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21-12-07, 01:10 PM
I find this situation frustrating too..... I work with teenagers, at least 25% are black males and we have had our problems with knife crime and drugs..... they are targeted as a "group" of concern along with their white counterparts who are also a group of "concern" for the same reasons..... so they bringing in these "mentors", they are usually in their 20's and from the "hood" kmt...... The students respond positively to them in terms of behavior... but in terms of any improved academic achievement, positive outcomes or successes this evidence is almost non-existent. They also assume they know what is best for black youths, they never really get to know each student and learn their backgrounds or try to understand their social culture and how this impacts them.
They bring in these mentors who tar them all with the same brush.... they come in with the assumption that all young black boys carry knives and stab each other... so eventually the mentoring scheme fails, the mentor leaves and the students are left feeling that they are beyond help. So what do the powers that be do??? They bring in another mentor.
My suggestion is to listen to them, they each have a voice... you'll find don't like their the image they have.... but feel they have no choice, if they are to (in their own words) survive on the streets....
My radical suggestion is that this system is designed to work against them... they need to be sent back to Africa or the Caribbean for a 2 year period to understand and to see for themselves successful black people.... because most of them think that successful black people couldn't possibly exist in Africa or the Caribbean.
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