Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 October 2011 09:49:27
Sometimes you find the most random things whilst waiting for trains - on Sunday it was the Generation 3 project and their pop-up shop I discovered whilst waiting to change trains in Manchester. Generation 3 it appears is a project sponsored by the Runnymede Trust.
The Generation 3 pop up shop was interesting because it was stylish but the centrepiece was a post it note wall which had contributions talking about what people thought racism was, how it could be stopped and why they thought the riots had occurred. There was a clear divide between the post it notes - some of them were obviously written by older left wing intellectual types whilst others were by young people. The older intellectual comments looked tired and out of touch next to the young people's contributions which is why I did not contribute myself. It wasn't that the intellectual comments were wrong - I passionately believe the theory they were expressing is correct, but they were dry academic explanations whereas the young people's contributions were comments which came out of experience rather than books and that was clear.
One striking comment about what racism is asked, "is gingerism the new racism?" Others bought in other forms of discrimination and drew the lines that need to be drawn if we are going to look at how to deal with all forms of discrimination. As for the explanations for the riots unlike what Cameron and co claim the root according to so many of these young people related to the cuts and the impact they are having on people. That said I don't deny criminality had a place in Manchester and elsewhere - but the opportunitism of some cannot be used to simply deny why some others vented their frustration - all be it inappropriately.
I am a realist and so have no illusions that racism will end any time soon - it is too deep rooted and is one of the clearest examples of the sin which exists within society and which will not be ended until the "next age" whatever that is and means comes along. That is not to say that we shouldn't be seeking to work against racism though. Every time we pray the lords prayer we say, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" and I have no doubt that God's will is a society where racism doesn't exist. Therefore, we have a responsiblity to support efforts to end this type of discrimination and that does involve giving our young people a clear voice and letting them try to enact their solutions - because we with our text book answers and explanations have seen change but not necessarily improvement. In the mist of the current crisis we are again seeing scapegoating of people on the basis of ethnicity and the whipping up of racial hatred.
Whilst looking up Generation 3 and the Runnymede trust, having been given a flyer, I was interested to find this 20 minute film which looks at the Chicago experience of "the big society" and "free schools". The film is Called Number Games and I think it makes interesting viewing. I think that this kind of community involvement and grassroots subversion/ distilling of Cameron's Big Society vision - for that is what it is effectively advocating is what we are starting to see in Britain again and it is exciting if not somewhat disturbing for my generation.
This whole thing also helped me understand a bit more about Third Party. She is part of a generation of young people who are being encouraged by projects like Generation 3 and in her case by the Methodist Church Youth Participation Strategy, amongst other things. She is being taught she has a voice and it matters and unlike my generation who just got cynical and let our elders get on with it whilst we consumed that her generation can make a difference. Now remember this is a specific generation who are seeing themselves get f**ked over well and truly by government and in many ways wider society (and I use the language in context and so I hope no one is offended). They are the generation who are going to be left to live with the effects of this recession and the policies we put in place now. They are the people who are finding themselves increasingly out of work, in debt, with no hope of owning their own homes and in simple terms with the dream we created for them in ruins around their Converse. Yet this generation rather than sitting on their backsides complaining or just drowning it out with drink or drugs seem to be taking a different, more creative approach. I'm not talking about the rioters here, I am talking about the majority of young people. I am talking about the ones who used social networking to stop trouble in their areas, I am talking about the ones who are getting involved in their neighbourhoods and communities not because Cameron has told them to but because they don't trust my generation and so are seeking to do things themselves to bring about change. I'm talking about a strange kind of hope which is emerging out of their frustration. However, I know this hope is not easy when it challenges existing frameworks and institutions. My fear for this generation is that they will find their voices extinguished by the very people who have been seeking to empower them with a voice when the institutions hear what is being said and don't like it.