April 20, 2013 in Gus in the Media, Television
On April 15th, Vox Africa kindly invited me to take part in their flagship programme “Shoot the Messenger“, where we discussed Baroness Thatcher’s legacy. I was joined in studio by former Mayor of London’s Wandsworth Borough, Chief Lola Ayorinde, and by the Calypsonian artist Alexander D Great.
On the first part of the programme, we reviewed the week’s papers:
April 10, 2013 in Blog, Gus in the Media, Print
On 8 April 2013 the Evening standard carried a story about Paris Brown who having been appointed as a youth police commissioner by Kent Police and Crime Commissioner, Ann Barnes, one week earlier at a cost to the taxpayer of £15,000 a year was found have posted homophobic and racist tweets prior to her appointment. The Evening Standard asked me for a comment. This is what I wrote on April 8.
Print screen from Evening Standard (http://bit.ly/XJaIwH)
If Paris Brown had wilfully set out to send up the peculiar notion of a paid ‘youth crime commissioner’, she could not have done it better. Her mother protests that Paris has 14 GCSEs and should be allowed to get on with her life having apologised for her abusive language on Twitter, language which itself borders on hate crime. The fact that she published those deeply offensive remarks before she was appointed to this dubious post is all the more reason why she should be stripped of it.
With 14 GCSEs, she is surely bright enough to know that those former boasts about her loutish and bigoted behaviour constitutes skeletons in her cupboard that give off a stench in which the police ought to have a forensic interest. Even if those appointing her did not probe her Twitter account, she should therefore have revealed her homophobic and racist conduct to them. If she did and was appointed nevertheless, then those who appointed her must have wanted to demonstrate that it is precisely young people with her tendencies they want as ‘advisers’ on youth crime. Proof indeed that her ill-conceived post begs too many questions that have not even been posed. Read the rest of this entry →
March 25, 2013 in Gus in the Media, Print
The following article was published by “The Voice” on March 25th.
Black Caribbean boys are three times more likely to be excluded from state schools than their classmates, a study has found.
The Children’s Commission report, They Go The Extra Mile, published on March 20, established an “unacceptably high correlation” between exclusion and male pupils, those with special education needs and children on free school meals.
Four main ethnic groups – Roma gypsy travellers, travellers of Irish heritage, black Caribbean and mixed white/black Caribbean – were also deemed most at risk.
It means a Black Caribbean boy from a low-income family with mild special educational needs (SEN) is 168 times more likely to be excluded than a white girl from an affluent family. Read the rest of this entry →
March 16, 2013 in Blog, Gus in the Media, Television
Earlier this month, professor Gus John went on the Islam Channel to comment on a news story published by The Guardian, where Oxford University was accused of “institutional bias” against the admission of black and minority ethnic (BME) students.
Here’s the video of that interview:
February 16, 2013 in Blog, Gus in the Media, Television
On February 12, professor Gus John visited Sky News’ studios for an interview where he accused the coalition government of taking a back seat in the fight against racism in football. The following article was published on the Sky Sports website and contains excerpts from his contribution.
Article published by Sky Sports (Click here to enter their website)
Race relations advisor Professor Gus John says the government should take the lead in attempts to eradicate racism from football.
Sky Sports News sent their Special Report team to a number of football grounds around the country where several incidents of vile chanting were recorded.
The worst of those incidents was at The Den, where Leeds striker El-Hadji Diouf was subjected to 56 separate incidents of abuse.
Professor John commended Sky Sports News for uncovering the footage but said that the onus was on individual clubs to monitor what went on in their stadium.
And John insists that a strong message from the government would help gives clubs the power and inclination needed to police their grounds.
