‘Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, colour, religion, sex or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an under-represented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination. The focus of such policies ranges from employment and education to public contracting and health programs. “Affirmative action” is action taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded’
Say the words affirmative action or positive discrimination and you will get disparaging looks for all quarters. Some whites see it as giving under qualified blacks jobs they don’t deserve and maybe can’t even do. Some blacks see it an admission that we are under qualified and stress that we should not accept favours but simply be ‘allowed’ to achieve all we can.
When I landed at Gatwick airport 20 plus years ago the concept of Affirmative Action was extremely distastefully to me. My understanding was that people from Africa and the Caribbean had resided in the UK for decades, centuries even, therefore I fully expected to see said peoples working and living comfortably at all level of UK social life. That’s not what I found.
My first assessment of UK based Blacks was not a good one. I just did not have a historical perspective which could explain why I saw more single mothers in Brixton than any day in downtown Kingston. Nor could I understand the crowds of black men spending days in betting shops or hanging out at the local chicken shops. My first real job was in the City of London, this too threw up more questions than answers, as I found myself almost totally surrounded by whites and when I did bump into another black person they too had the same question….where are the blacks?
Over the years I developed an excuse for this massive underachievement. My excuse was racism and low numbers. I convinced myself that since we made up less than 10% of the population and since the English practiced very covert racism that explained our under achievement.
I squarely fell into the group who saw Affirmation Action as wrong.
Two things have slowly changed that view.
A couple of years ago I attended a lecture by Robin Walker. Robin may not the most flamboyant speaker, but believe me with the knowledge he has, he does not need to be. I remember listening to Robin explain how the system here in the UK works when it comes to achievement. It goes like this.
The best, most qualified and experienced person of African descent will always start the day with a 5% handicap. Meanwhile the best, most qualified and experienced white person is always given a 5% head start. Now 5% may not seem like much, but this means that on any given day there is a minimum of 10% difference in favour of whites in every situation. So just to be equal the African must improve by 10% irrespective of levels already achieved. Further it means and please wrap your minds around this a white person who is 10% less capable is equal to an African and if we are equal you and I both know who will get the job. By the way I am only using 5% because I really can’t remember if Robin used 5% or 10%. In any event it is not difficult to understand that the actual percentage will vary depending on who is looking at the candidates. I suspect 5% is an acceptable minimum which is naturally applied UK wide. This explained the frustration and even departure of many UK blacks.
The second thing stemmed from a conversation I was having with Kwame, Lee and Viv about three months ago. I have used no last names to protect the innocent, but suffice to say if you don’t know these three black men then you are not living in the UK or at least London.
As is always the case when 4 vocal self assured black men meet, the topic of under achievement of people of African descent here in the UK was raised. Long story short I was educated on the role Affirmative Action can play and has played in the creation of a strong Black American middle class.
Education is key. When affirmative action ‘allowed’ masses of African Americas to educate themselves, it began a chain of events which we here in the UK can only dream about. The result of these events is a strong well educate upper middle class comprising of Judges, Lawyers, Doctors, Engineers, Lecturers, politicians, playwrights, business owners, Accounts etc who all found their place in American society. Suddenly black found themselves with that extra 11% and boy did they use it.
However the effect does not stop there. Because these people now had access to areas which before were totally white, they could and have left the ladder in place for the next generation and newly arriving immigrants. Critically they also began doing business with other blacks.
So if affirmative action was such a great success why has it not been used here in the UK? Well I have a theory which some of you may not like.
American racism has always been in your face, but here in the UK it has always been a little more covert. Not to mention the majority of blacks in the UK need only look two or three generations to find parents from other lands and I submit that those parents have injected into us a ‘mother England’ attitude which has stopped us from taking the UK to task over racism. Yep I said it. We just don’t take racism serious enough.
Covert racism has allowed the English man to get away to this day with way too much. The UK has had good race relation laws in place for decades, but those laws are just smoke screens to the very issues which affirmative action was designed to deal with.. Further the UK has a more intelligent form of racism because it’s racism is mixed into classism and thus does it’s nasty work often unnoticed because exponents of this racism can point to the under achievement of the white working class and claim that proves our poverty is not race based.
Now this is not to suggest the US has defeated racism, but US blacks are far better placed to fight racism because they have a decent financial base. Look at it this way. Yes the US may have a Black president, but still blacks suffer from racism, thus imagine the state of the UK where thoughts of a black Prime Minister are still laughed at.
So next time there is a movement for Affirmative Action here in the UK, you will see me in the front row.
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Friday, 20 August 2010
Living with the enemy
Living with the enemy
This year is my 21st year of living in London and I think I am finally able to articulate why I often find blacks who have grow up with racism are so very different from those who have not.
During a recent conversation with a few other people who grew up in majority black countries, I began to notice similarities in our perceptions of UK Blacks. Racism, real or just perceived looms large in their every thought.
Growing up in Jamaica I was convinced that what you grew up to be was only limited by your personal ambition. Any child could identify people not only of their race, but also shade, working and achieving in all walks of life. Once the higglas began making strong moves financially, almost no door was inaccessible to even those of the darkest shades . Sure we had our issues of class and shade, but it was no way comparable to the racism faced here in the UK by the average black person.
The level of racism here in the UK has taken a heavy toll of the mentality of many UK blacks. First many UK blacks can’t perceive that blacks can be racist. This belief is held not only by the uneducated (academically and politically) but also by those who are highly educated. This view is based upon the concept that only those with power can be racist. They will argue that in Jamaica we blacks had no power, but even if that is true it is not the point. The point is we felt and continue to feel we have power and perhaps that is why we know blacks can be racist.
However my reason for writing this note is not to point out the obvious, that anyone can be racist, but to explain how years of racist oppression affects UK blacks and can cause conflict between blacks who were not exposed to similar levels of racism or better yet have experienced none at all.
Take two boys one we will call P and the other D. P grows up in Jamaica while D grows up in the UK. In Ps class he is surrounded by kids of the same colour as him. His teachers are also his colour. Daily he reads from books showing his people in a positive light. Each day he sees around him black doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers and yes, thieves. He develops a view that his outcome is down to him and he is not hindered by his race. Yes, he sees a class system around him, but he has also seen people just like him cross over that class system.
D, is in a class with no other kids like him. He is subjected to ridicule because of his colour and maybe even about his class too. Teachers don’t care because they too dislike him purely because of his race too. His books have no sign of blacks in his society. Daily he sees people of his colour excluded from every walk of life and forced to engage in work well below their social and academic potential, just to survive. He may even watch his father abandon his family because in this oppressive society he no longer feels like a ‘real man’. D is fully aware his potential is limited by his colour and there is little he can do about it. Even those black that are wealthy are still treated in a substandard way and are never really accepted into higher society.
If D and P meet there views will be poles apart. P will have to learn that racism can hold him back, D already believes is does. D will see a racist motive behind every set back in his life, even when he is simply not good enough. D is conditioned to believe everything bad that happens to him is race based and soon race becomes his fall back position for ever failing. D can’t understand why P does not share his hatred of whites. In fact he concludes that if P does not hate whites it’s because he is deluded or a sellout. P on the other hand is just as confused at the baseless hate for whites based not on their actions, but rather purely on their colour.
OK these may be extreme cases, but not too extreme and I am sure you can see how each experience will shape P and Ds view on race and racism. More importantly we can see how Ds self esteem will be trampled upon. Low self esteem will affect every area of Ds life. No matter what he does achieve he will feel he was cheated out of more. P on the other hand is self assured.
I am no physiologist or psychiatrist, but I have observed these behaviours of over twenty years and I feel it is a reasonable conclusion that prolonged exposure to an oppressive system day in and day out for you entire life must reek havoc on a persons mind.
Your thoughts are welcomed.
This year is my 21st year of living in London and I think I am finally able to articulate why I often find blacks who have grow up with racism are so very different from those who have not.
During a recent conversation with a few other people who grew up in majority black countries, I began to notice similarities in our perceptions of UK Blacks. Racism, real or just perceived looms large in their every thought.
Growing up in Jamaica I was convinced that what you grew up to be was only limited by your personal ambition. Any child could identify people not only of their race, but also shade, working and achieving in all walks of life. Once the higglas began making strong moves financially, almost no door was inaccessible to even those of the darkest shades . Sure we had our issues of class and shade, but it was no way comparable to the racism faced here in the UK by the average black person.
The level of racism here in the UK has taken a heavy toll of the mentality of many UK blacks. First many UK blacks can’t perceive that blacks can be racist. This belief is held not only by the uneducated (academically and politically) but also by those who are highly educated. This view is based upon the concept that only those with power can be racist. They will argue that in Jamaica we blacks had no power, but even if that is true it is not the point. The point is we felt and continue to feel we have power and perhaps that is why we know blacks can be racist.
However my reason for writing this note is not to point out the obvious, that anyone can be racist, but to explain how years of racist oppression affects UK blacks and can cause conflict between blacks who were not exposed to similar levels of racism or better yet have experienced none at all.
Take two boys one we will call P and the other D. P grows up in Jamaica while D grows up in the UK. In Ps class he is surrounded by kids of the same colour as him. His teachers are also his colour. Daily he reads from books showing his people in a positive light. Each day he sees around him black doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers and yes, thieves. He develops a view that his outcome is down to him and he is not hindered by his race. Yes, he sees a class system around him, but he has also seen people just like him cross over that class system.
D, is in a class with no other kids like him. He is subjected to ridicule because of his colour and maybe even about his class too. Teachers don’t care because they too dislike him purely because of his race too. His books have no sign of blacks in his society. Daily he sees people of his colour excluded from every walk of life and forced to engage in work well below their social and academic potential, just to survive. He may even watch his father abandon his family because in this oppressive society he no longer feels like a ‘real man’. D is fully aware his potential is limited by his colour and there is little he can do about it. Even those black that are wealthy are still treated in a substandard way and are never really accepted into higher society.
If D and P meet there views will be poles apart. P will have to learn that racism can hold him back, D already believes is does. D will see a racist motive behind every set back in his life, even when he is simply not good enough. D is conditioned to believe everything bad that happens to him is race based and soon race becomes his fall back position for ever failing. D can’t understand why P does not share his hatred of whites. In fact he concludes that if P does not hate whites it’s because he is deluded or a sellout. P on the other hand is just as confused at the baseless hate for whites based not on their actions, but rather purely on their colour.
OK these may be extreme cases, but not too extreme and I am sure you can see how each experience will shape P and Ds view on race and racism. More importantly we can see how Ds self esteem will be trampled upon. Low self esteem will affect every area of Ds life. No matter what he does achieve he will feel he was cheated out of more. P on the other hand is self assured.
I am no physiologist or psychiatrist, but I have observed these behaviours of over twenty years and I feel it is a reasonable conclusion that prolonged exposure to an oppressive system day in and day out for you entire life must reek havoc on a persons mind.
Your thoughts are welcomed.
Thursday, 12 August 2010
As a coach I don’t have the privilege of coaching people on one topic. None of my clients would gain any benefit from a niche coach as their dream and ambitions are complex and require a more general approach fortunately the art of coaching was designed with that in mind. I just can’t imagine someone coaching on relationship and not also dealing with finance or even parenting.
Prompted by an article on Breakfast news this morning here is a little street level information on debt and money.
Having debt is not unlike being overweight, something I know a lot about. To get out of debt you must stop spending (eating) so much and begin paying (exercising) more towards that debt. Simple. Yet we complicate both and for very good reasons.
Debt is complicated because we lack financial savvy and we are victims of a massive corporate rapist called banks who employ some of the best brains in the world with just one purpose, to fool us.
Banks have a vested interest in ensuring we feel we can’t live without credit. Remember banks start the day with nothing. When John deposits 1 pound the banks give themselves permission to lend 9 pounds to Peter against that single pound. (I believe that remains the current ratio)
Now I hope you notice the con in the lending system. Going by the 1:9 figures the bank only ever has 1/9 of the money it is actually lending. The remainder of the rape is that they have used Johns pound to “create” 8 new pounds which peter must pay them back at a higher (much higher) rate than they pay John for the use of his pound. Oh if you are waiting for me to explain where the 8 pounds came from don’t. They just pressed a few buttons and made it up. Yep the great “Money is secured against gold” myth is a lie. Sure when money systems began this was true, but as man became more and more greedy we simply invented this magic money.
So what does any of this have to do with debt? Well you need to understand that banks need to keep you in debt. Once you understand that, you will begin to see the traps they lay for you and you may even be able to devise ways of avoiding and even getting out of debt .
As a coach I never give advice, but as a mentor I am free to and will. Here is my number one fail safe why of getting out of debt which is 100% guaranteed to work EVERTIME. Don’t get into debt in the first place.
Now for those of us incapable of that simple technique here are the other methods currently available, which I must warn you were designed by banks and bankers and as such as full of traps.
Debt restructuring/Consolidation
In this farce you are often encouraged to take out one large loan to pay off the smaller loans and spread your payments of a longer time period. The debt stays on your record on until debts are paid which can be decades. The other main issue with this method it that you credit rating remains low due to the on going debt and you eventually repay many times the original debt.
Debt relief Order (For amounts under £15,000)
This process is relatively new, but suffice to say if your debts are under £15,000 you are not struggling with the big boys. This one is like Bankruptcy for poor folks. This too will stay on your record for 6 years and for that little money you really got to ask yourself is it worth it and are there better ways to remove your debt.
Individual Voluntary Arrangement or IVA (For Amounts over £15,000)
This one is very dangerous unless you can guarantee your employment for the entire duration of the arrangement. One missed payment and you are right back where you started. Normally the arrangement removes as much as 75% of the debt and allows you to make payments on the remainder over 5 years. No more pesky debtors calling or letters. This too stays on your record for 6 years
Bankruptcy
This is the one that we are trained to fear the most, yet in a number of ways it can be the best.
This too stays on your record for six years, but there is no upper limit to the amount of money you can write off. Drawback? It is more expensive to implement than any of the others. You remain a ‘bankrupt’ for 12 months and therefore must live by the restrictions i.e you can’t be a company director etc.
Details
The net has much more in-depth information on all these so-called solutions. But here are a few practical tips and points on all of them.
All these interventions will be on your record for 6 years except the first which will be on your record until all the debt is cleared. So if you know you can’t clear you debt in six years maybe these are good options.
The IVA requires 60 payments and does not allow you to miss a single one. In this era of employment uncertainty you may want to think twice about this option.
Bankruptcy strips you bare, but it is a clinical strike which many ‘wealthy’ people use, ask yourself why.
The longer you are in debt the more you repay. Be careful of schemes that are designed merely to keep you in debit.
Avoid banks when seeking advice on debt, you getting out of debt is not in their interest.
Speak to your creditors, they would much rather get some money back rather than none. This you can do for yourself at no cost!
If there is one rule of thumb surrounding debt try this: never take loans in order to remove debt it’s not a good strategy.
Parents
Please teach you children how to handle money. If you don’t they will not know what to do when their first credit card application form mysteriously turns up the day after their 18th birthday. Teach kids to save. Don’t teach them instant gratification. The word NO never killed anyone. Explain to your kids about the monthly bills in your home and involve them as much as possible in the family finances.
Well that’s my rant for the day!
Prompted by an article on Breakfast news this morning here is a little street level information on debt and money.
Having debt is not unlike being overweight, something I know a lot about. To get out of debt you must stop spending (eating) so much and begin paying (exercising) more towards that debt. Simple. Yet we complicate both and for very good reasons.
Debt is complicated because we lack financial savvy and we are victims of a massive corporate rapist called banks who employ some of the best brains in the world with just one purpose, to fool us.
Banks have a vested interest in ensuring we feel we can’t live without credit. Remember banks start the day with nothing. When John deposits 1 pound the banks give themselves permission to lend 9 pounds to Peter against that single pound. (I believe that remains the current ratio)
Now I hope you notice the con in the lending system. Going by the 1:9 figures the bank only ever has 1/9 of the money it is actually lending. The remainder of the rape is that they have used Johns pound to “create” 8 new pounds which peter must pay them back at a higher (much higher) rate than they pay John for the use of his pound. Oh if you are waiting for me to explain where the 8 pounds came from don’t. They just pressed a few buttons and made it up. Yep the great “Money is secured against gold” myth is a lie. Sure when money systems began this was true, but as man became more and more greedy we simply invented this magic money.
So what does any of this have to do with debt? Well you need to understand that banks need to keep you in debt. Once you understand that, you will begin to see the traps they lay for you and you may even be able to devise ways of avoiding and even getting out of debt .
As a coach I never give advice, but as a mentor I am free to and will. Here is my number one fail safe why of getting out of debt which is 100% guaranteed to work EVERTIME. Don’t get into debt in the first place.
Now for those of us incapable of that simple technique here are the other methods currently available, which I must warn you were designed by banks and bankers and as such as full of traps.
Debt restructuring/Consolidation
In this farce you are often encouraged to take out one large loan to pay off the smaller loans and spread your payments of a longer time period. The debt stays on your record on until debts are paid which can be decades. The other main issue with this method it that you credit rating remains low due to the on going debt and you eventually repay many times the original debt.
Debt relief Order (For amounts under £15,000)
This process is relatively new, but suffice to say if your debts are under £15,000 you are not struggling with the big boys. This one is like Bankruptcy for poor folks. This too will stay on your record for 6 years and for that little money you really got to ask yourself is it worth it and are there better ways to remove your debt.
Individual Voluntary Arrangement or IVA (For Amounts over £15,000)
This one is very dangerous unless you can guarantee your employment for the entire duration of the arrangement. One missed payment and you are right back where you started. Normally the arrangement removes as much as 75% of the debt and allows you to make payments on the remainder over 5 years. No more pesky debtors calling or letters. This too stays on your record for 6 years
Bankruptcy
This is the one that we are trained to fear the most, yet in a number of ways it can be the best.
This too stays on your record for six years, but there is no upper limit to the amount of money you can write off. Drawback? It is more expensive to implement than any of the others. You remain a ‘bankrupt’ for 12 months and therefore must live by the restrictions i.e you can’t be a company director etc.
Details
The net has much more in-depth information on all these so-called solutions. But here are a few practical tips and points on all of them.
All these interventions will be on your record for 6 years except the first which will be on your record until all the debt is cleared. So if you know you can’t clear you debt in six years maybe these are good options.
The IVA requires 60 payments and does not allow you to miss a single one. In this era of employment uncertainty you may want to think twice about this option.
Bankruptcy strips you bare, but it is a clinical strike which many ‘wealthy’ people use, ask yourself why.
The longer you are in debt the more you repay. Be careful of schemes that are designed merely to keep you in debit.
Avoid banks when seeking advice on debt, you getting out of debt is not in their interest.
Speak to your creditors, they would much rather get some money back rather than none. This you can do for yourself at no cost!
If there is one rule of thumb surrounding debt try this: never take loans in order to remove debt it’s not a good strategy.
Parents
Please teach you children how to handle money. If you don’t they will not know what to do when their first credit card application form mysteriously turns up the day after their 18th birthday. Teach kids to save. Don’t teach them instant gratification. The word NO never killed anyone. Explain to your kids about the monthly bills in your home and involve them as much as possible in the family finances.
Well that’s my rant for the day!
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Welcome to Life Matters
Just want to formally welcome you all to the home of my blogs. Most of you will know me from Facebook and therefore understand why I am shifting my blog away from Facebook.
I don't have the time to spread between Facebook and my other activities. Simple.
I hope you will read my blogs and more importantly comment as with out your comments my blogs are just ramblings of a mad man!!
Paul
I don't have the time to spread between Facebook and my other activities. Simple.
I hope you will read my blogs and more importantly comment as with out your comments my blogs are just ramblings of a mad man!!
Paul
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