BBOTB #BLACKBOYSONTHEBLOCK

BLACK BOY JOY. GET INTO IT!

Hands down their pants, hoods up to the sky

Banter and roasts, and a pound a Tropicana

Minding our business, doing what is cool to us

Age: 14, 15, 16. 17, 18, 19

Yet you decide for us what is appropriate to wear.

For what is fashionable to us is threat to you

How we choose to laugh, to move our mouths to pronounce our words is a disgrace and a disregard to your race

How we choose to kick ball in the streets, releasing our black boy joy into your universe is alien to you

A universe yearning for wonderous, creative, cultured spirits. Us

Black tracksuits - yet, you in the floral dress have a blacker heart than me

Grey Nike hoodie - but you in the concrete grey suit and tie are more fraudulent than the statistics written

Don’t kill us before we have even begun to live. Don’t mistake us before we have even begun to perceive

The birth of M O R A L P A N I C S

1) A focused attention on behaviours of certain individuals or groups. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the MEDIA strips all favourable characteristics and applies only the exclusively negative ones

. 2) A gap between the concern over a group of people and the threat they pose. Typically, the threat is far more of a concern due to how it is presented by AUTHORITIES

The typical patterns of moral threat begins with the discovery, followed by a rapid rise, then peak in public concern, which then often abruptly subsides

3) PUBLIC HYSTERIA over a perceived problem results in new laws to discipline, many of which are described ‘unnecessary’, and ‘serving to justify the agendas of those in positions of power and authority’.

It’s said that black boys as young as 10 may not be viewed in the same light of childhood innocence as their white peers, but are instead more likely to be mistaken as older . Many are stopped on the streets by police or seen as a burden by authorities whilst having done nothing wrong . It is imperative for those who care, that when you see a young black male in the streets being questioned, that you question the person in the ‘authoritative’ position. Often times, because we are uneducated on our rights, we are fearful to speak up . Black boys have the right to live and laugh freely, learn and make mistakes, and be seen for who they are

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