SEGREGATED SCHOOLS - A BLACK AND WHITE ISSUE

01-07-2006

Community leader Beenie Brown has caused a furore in his home town of Birmingham by calling for the creation of black only schools.

Latest figures show that African and Carribean youngsters are three times more likely to be excluded than their white counterparts.

Brown believes kids from this background would gain from being taught in an environment which gives prominence to African history and also recognises different norms of culturally acceptable behaviour.

Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth from dope smoking Mr and Ms liberal whitey.

“Aren't we supposed to be living together as one happy, smiley rainbow nation” they ask - whilst rolling a joint and singing along to their favourite Bob marley track.

“Whatever happened to integration, tolerance, peace, love and understanding?”

Well, my friends, wherever they lived, these precious virtues haven't been much in evidence lately on the mean streets Beenie Brown walks.

His turf - inner city Brum - has seen a regular round of shootings and stabbings, much of it black on black gang violence.

On his doorstep last year, ethnic and economic tensions between African-Carribbean and Asian residents in Lozells flared into rioting - one innocent young black man tragically lost his life.

So what kind of world does Beenie Brown see?

He sees a government which preaches equality - but then allows white middle-class mums and dads the “parental choice” of sending their youngsters to middle-class schools full of other nice white middle-class kids just like them.

He also sees the officially sanctioned growth of schools for Muslims - educational and ethnic ghettos taking their place alongside the CofE, RC, and Jewish schools that have long existed.

What he doesn't see is any improvement in the performance of black inner city youngsters who remain bottom of the pile - academically, socially and economically.

And he finds that the one route out of that vicious circle that he and many in his community believe might actually work is being actively blocked.

He's told it would be like turning the clock back to the segregation of the southern United States pre the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's.

He's told that it would be like re-inventing South Africa's apartheid era.

He's told, in short, that it's racist.

Oh really?

Well, when one clearly identifiable ethnic group continually lags behind the rest and is persistently refused the chance to remedy its own situation we might observe that racism - like beauty - is in the eye of the beholder.

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