Young, black and living in Tilbury, Essex Tuesday, August 28, 2007 4269 Reads Discuss Feedback Print Send

Moving from London to Essex came as a shock to the system It wasn't just adults or people of my own age. If it wasn't sad, it would almost be funny having six-year-olds run up to you and shouting Nigger.' Who teaches them that? Tayo Yusuff is a popular young man. He serves on Palmer's College student executive and in recent weeks has become close to staff at the Thurrock Gazette as he seeks to learn about journalism, by Neil Speight. Rarely have I met a lad as good-natured, with a smile on his face and an abounding enthusiasm for life. Imagine my shock when, in an unguarded moment, he told me of what it's like to be black and living in Tilbury. I make no apologies for the frankness of his language and the subject matter. Tayo can still interject humour into some of the stories he recounts about life in our borough. He's a remarkable young man and I hope his story stirs a few consciences. Tilbury is quite an isolated town. Perhaps not logistically, but in my opinion, almost certainly culturally. Such conditions are reputed to breed ignorance; which can manifest itself as racism. When black people first started taking residence in Tilbury, most people accepted them with open arms. However, there will always be exceptions to the rule. Those who feared the unknown and the alien occurring around them developed a way of combating that fear, as all humans do. Prejudice. Tayo's Story. Living in Tilbury is a total contrast to where I used to live. Born in Hackney, I grew up in Wood Green and other London boroughs. I'm an East End boy. Yet when my family moved to Tilbury four years ago and I first started at Gateway Community College in Tilbury, I noticed something very strange. My immediate thoughts were: "Man, there are a lot of white people!" I had never been exposed to an environment outside of my normal life such as this, but was willing to embrace my new surroundings. Being only 13 and naive at the time, I did not really look any further into the obvious racial dominance and what relevance that may have to me. Until I experienced life in Tilbury for myself. No apologies for the straight talking but I've had to live with the language. Verbatim, Black c***' was the colloquialism most frequently used by my fellow students. The first time a pang of fear went down my spine. I was frozen in complete disbelief; the construction of the words sounded bizarre to me. I had never been attacked because of my skin colour before. I had heard of racism but had never experienced it. And it wasn't just adults or people of my own age. If it wasn't sad, it would almost be funny having six-year-olds run up to you and shouting Nigger.' Who teaches them that?

Time people stopped judging others based purely on skin colour I was facing constant racial comments, to the point whereby I thought I must have had a sign on my back saying ‘Pick on me, I relish being racially abused!’ Tayo Yussuf For days on end, my thoughts were filled with all of the films and books I read and had seen on slavery and racial attacks on black people. When I think about it now, some people may have thought I overreacted; but I did not know what to think. It's as if all of the people you thought were your friends, your peers, your equals, were now somehow different or just simply, not there for you anymore. When I lived in London, being black or white never went through my head. People's skin colour was more of a benign issue to most people in London. Skin colour was noticeable, but not enough for people to abuse them for being a colour they can't help having. I don't understand how people can judge others merely on their skin colour. Fast forward to my college years at Palmer's, the time of my life when my awareness of the world around me grew, as did my understanding for racism. College for me was great, new people, new things to do, responsibility, maturity and best of all, no apparent racism. This however turned out to be mere wishful thinking. Outside of college life goes on. There was one week when every time I walked home from college, I always seemed to receive some non invited piece of racial abuse. I felt like God was saying "you can have six hours of peace at college, but I'm going to punish you for being a good citizen, not smoking or drink driving." I was facing constant racial comments, to the point whereby I thought I must have had a sign on my back saying "Pick on me, I relish being racially abused!" I don't understand what people with a different skin colour could have done, for such animosities to be vented towards us. Could it just be different cultural upbringing? Or different influences and events in people's lives causing them to believe, a different race is to blame for events in the past? Perhaps ignorance and improper education is to blame? All I know is that I am, and will always be a victim of this. As people, we are pre-disposed to judge and categorise before we fully understand the true nature of what it is we are faced with. I hope I have awakened an all too inconvenient truth in this article, and urge some of you to think about your own beliefs and actions, whether you are black, white, or any other race. We are all the same, and deserve to be treated the same. This article originally appeared in the Thurrock Gazette and is reprinted with kind permission from the author.

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