disappointing. We should look back and perhaps reform the race relations acts of the 1960s. Some of these hideously white companies should be forced to hire and promote black people. The arbitrary powers to exclude that are too often deployed against black boys in our schools need to be overhauled. Banks should be encouraged (subsidised) to help black business. We need black universities just like they have in America. It feels to me as if black men are being denied access to the credentials that enable us to compete. In some respects it is as if we are in the process of being wiped out. I haven’t known anything but a multicultural Britain. Yet the echo of all we have inherited from the postwar immigration era rings loud and clear in my ears and in the ears of young black Britons of the fifth and sixth generation.

I still go home from time to time, and whenever I’m back in Forest Gate, amid the drone of souped-up engines and the rank odour of KFC, I see groups of young men milling at street corners. I always get a sentimental sense of connection. They stare at me like they could kill me and I stare at them back, with their wild hair, sagging jeans and arses hanging out, and I understand them perfectly. Rebellion is the only way to escape the deadly boomerang visited on us. Not all, but lots of my friends do bad things as a matter of survival. I don’t necessarily agree with anyone breaking the law, but in our country, the way things are, I don’t judge.

Just before I left for New York I met my old friend Alex again. We had a Guinness in the Princess Alice in Forest Gate. He is now a businessman of sorts. He sells heroin, morphine, methamphetamine and cocaine around a large slice of east London. “We would’ve made great partners, me and you,” he said. Alex spent years in prison because of something we had both done. He got caught and in that great east London tradition, he never spoke a word to the police about me. In those years we grew far apart. So much changed between us – but not really.

When we were kids Alex’s little brother Isaac used to try to hang out with us. I remember Isaac begging to come out with us one Friday night when he found out we were going to rob the man who collected the money from our parents for the football pools. We followed that man for most of the night around the estates. He was white, in his mid-40s with a Barbour-style jacket and a flat cap. We took him for £80 and used the money towards buying a gun.

I asked how Isaac was now. But Isaac was dead, Alex said. He had jumped off a tower block when he was 16, and he hadn’t left a note.

For months after learning of Isaac’s death I used to hear his thoughts in my head. Still I picture him often, looking scared and beaten, leaning over the edge of the deserted tower, with the harsh world rolling around in his mind. He must have known he didn’t stand a chance – at anything. I picture Isaac looking in concentration over the tops of the sycamores, watching streams of tail-lights disappear down familiar perilous streets. In my mind I am always the first to arrive at the scene and when I look at the body, I see that he is me. Alex the dealer could have been me, too.

It has become fashionable for both black and white people in Britain to act as if they don’t have the slightest idea about racism, about why black men reach the point where inertia sets in, where we can’t seem to connect properly with the world, why we are absent, why we end up unfocused, directionless, trying to rob and kill. In 2007, 30 teenagers, mostly black, were reported murdered. A recent police report on London’s gang culture identified 170 separate gangs, with more than a quarter said to have been involved in murders. According to a 2008 study by Queen Mary University, London, suicide is proportionally more common among young black men than white men; but more alarmingly, most of the suicides that occur among black men happen within 24 hours of talking to a counsellor.

Black men in Britain remain almost invisible, at the lowest level of the “racial hierarchy”. Yes we get jobs, but not often enough in boardrooms; 37% of black men in the UK are on the police’s national database, whether they have been found guilty of a crime or not (compared with 13% of Asian and 9% of white men). This racial disparity hardly ever works in our favour. Even if we play by the rules we are twice as likely to be unemployed. White men are the gatekeepers to the roles we could use to redefine ourselves: in politics (UK ready for an Obama? Pull the other one), in television, radio, newspapers, even club promoting. Let us not pretend we can’t see.

I still have a lot of things to put right, but today I have found a way to value myself and to look in the mirror without flinching. Last year, I got married again. I have a two-month-old son. Despite the promise of Obama, I’m gutted that I will have to fly my son over if I ever want him to see the Arsenal, and I’m sick that he will say, “Mommy can I have a cookie” instead of, “Got any biccies mum?” as I did. I would have loved for him to grow up in east London, but he won’t because London is too much of a risk for my boy.

When he’s old enough I will talk to him about my failures and the failures of British society. I’ll give him the books that triggered all the questions in me and when he gets angry I’ll chill him out, take the time to answer all the difficult things he asks, and hopefully he won’t ever have to contemplate buying a gun

According to the Guardian, some of the names in the article were changed.

The article writer, Peter Akinti is the author of “Forest Gate,” “ a novel about broken bodies and a broken country. Titled after a disadvantaged borough in East London.

[url]Source: http://afrocosmopolitan.com/the-michael-adebowales-tale-why-london-is-no-place-for-a-young-black-man[/url]

Wow,wow,really insightful read.Alot of truths about political correctness and people not wanting to address that there is an endemic problem for young black males in the uk esp of immigrant extraction(for some odd reason the girls have it slightly better).

I dont think he touched on all the issues though.And to be honest i dont think the equality and diversity thing is working.

Oh well may God help us all.

deep article

damiso: Wow,wow,really insightful read.Alot of truths about political correctness and people not wanting to address that there is an endemic problem for young black males in the uk esp of immigrant extraction(for some odd reason the girls have it slightly better).

I dont think he touched on all the issues though.And to be honest i dont think the equality and diversity thing is working.

Oh well may God help us all.

Yes indeed. It is really insightful. Concerning the issues, this article was written a while ago. Maybe it would have touched some of the issues you felt were missing if it was written now.

All frustrated black people of Nigerian descent everywhere in the developed world should come back home. They will find avenues and outlets to exercise their frustration and pent-up energies. No kidding, I'm not being sarcastic

Been here for 12yrs, 7yrs in london now in manchester. My observations, nigerians like cheap, free, and the are greedy! Everybody knows london is not a good place to raise kids, but they won't leave becos they dnt want to loose their council flat, and their friends in the community. Pple expect the govt to do every thing for them. I might add more later. Its a say issue.

Insightful message.

What is insightful about this ??

With all due respect Mr Peter Akanti or whoever you are, you need to take responsibility for your actions and grow up.

If you can't stand the heat abroad, get out of the kitchen. Better yet move to your village in Africa and see wether that location doesn't have it's own politics at play.
It's tough everywhere so grow up already!!,

People grew up in crappier environments and made it so let them inspire you ( BEN CARSON) and stop spewing venomous ideas.

When I was 15 I bought a gun from a dread on Notting Hill Gate and Alex and I committed armed robbery

Mr Man, you are the problem with Nigerians abroad and a disgrace of a Nigerian descendant . You still have a crime to answer for btw. Grow up and be accountable and stop blaming London for you woes.

Like many 'black' men, i had reached a place from which there seemed to be no way out

Says who? Have you asked the Asians? Hispanics ? Any human being can feel this way and has nothing to do with black


So because your father was a security guard and not a soldier YOU felt ashamed? YOU felt embarrassed? YOU lost all respect for him?!? YOU couldn't forgive him? ( for what if I may ask)
Dude your issues are psychological and deep. You need counseling.

.

Fat Naughty Lady said I should work at McDonald's, I sobbed .

Do you know Oprahs first job? Do you know John Fashanus first job? What the feck are you on about? I pity your children if this is the mentality you ll pass to them

I lost my business and my home . I was bankrupt, divorced and finding it difficult to come to terms with my absent father status.

I sympathize with you on this but this can happen to you in Seattle, Hong Kong or Johannesburg. London has nothing to do with it. London is not your problem. Being black is not your problem YOU are you problem mister. Consequences of YOUR actions and inactions are your problem. Choices you made for yourself are your problem so deal with it and hold NOBODY but yourself accountable
-choosing your location
-choosing to marry whom you did
-choosing your career path
- choosing to make good grades or not
- choosing to make good or bad business decisions
- choosing to keep very bad friends ( in your case)

To me it seemed like the systems .....were geared to make me fail

And fail you shall...........when you think this way what else is left?

When he's old enough I ll talk to him about my failures and failures of British society . I LL GIVE HIM BOOKS THAT TRIGGERED ALL THE QUESTIONS IN ME.......hopefully he won't ever have to contemplate buying a gun.

If living abroad is proving too tough please relocate ASAP
For goodness sake, DO NOT radicalize that young child for us . If you cannot give him books that will inspire and encourage him then don't give him books. I repeat, do not radicalize him for us because it is good and well meaning Nigerians who will bear the brunt at the end of the day.

uk appears to have a more insidious type of racism.

bebe2: Been here for 12yrs, 7yrs in london now in manchester. My observations, nigerians like cheap, free, and the are greedy! Everybody knows london is not a good place to raise kids, but they won't leave becos they dnt want to loose their council flat, and their friends in the community. Pple expect the govt to do every thing for them. I might add more later. Its a say issue.

Uhhhhm not too sure about the hasty generalisation that London is not a good place to raise kids.I agree the odds are not great but not everyone can live in the suburbs.

Even the some parts of so called lil lagos peckham is gradually being gentrified for normal folks to afford.Try getting your child into good schools in dulwich or Nunhead(a few miles away from peckham) and you will see its full of kids from white middle class proffessional backgrounds.The real estate is just too expensive and most people move out to get more bang for their buck.

In as much as i would want to leave london(i hate the hustle and bustle and the real estate is just toooo expensive )you can still raise good well rounded kids in London.The Imafidons who have kids who have attained great academic heights were raised in East London.I have a family friend who raised three of her kids in a council property in London(i live in an ex housing assoc property so wont disparage all those who live in council housing) and her first daughter is headed to cambridge in september.
Apart from academics they are also well behaved.And i know a family who live in Kent and had issues with their son and drugs.He even went to private school sef.

I dont think the solution is as simplistic as most people i know make it out to be i.e. Move out of London.

damiso:

Uhhhhm not too sure about the hasty generalisation that London is not a good place to raise kids.I agree the odds are not great but not everyone can live in the suburbs.

Even the some parts of so called lil lagos peckham is gradually being gentrified for normal folks to afford.Try getting your child into good schools in dulwich or Nunhead(a few miles away from peckham) and you will see its full of kids from white middle class proffessional backgrounds.The real estate is just too expensive and most people move out to get more bang for their buck.

In as much as i would want to leave london(i hate the hustle and bustle and the real estate is just toooo expensive )you can still raise good well rounded kids in London.The Imafidons who have kids who have attained great academic heights were raised in East London.I have a family friend who raised three of her kids in a council property in London(i live in an ex housing assoc property so wont disparage all those who live in council housing) and her first daughter is headed to cambridge in september.
Apart from academics they are also well behaved.And i know a family who live in Kent and had issues with their son and drugs.He even went to private school sef.

I dont think the solution is as simplistic as most people i know make it out to be i.e. Move out of London.

yeah i agree, but the environment also has a part to play.

i used to live in old kent road just after lidl, there are lots of things dat happen in those areas. once stood in my living room, looked outside my window and a boy prostitute was doing her job just outside my garden am talking summer afternoon, an there were kids playing in the park nearby. this can happen anywhere, i know.

but some areas are just too ghetto, to raise certain kids. some kids are much mellow than others.

bebe2:

yeah i agree, but the environment also has a part to play.

i used to live in old kent road just after lidl, there are lots of things dat happen in those areas. once stood in my living room, looked outside my window and a boy prostitute was doing her job just outside my garden am talking summer afternoon, an there were kids playing in the park nearby. this can happen anywhere, i know.

but some areas are just too ghetto, to raise certain kids. some kids are much mellow than others.

I agree about certain areas not being good influences for certain kids.Its just that there is this current bandwagon that you have to move out to raise good kids.Me i want to move out cos its too expensive and also to get access to less crowded amenities.I have had people boast'My son is the only black person in his class' like that is some kind of achievement.This was supposed to be some sort of argument for the whole move to Erith,Bexley bandwagon.Those places that are chav,EDL headquarters.

There are some nice areas in London that i absolutely love eg richmond,fulham and a couple of other places(also have very nice state schools) but they are quite pricey.

Hmmmm.

There is no place like home. But nigerians have no home. At this moment in this country, it's clear that nigeria is a country that suppossed not to be.

People of IBB's generation betrayed the country through bad governance. Presently most of the useless so called leaders in nigeria are deliberately not performing. nigeria would be a better place if it's divided and separated.

damiso:

I agree about certain areas not being good influences for certain kids.Its just that there is this current bandwagon that you have to move out to raise good kids.Me i want to move out cos its too expensive and also to get access to less crowded amenities.I have had people boast'My son is the only black person in his class' like that is some kind of achievement.This was supposed to be some sort of argument for the whole move to Erith,Bexley bandwagon.Those places that are chav,EDL headquarters.

There are some nice areas in London that i absolutely love eg richmond,fulham and a couple of other places(also have very nice state schools) but they are quite pricey.

Yeah nice areas, Richmond, chelsea fulham, Buckingham palace oh n number 10. How many black pple live there? Ok, how many black kids go to eton school? I beg I tire.

juman: Hmmmm.

There is no place like home. But nigerians have no home. At this moment in this country, it's clear that nigeria is a country that suppossed not to be.

People of IBB's generation betrayed the country through bad governance. Presently most of the useless so called leaders in nigeria are deliberately not performing. nigeria would be a better place if it's divided and separated.

IBB's generation didnt start it. The blame game is convenient, but its just not true. Is our generation any better? The few that have gotten into power, have you seen how shamelessly they looted. Jand educated BankOle comes to mind among others

Surprising that in 2013, black people still make excuses of racism as a valid reason for descending into crime and terror activities

bebe2:

Yeah nice areas, Richmond, chelsea fulham, Buckingham palace oh n number 10. How many black pple live there? Ok, how many black kids go to eton school? I beg I tire.

My point was not whether or not black people live in those areas(as far as i know sef if you can afford it you actually can ) its just to counter the hasty sweeping generalisation that London is no place to raise kids.If we want to go further sef,how many people black live in the English countryside i.e The shires.Those are also lovely places to raise kids.

Me for now i cant afford to live in those nice places so i will move out to get access to better less crowded amenities and more space for my money.That does not mean i will just make a sweeping generalisation that the whole of London is not a place to raise kids.

Is this what this psycho wants to present in court?
The victim card wont work here
Better try insanity instead

AjanleKoko: Surprising that in 2013, black people still make excuses of racism as a valid reason for descending into crime and terror activities

Its not about excuses. I havent seen one Nigerian or human being that thinks the Michaels had any excuse.Its a numbers game. The worse things get, the larger percentage that falls thru the cracks. A radical 0.1% of the population can do significant damage. If racism makes it jump to 0.5%, this is a problem. Those who have kids do well to not ignore it.

bebe2: Been here for 12yrs, 7yrs in london now in manchester. My observations, nigerians like cheap, free, and the are greedy! Everybody knows london is not a good place to raise kids, but they won't leave becos they dnt want to loose their council flat, and their friends in the community. Pple expect the govt to do every thing for them. I might add more later. Its a say issue.

While i do not agree with all your assertion, i must say it is very true about Nigerians wanting to live in London because of the community. Some just live there to say "i live in London". Most of them would rather live in ghetto neighbourhood than live in better places outside London.

Lik you said, Manchester is a lovely city with nice and cheaper houses but most Nigerians would rather live in Peckham and some of the crappy neighbourhood in Southeast London. And even for a single room, the amount they would pay for a decent apartment in a city like Manchester.

They forget the environment they bring up their kids will have a great influence on who they become, their dreams and aspirations, the way they see the world, and many more.

damiso:

Me for now i cant afford to live in those nice places so i will move out to get access to better less crowded amenities and more space for my money.That does not mean i will just make a sweeping generalisation that the whole of London is not a place to raise kids.

Like you said, there are "better less crowded amenities and more space for my money," and London as a city, is not a bad place to raise kids. The problem is, most black people cannot afford to live in the decent neighbourhood of London. Instead of moving to another city where they can have a better live and environment for their kid, they will remain in the cheaper neighbourhoods of London where crime and gang culture is a thing to be proud of.

CosmoFab:

Like you said, there are "better less crowded amenities and more space for my money," and London as a city, is not a bad place to raise kids. The problem is, most black people cannot afford to live in the decent neighbourhood of London. Instead of moving to another city where they can have a better live and environment for their kid, they will remain in the cheaper neighbourhoods of London where crime and gang culture is a thing to be proud of.

True.I agree.But people should face facts and say they cant afford the nicer places than just blanketly say'London is no place to raise kids'.

All cities have undesirable areas and there are some places in Manchester too that you would not pay me to live in.I know what am talking about cos my husband lived in Manchester for a while.

As for cheaper,thats cos of social housing.In the private sector a 2 bed poky,small as hell flat goes for an average of 1,500 per month in peckham.That aint cheap.Social housing is social housing.Some people live in council houses in Chelsea,my grand aunt lives in Neasden and she was a council tenant till she bought her flat.

I get you and bebe 2 points and i agree with most of them regarding raising my kids.I just refuse to generalise and say people dont want to lose their council houses cos they are greedy or London is soooo terrible.As a matter of fact it reminds me so much of Lagos(i be real omo eko )

very fine article but his conclusions are slightly baffling. No excuse in the world can lead to the sort of decisions Alex his friend and the Michaels made.

Excuses! Excuses! ! And excuses!!! What about many of us who migrated from Nigeria and are still able to get jobs and move up the ladder despite our accent and other shortcomings? The writer of this article need to get a life and rather than feeding his children hatred who should teach them how to confront their obstacles and overcome them. No need playing the victim for ever.

funnyx: Excuses! Excuses! ! And excuses!!! What about many of us who migrated from Nigeria and are still able to get jobs and move up the ladder despite our accent and other shortcomings? The writer of this article need to get a life and rather than feeding his children hatred who should teach them how to confront their obstacles and overcome them. No need playing the victim for ever.

Maybe be it's because those who migrate there know what they will have to go through and have made a decision to fight and struggle to prove themselves until the system starts believing in them?

And for those that were born there, maybe it's because they feel a sense of entitlement and want everything to come easy without working for hard for it? And when it doesn't, they blame it on their race and colour?

Maybe and just maybe.

What an interesting article. Really enjoyed reading it.

Like many others have pointed out, it's crass to generalise a whole city like London and say it's no place to raise kids. Your kids are what you make them. If you instil good moral values in them from the word go, be there for them (rather than chase money from dawn-dusk-dawn without ever seeing them), make that extra-effort to get involved in their academic and extra-curricular lives, they are less likely to deviate from their upbringing.

Sure as teenagers, they may be curious to 'experiment' but that silent voice at the back of their minds, reminding them the difference about right from wrong will always be there.

There are good areas, not so good areas, and crappy areas in London. Same thing goes for jobs too. So generalizing and sweeping an entire metropolis with the same brush smacks of tardiness and laziness. Anyone who is determined to succeed will, despite the odds and upheavals that come their way.

I am curious to know if anyone has a perspective of young Asians in the UK.
Considering that they are a significant demographic, and also considering the issues around terrorism and negative racial profiling (Islamophobia in particular) in the West. Maybe there are some learnings there for Africans.

AjanleKoko: I am curious to know if anyone has a perspective of young Asians in the UK.
Considering that they are a significant demographic, and also considering the issues around terrorism and negative racial profiling (Islamophobia in particular) in the West. Maybe there are some learnings there for Africans.

I dont know about UK, but for US, the major thing they do different is stick together. I have to give it to them - they come into the country and immediately understand the system. So while the bulk of Nigerians are immediately trying to fend for themselves individually, the bulk of asians, wether south or far east form tight knit communities. Not just around church like we do, but they build banks and trade unions and find a way to tie their temples/religion into the whole thing. And when little china gets big enough, it starts to have a say in who runs for mayor in the city. Plus since they now have financial wealth, they can even sponsor the next police commissioner for their district into office. All this buys them a safe haven.

Sure they still experience oppression, but now they are like "Nigerians in Nigeria." Meaning even if the environment is bad, you have a "home base" you can retreat to and raise your child. By the third generation, they have enough to start branching out into society as equals, not wards of the state. Even the ones that branch out are trained to always keep a link to that home base. At the third generation, a "Nigerian" child is essentially American, for good or bad. We wade enthusiastically into American society, look down on AAs, not realizing we are looking at our own future.

birdman:


I dont know about UK, but for US, the major thing they do different is stick together. I have to give it to them - they come into the country and immediately understand the system. So while the bulk of Nigerians are immediately trying to fend for themselves individually, the bulk of asians, wether south or far east form tight knit communities. Not just around church like we do, but they build banks and trade unions and find a way to tie their temples/religion into the whole thing. And when little china gets big enough, it starts to have a say in who runs for mayor in the city. Plus since they now have financial wealth, they can even sponsor the next police commissioner for their district into office. All this buys them a safe haven.

Sure they still experience oppression, but now they are like "Nigerians in Nigeria." Meaning even if the environment is bad, you have a "home base" you can retreat to and raise your child. By the third generation, they have enough to start branching out into society as equals, not wards of the state. Even the ones that branch out are trained to always keep a link to that home base. At the third generation, a "Nigerian" child is essentially American, for good or bad. We wade enthusiastically into American society, look down on AAs, not realizing we are looking at our own future.

Spot on analysis.That is the crux is even in the UK.They stick together.Sticking together gives them financial leverage cos its easier for 10 people to source £200, 000 as opposed to one person trying to.I also think they are very shrewd business people.They are often not also so hung up on this fact (which most african immigrants have) which is " Uhm This place is not my home I am just here for a while I must establish myself back home cos I am definitely returning some day".Not saying this is bad in itself o, cos for some people Home is where the Heart is.

But often we (africans) spend so much time and resources (believe me its hard trying to fund two lives)planning the eventual exit that we sometimes lose sight of the opportunities that might exist where we are.Not saying these same asians dont go home too but they see where they are as home too and as such must reap the benefits too.

I also think as birdman said, they never ever forget who they are while also integrating.Show me a 3rd generation african immigrant yoruba boy, he probably speaks not one word of yoruba, feels he is black british with a Nigerian surname but might struggle to fit in as he probably knows little of his relatives.A 3rd generation indian is as british as David Cameron but most likely speak his nativd tongue and will most likely still be going to his sikh temples.He knows all his cousins and despite being very british understands his indian customs and cultures.

@birdman and @damiso, you people have made some very valid points. Really enjoying it!