Stop Judging Us

BY

MISJUDGED: Youths who talk slang are often stereotyped


I am writing to follow up on the comment ‘time to drop the slang’ (Voice, March 3-9).

First off, not every young person talks or acts in the stereotypical way everyone thinks.

For example myself, I talk ‘slang’ and refer to my close friends as ‘bredrin’ or ‘fam’. But, does this mean I have no education or am lower than a person who speaks proper English?

Today’s youth talk and dress in a certain way because that’s how our generation choose to look and sound. No one cusses the ‘70s, when people used to have big afros and wear humungous collars, because that is how their generation was.

I think it’s disgusting how certain people stereotype us youth because we talk different.

It’s just another form of prejudice, not everyone knows how it affects people. Then you wonder why our generation goes out robbing people and choose not to receive a proper education - because they know people look down on them, so they think ‘why try?’

Maybe the older generation should start trying to encourage us instead of bringing us down! I say get to know a person before you judge them by the way they are talking to their peers, or because they are wearing a tracksuit and a hoodie!

Monique Watson, Aged 14

London