Saturday 17 March 2012

British shame

More than 55% of young black men in the UK are unemployed!
This has been a minor news item for the last couple of weeks.
What amazes me, is that it's never shown as the most important item of news.
I live in a country that is willing to just pass off this information as another statistic.
Even though 55% is only slightly more than half, it equates to MOST 16 to 24 year old black men in Britain are out of work!
How can this not be the most important item of news?
MPs should be discussing this as their first priority, every day until they come up with a solution.
Even more frightening is the fact that this figure is almost double what it was just three years ago!
What kind of feeling do MPs think this information inspires in black boys who are still in education?
What does the future hold for them, if this isn't turned around?
Put yourself in their position. You're one of ten boys in school. You're all good friends, about to take your GCSE's, in the knowledge that regardless of how well you perform, roughly, only four of you will be able to find work when you leave school. If you're lucky enough to be one of those four, six of your friends will be forced to sign on.
While Cameron was pretending to be best friends with Barack Obama this week, do you think one of their friendly little chats would have been Dave saying to Barack, "You know what's funny Barack? If you lived in my country, statistically, you wouldn't even be able to get a job"!

2 comments:

  1. Of course in good ole blighty, this is nothing new. Sociological and historical factors, need to be taken into consideration when asking why this problem is ever present.

    But also, it's time the black community as a whole, came together to address this issue, because the government haven't got a bloody clue of how, or where to start, in tackling this problem.

    Need to step off my soap box now, I'm starting to get vertigo.

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  2. Lily, you stay up there. You're completely right (Enjoy that sentence, because you know you won't be hearing that again!)
    Thanks for your comments, as ever

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