right it feels good to be here as
someone who lives in pékerman and grew
up here so when thinking about the topic
for TEDx
TEDx Peckham and the idea of thinking
again I wanted to speak on a culture
that I very much identify with a culture
that is often very much stigmatized a
culture that I have to defend quite
often and usually I get quite annoyed
having to defend aspects of this culture
having to justify the humanity that lies
within it but lately I’ve been thinking
to myself you know what Caleb you don’t
need to justify your humanity for people
to see your humanity
in fact it’s the people who expect you
to justify your humanity that lack
humanity in the first place so today I’m
here to challenge some of the
misrepresentations and some of the
stigmatization that is attached to a
particular kind of working class culture
a culture that you would see very much
so in Peckham at least the pre
gentrified Peckham I mean a joke but
it’s difficult to talk about Peckham
without talking about it’s working-class
people we’re about talking about the
contributions that it’s working-class
people have made to our overall sense of
Britishness from the old days of bellboy
Trotta
and he’s foolhardy attempts at becoming
a millionaire in Only Fools and Horses
it’s more recent times of John boyega in
Star Wars or Ashley waters aka
Asha D in Bullitt boy in top way in any
film that probably has the word boy in
it two gigs one of the finest rappers
that
thank you very much one of our Posse
want him one of the finest rappers that
this country has ever ever produced and
those last two names Ashley waters and
gigs lead me to talk about this culture
this culture that has grown in its
popularity over the last few years that
they have contributed through their
films and through their music a culture
known as rogue culture quarter that is
often stigmatized because of its origins
I would say Road culture was formed in
the low-income council estates
inner-city parts of London mostly well I
guess not just London anywhere around
Britain that had council estates and
indices now thing about Road culture is
the definition of it has kind of been
bamboozled in a way because there is
only one strict representation of what
it is when you think about either being
wrote or being on roads or being a road
man or girl you often think of a group
of people hanging out on the streets
somewhere outside of a building or on
the stairs of an estate often think
about individuals who are without basic
etiquette you think about individuals
who are rude who are wild who are
undereducated who are poor who are
indulgent in criminal activities or
violence and like I said I’m not really
satisfied with this definition before we
move forward though I think it’s
important to really state this because I
have to do so many many times
Roe Porter is not the singular culture
of working-class people in Britain more
so since it was formed in the black
community is important to say that role
culture is not the singular culture of
black British working-class people to
amend the words of Tory just a little
bit if there are 1 million black British
working class people then there are 1
million different
ways of being black British and
working-class okay that was there there
was a handful but back to the point over
the last few years
Road culture has really seeped into the
popular mainstream consciousness or brin
would you agree yes okay but the thing
about it is that although working-class
people
although Road culture is seen as who
although it influences everything from
fashion to music with the rise of grand
music with to rise of chicken shop
reviewers brands collaborations and
endorsements comedy skits on Instagram
etc etc means and all of that the
culture itself is seen as cool but the
people of the culture are seen as a
scourge to their community which is
interesting young surfers to call you a
road man would you find that offensive
in fact how many people if they’re
really being honest with them the web
themselves would want to be labeled as
Road not many people and that is because
there is a stigma that is attached to
this culture a stigma that I think is
mainly influenced by four different
strands one strand that I’m not really
going to talk about I think that has to
do with the color of one’s skin and I
think that’s the denominator as a common
denominator across like many different
types of cultures of black and brown
people so I’m gonna put that to the side
and focus on the free others one of them
is this idea of being Road being outside
on roads and when you think about the
image when that image is depicted it’s
often depicted with force of danger or
fret something ominous now I’d like to
challenge that as someone who grew up on
north pecker mistake hanging out on the
roads was because there was a huge lack
of facilities
public facilities hanging out on the
roads was because there wasn’t that many
youth friendly activities okay in
Peckham we had a cinema we had tech aka
Dominator Taylor Center we had what do
we also do we have impact we have a
library we have a swimming pool but
apart from that there wasn’t really much
else also we lived in flats that were
hugely overcrowded I lived in a
one-bedroom flat in putting off a coma
state and there were seven of us and
there was one bedroom so I couldn’t
really bring my friends to congregate
indoors and that was the same for many
of my friends so we had to hang out on
the road but the thing about being on
the road is that it was essentially a
proverbial safe space for us to come
together under a common struggle there
was a place where we could exercise
solidarity form bonds and friendship it
was a place where we could find
entertainment where there wasn’t learn
otherwise I mean yes
sometimes things went badly and there
was trouble but you can never have a
group of human beings where there will
never be any trouble especially
unstimulated human beings so being on
the roads for me felt like I was part of
a community which otherwise I don’t
think any alternatives would have
provided that another contribution to
the stigmatization of Road culture is
definitely speech road slang for you for
those who don’t know road slang is
essentially influenced by a cocktail of
dialects deriving from the Caribbean
from West Africa from America from right
here in Britain and what I really loved
about it or what actually find difficult
about it is that when most people hear
someone speaking Road slang they usually
associate it with some sort of an
aggression some sort of uneducated nurse
some sort of Britishness and that kind
of
like I said that really irks me because
for me as a boy who came to this country
when I was seven years old my English
was fantastic my English was brilliant I
could speak standard Queen’s English but
being in this country I didn’t
necessarily feel like being able to
speak the language
made me feel British however living in
North Peckham estate in such a diverse
community everyone almost added their
own bits of language to the cauldron of
language that existed in in the
community so for me I was able to really
embrace a type of form of talk that
really felt like it reflected my
immediate experience of Britishness
should I mean I really appreciated it
especially with the trauma of
assimilation those of us who have had to
assimilate it’s actually if you really
think about it quite a traumatic
experience especially if your accent is
a bit strong so I mean and I think Road
slang actually kind of helps that in a
way so for me this was a form of speech
that rejected rigid that this was a form
of speech that rejected rigid paradigms
of language of syntax etc etc for a more
esoteric and comfortable form of talk
and I was really appreciative of that so
on to the third point or on to the third
strand that contributes to this
stigmatization is perhaps the culture’s
biggest export and that is music when
you think about music and Road culture
you cannot help but not think about gram
think about Road rap UK rap UK draw
whatever you want to label it as now
most people I get in so many to two
arguments and face-to-face debates with
people
that say that really focus on this idea
that road culture or road music is
detrimental to Road culture or
detrimental to a group of people because
it’s content is violent it endorses the
use of drugs or the selling of drugs
it is misogynistic etc etc etc and I
agree with that 100% but I also think
that there are some other variables to
think I don’t think I always disagree in
a sense of by getting rid of the music
you’re essentially gonna cure like the
those negative aspects within the
community I don’t think that’s possible
so that’s a debate that kind of goes on
and on and on in in a sense I agree with
you but also I think that the solution
isn’t just getting rid of the music in
fact I always direct them to look at the
music in a different way now according
to Howard Pender Hughes who is a
professor that looks at trauma at a
community level he says that young
people in such community communities
young people experience who experience
let me start again young people who
experience traumatic events all
conditions they end up going on to
develop post-traumatic stress disorder
or post-traumatic stress disorder
related issues now what’s interesting
about that he takes it further he says
there is a difference in the community
and in regards to community trauma he
says in the community young people who
are experiencing this trauma should
actually be diagnosed with PTSD but the
P in a PTSD should be changed from post
to pervasive or persistence because the
trauma that they experiencing is ongoing
the truth then they haven’t been removed
from the condition or the vicinity where
they experienced the trauma in a sense
that a soldier may go to war experience
PTSD leave war come back
a safer environment where they can start
treating their PTSD whereas these young
people are consistently in the same
place that triggered their trauma now we
all know those of us who know about the
link between music and mental health
it’s well documented so you can google
it or something
music is used in many practices in
dealing with mental health issues with
PTSD depression etc etc so we’ve got
these young artists from the road
culture who are talking about their
everyday traumatic events in their music
why isn’t this seen as musical therapy
I’ve always been an advocate for trying
to see the music in this way I mean yes
it’s the content is is very difficult
and quite negative on most mostly on the
whole of it but on in the sense of like
treating mental health issues I think
that there is a real potential there
for example if we look at Dizzee Rascals
boy in a corner album he was a boy he
was 17 years old when he made this album
now in it he talks about short as the
runners the money stacks he talks about
the ninja bikes the gunfights and the
scary nights he talks about his
depression he talks about his force of
suicide in it and it’s a clear example
of a boy who is self-reflective and who
is mapping out his mental health on
music so with that said I think that we
should actually when we are listening to
the music or when we hear the music of
Road culture we shouldn’t be so quick to
dismiss it we should try to see the
potential it has for actually
alleviating some of the trauma that is
experienced in these communities so I
say this to end the next time you see
someone who might fit the visual or
behavioral description of someone who’s
part of the road culture if you have
see me on road I want you to ask
yourself no it’s it’s serious because
you can be storm Z flying high in the
charts but you can still get a police
cordon you buy your next-door neighbor
for being your next door neighbor’s next
door neighbor you can still get harassed
and judged on a road not because you’re
a man in the road or because you’re Road
man so I want you guys to really think
about this next time you see someone on
the road think to yourself is that a
road person or is that just a person on
the road think again thank you very much
[Applause]
someone who lives in pékerman and grew
up here so when thinking about the topic
for TEDx
TEDx Peckham and the idea of thinking
again I wanted to speak on a culture
that I very much identify with a culture
that is often very much stigmatized a
culture that I have to defend quite
often and usually I get quite annoyed
having to defend aspects of this culture
having to justify the humanity that lies
within it but lately I’ve been thinking
to myself you know what Caleb you don’t
need to justify your humanity for people
to see your humanity
in fact it’s the people who expect you
to justify your humanity that lack
humanity in the first place so today I’m
here to challenge some of the
misrepresentations and some of the
stigmatization that is attached to a
particular kind of working class culture
a culture that you would see very much
so in Peckham at least the pre
gentrified Peckham I mean a joke but
it’s difficult to talk about Peckham
without talking about it’s working-class
people we’re about talking about the
contributions that it’s working-class
people have made to our overall sense of
Britishness from the old days of bellboy
Trotta
and he’s foolhardy attempts at becoming
a millionaire in Only Fools and Horses
it’s more recent times of John boyega in
Star Wars or Ashley waters aka
Asha D in Bullitt boy in top way in any
film that probably has the word boy in
it two gigs one of the finest rappers
that
thank you very much one of our Posse
want him one of the finest rappers that
this country has ever ever produced and
those last two names Ashley waters and
gigs lead me to talk about this culture
this culture that has grown in its
popularity over the last few years that
they have contributed through their
films and through their music a culture
known as rogue culture quarter that is
often stigmatized because of its origins
I would say Road culture was formed in
the low-income council estates
inner-city parts of London mostly well I
guess not just London anywhere around
Britain that had council estates and
indices now thing about Road culture is
the definition of it has kind of been
bamboozled in a way because there is
only one strict representation of what
it is when you think about either being
wrote or being on roads or being a road
man or girl you often think of a group
of people hanging out on the streets
somewhere outside of a building or on
the stairs of an estate often think
about individuals who are without basic
etiquette you think about individuals
who are rude who are wild who are
undereducated who are poor who are
indulgent in criminal activities or
violence and like I said I’m not really
satisfied with this definition before we
move forward though I think it’s
important to really state this because I
have to do so many many times
Roe Porter is not the singular culture
of working-class people in Britain more
so since it was formed in the black
community is important to say that role
culture is not the singular culture of
black British working-class people to
amend the words of Tory just a little
bit if there are 1 million black British
working class people then there are 1
million different
ways of being black British and
working-class okay that was there there
was a handful but back to the point over
the last few years
Road culture has really seeped into the
popular mainstream consciousness or brin
would you agree yes okay but the thing
about it is that although working-class
people
although Road culture is seen as who
although it influences everything from
fashion to music with the rise of grand
music with to rise of chicken shop
reviewers brands collaborations and
endorsements comedy skits on Instagram
etc etc means and all of that the
culture itself is seen as cool but the
people of the culture are seen as a
scourge to their community which is
interesting young surfers to call you a
road man would you find that offensive
in fact how many people if they’re
really being honest with them the web
themselves would want to be labeled as
Road not many people and that is because
there is a stigma that is attached to
this culture a stigma that I think is
mainly influenced by four different
strands one strand that I’m not really
going to talk about I think that has to
do with the color of one’s skin and I
think that’s the denominator as a common
denominator across like many different
types of cultures of black and brown
people so I’m gonna put that to the side
and focus on the free others one of them
is this idea of being Road being outside
on roads and when you think about the
image when that image is depicted it’s
often depicted with force of danger or
fret something ominous now I’d like to
challenge that as someone who grew up on
north pecker mistake hanging out on the
roads was because there was a huge lack
of facilities
public facilities hanging out on the
roads was because there wasn’t that many
youth friendly activities okay in
Peckham we had a cinema we had tech aka
Dominator Taylor Center we had what do
we also do we have impact we have a
library we have a swimming pool but
apart from that there wasn’t really much
else also we lived in flats that were
hugely overcrowded I lived in a
one-bedroom flat in putting off a coma
state and there were seven of us and
there was one bedroom so I couldn’t
really bring my friends to congregate
indoors and that was the same for many
of my friends so we had to hang out on
the road but the thing about being on
the road is that it was essentially a
proverbial safe space for us to come
together under a common struggle there
was a place where we could exercise
solidarity form bonds and friendship it
was a place where we could find
entertainment where there wasn’t learn
otherwise I mean yes
sometimes things went badly and there
was trouble but you can never have a
group of human beings where there will
never be any trouble especially
unstimulated human beings so being on
the roads for me felt like I was part of
a community which otherwise I don’t
think any alternatives would have
provided that another contribution to
the stigmatization of Road culture is
definitely speech road slang for you for
those who don’t know road slang is
essentially influenced by a cocktail of
dialects deriving from the Caribbean
from West Africa from America from right
here in Britain and what I really loved
about it or what actually find difficult
about it is that when most people hear
someone speaking Road slang they usually
associate it with some sort of an
aggression some sort of uneducated nurse
some sort of Britishness and that kind
of
like I said that really irks me because
for me as a boy who came to this country
when I was seven years old my English
was fantastic my English was brilliant I
could speak standard Queen’s English but
being in this country I didn’t
necessarily feel like being able to
speak the language
made me feel British however living in
North Peckham estate in such a diverse
community everyone almost added their
own bits of language to the cauldron of
language that existed in in the
community so for me I was able to really
embrace a type of form of talk that
really felt like it reflected my
immediate experience of Britishness
should I mean I really appreciated it
especially with the trauma of
assimilation those of us who have had to
assimilate it’s actually if you really
think about it quite a traumatic
experience especially if your accent is
a bit strong so I mean and I think Road
slang actually kind of helps that in a
way so for me this was a form of speech
that rejected rigid that this was a form
of speech that rejected rigid paradigms
of language of syntax etc etc for a more
esoteric and comfortable form of talk
and I was really appreciative of that so
on to the third point or on to the third
strand that contributes to this
stigmatization is perhaps the culture’s
biggest export and that is music when
you think about music and Road culture
you cannot help but not think about gram
think about Road rap UK rap UK draw
whatever you want to label it as now
most people I get in so many to two
arguments and face-to-face debates with
people
that say that really focus on this idea
that road culture or road music is
detrimental to Road culture or
detrimental to a group of people because
it’s content is violent it endorses the
use of drugs or the selling of drugs
it is misogynistic etc etc etc and I
agree with that 100% but I also think
that there are some other variables to
think I don’t think I always disagree in
a sense of by getting rid of the music
you’re essentially gonna cure like the
those negative aspects within the
community I don’t think that’s possible
so that’s a debate that kind of goes on
and on and on in in a sense I agree with
you but also I think that the solution
isn’t just getting rid of the music in
fact I always direct them to look at the
music in a different way now according
to Howard Pender Hughes who is a
professor that looks at trauma at a
community level he says that young
people in such community communities
young people experience who experience
let me start again young people who
experience traumatic events all
conditions they end up going on to
develop post-traumatic stress disorder
or post-traumatic stress disorder
related issues now what’s interesting
about that he takes it further he says
there is a difference in the community
and in regards to community trauma he
says in the community young people who
are experiencing this trauma should
actually be diagnosed with PTSD but the
P in a PTSD should be changed from post
to pervasive or persistence because the
trauma that they experiencing is ongoing
the truth then they haven’t been removed
from the condition or the vicinity where
they experienced the trauma in a sense
that a soldier may go to war experience
PTSD leave war come back
a safer environment where they can start
treating their PTSD whereas these young
people are consistently in the same
place that triggered their trauma now we
all know those of us who know about the
link between music and mental health
it’s well documented so you can google
it or something
music is used in many practices in
dealing with mental health issues with
PTSD depression etc etc so we’ve got
these young artists from the road
culture who are talking about their
everyday traumatic events in their music
why isn’t this seen as musical therapy
I’ve always been an advocate for trying
to see the music in this way I mean yes
it’s the content is is very difficult
and quite negative on most mostly on the
whole of it but on in the sense of like
treating mental health issues I think
that there is a real potential there
for example if we look at Dizzee Rascals
boy in a corner album he was a boy he
was 17 years old when he made this album
now in it he talks about short as the
runners the money stacks he talks about
the ninja bikes the gunfights and the
scary nights he talks about his
depression he talks about his force of
suicide in it and it’s a clear example
of a boy who is self-reflective and who
is mapping out his mental health on
music so with that said I think that we
should actually when we are listening to
the music or when we hear the music of
Road culture we shouldn’t be so quick to
dismiss it we should try to see the
potential it has for actually
alleviating some of the trauma that is
experienced in these communities so I
say this to end the next time you see
someone who might fit the visual or
behavioral description of someone who’s
part of the road culture if you have
see me on road I want you to ask
yourself no it’s it’s serious because
you can be storm Z flying high in the
charts but you can still get a police
cordon you buy your next-door neighbor
for being your next door neighbor’s next
door neighbor you can still get harassed
and judged on a road not because you’re
a man in the road or because you’re Road
man so I want you guys to really think
about this next time you see someone on
the road think to yourself is that a
road person or is that just a person on
the road think again thank you very much
[Applause]
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