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| Why Myron Yarde’s death affects us all | Why Myron Yarde’s death affects us all |
| (about 17 hours later) | |
| The death of Myron Yarde, a 17-year-old boy from south-east London, may not have meant a lot to you. He was stabbed in a backstreet in New Cross on Sunday night. Police were called to the scene at 7.41pm and he was dead in hospital soon after 9pm. | The death of Myron Yarde, a 17-year-old boy from south-east London, may not have meant a lot to you. He was stabbed in a backstreet in New Cross on Sunday night. Police were called to the scene at 7.41pm and he was dead in hospital soon after 9pm. |
| Related: Tributes flood social media after rapper Myron Yarde killed | Related: Tributes flood social media after rapper Myron Yarde killed |
| If you’re white and middle-class reading this or (to a lesser extent) black and middle-class, you probably think that although it’s very sad it doesn’t really affect you. You might think: what a waste, nothing can really be done, it’s just poverty, it’s just poor black boys stabbing each other for whatever reason. He was a rapper, so presumably it was gang-related. So sad, another black boy dead. So sad, but move on. | If you’re white and middle-class reading this or (to a lesser extent) black and middle-class, you probably think that although it’s very sad it doesn’t really affect you. You might think: what a waste, nothing can really be done, it’s just poverty, it’s just poor black boys stabbing each other for whatever reason. He was a rapper, so presumably it was gang-related. So sad, another black boy dead. So sad, but move on. |
| There’ll be another stabbing next week and there’s nothing I can do about it. Reading about all these knife attacks, fatal or not, does get tiring. Murder fatigue is a problem in newspapers, so much so that some news organisations have actually stopped writing about murder stories when they involve young black men or boys being killed by other young black men. This time I feel different because I have a personal connection to Myron. My son goes to Deptford Green school, which Myron attended until he went to Walthamstow’s Big Creative academy after his GCSEs. My son is a couple of years younger and only knew Myron by sight. Myron probably didn’t know him, as Myron was a seriously cool older boy. He was a successful rapper, funny and kind by all accounts, talented and on the road to stardom. Some kids in my son’s year were very excited about being in his rap videos (check them out on YouTube under his rap name MDot: they’re great). He was famous in his old secondary school, a role model, the boy that everyone wanted to be. And now he’s gone. We don’t yet know the full details of what happened, just that there was a fight between young men, and that two of them, aged 15 and 16, have been arrested. | |
| What actually is a gang, anyway? Is it just a group of poor young black people (usually boys) who hang out together? | What actually is a gang, anyway? Is it just a group of poor young black people (usually boys) who hang out together? |
| Maybe you send your kids to private school or grammar school so they can avoid getting involved in this stuff. But we’re all involved in London and elsewhere in the country. We’re all connected: it’s our country, our people, we should care and I do care. There are children being stabbed on our streets. | |
| As soon as you heard Myron was a rapper, you probably presumed he must be in a gang. Maybe I would have done if I hadn’t had this personal connection. Actually, he wasn’t. But I guess he’ll have been connected with a “gang” at some point. His cousin or a friend will have been in a gang – you just can’t escape those connections if you’re from this part of town. My white middle-class son is no doubt connected to the “Gs” of tomorrow. Actually, they’re the ones who are nice to him and let him sit at their table at lunch when he’s fallen out with his more nerdy friends. For him they are the good guys, at least at Deptford Green, which is an amazing school. | As soon as you heard Myron was a rapper, you probably presumed he must be in a gang. Maybe I would have done if I hadn’t had this personal connection. Actually, he wasn’t. But I guess he’ll have been connected with a “gang” at some point. His cousin or a friend will have been in a gang – you just can’t escape those connections if you’re from this part of town. My white middle-class son is no doubt connected to the “Gs” of tomorrow. Actually, they’re the ones who are nice to him and let him sit at their table at lunch when he’s fallen out with his more nerdy friends. For him they are the good guys, at least at Deptford Green, which is an amazing school. |
| So there’s a big problem with the word “gang”. It makes white people switch off. I’m for banning the word “gang” being chucked around all over the place, because it’s like a code for saying you don’t need to bother about this because you’re not in a gang and neither are your children. OK, we’ve all seen Top Boy, but think about it, what actually is a gang, anyway? Is it just a group of poor young black people (usually boys) who hang out together? | So there’s a big problem with the word “gang”. It makes white people switch off. I’m for banning the word “gang” being chucked around all over the place, because it’s like a code for saying you don’t need to bother about this because you’re not in a gang and neither are your children. OK, we’ve all seen Top Boy, but think about it, what actually is a gang, anyway? Is it just a group of poor young black people (usually boys) who hang out together? |
| It’s not like “gangs” are constantly involved in criminal activity. Most time in your gang is hanging out chatting, doing a bit of rapping and maybe occasionally committing minor crimes such as taking drugs. Why is it in any way acceptable for someone in a gang or with connections to a gang to be knifed to death? | |
| All the stories of children being murdered should be reported in full. We should all know about what’s going on, or how are we going to do anything about it? We might not have a problem with gun control in the UK as they do in the US, but knives kill too, and we definitely have a knife problem. | All the stories of children being murdered should be reported in full. We should all know about what’s going on, or how are we going to do anything about it? We might not have a problem with gun control in the UK as they do in the US, but knives kill too, and we definitely have a knife problem. |
| This is the second fatal stabbing of a teenager in London this year – a 16-year-old boy called Charlie Kutuyampo was knifed at a friend’s 16th birthday party in Woodford, east London in January. There will doubtless be many more as 19 teenagers were murdered in London in 2015, 15 of them stabbed. In 2008, 22 teenagers were stabbed to death. | This is the second fatal stabbing of a teenager in London this year – a 16-year-old boy called Charlie Kutuyampo was knifed at a friend’s 16th birthday party in Woodford, east London in January. There will doubtless be many more as 19 teenagers were murdered in London in 2015, 15 of them stabbed. In 2008, 22 teenagers were stabbed to death. |
| Violence has a nasty habit of spilling over. Every so often a white kid does get caught up in this. Funny enough there was a whole load of coverage when Ben Kinsella was stabbed in Islington, north London in 2008. And if you seal yourself in and try to keep away from it then, in London certainly, you’re going to find your freedom is inhibited. No-go schools, no-go areas, no-go times, no-go swimming pools – these things impact on your life. | |
| A fund has been set up for Myron’s funeral and tribute if you want to contribute, there’s a Gofundme page. While I was writing this, more than 47,000 people were talking about Myron on Facebook. He was loved. He could have been famous. He would have probably gone on to have his own kids, loved his siblings (tragically, both of his parents were dead), his friends and his wider family. And now he’s dead. |