The Myth Of Escaping The Ghetto | Yinka Bokinni | TEDxPeckham

It's truly an African mentality. Education really is the way out for many Africans

People have been discussing gentrification here, after Yinka Bokinni's TEDx talk. Three years later, on 28.10.2020, she had her first documentary shown on Channel 4. It's about Peckham, and about one of the kids she grew up with for a while, Damilola Taylor. He was killed aged 10. Speaking about the estate, her happy childhood there, and the reality of violence in the 'ghetto', she says: "Two things can be true at the same time. I can have my nostalgia, my summers and my Christmases while also accepting that terrible things happened there, that is was a violent place." As I'm writing this, capital-driven hyper-gentrification is bulldozing through Brixton, a neighbourhood next to Peckham. Brixton has long been infamous for deviance drugs and violence, and famous for music and a good Caribbean infrastructure from a food market to hair stylists for others. Money has moved in. Traders were evicted. Pubs and bars replaced. Council estates demolished. New buildings, new shops, skyrocketing rents and property prices, art on the tube station, lots of tourists. The "two things" Yinka speaks about are gone. Or, as Mike Urban said in another TEDx talk, "worlds are not colliding anymore". Brixton is cleaner now, more expensive, but is it safer? The brutality of social cleansing is slower than the murder of a child. But is it really less violent? Does "urban regeneration" really need to take the form of relentless gentrification? Does it need to destroy what Paul Gilroy called "conviviality", the neighbourly co-existence of different communities? It's happening in Peckham, Brixton, Hackney, in parts of Berlin and probably every major city of the world. Yinka kept her connection to Peckham going. People like her, who have one foot in the broken, double-faced 'Ghetto', and the other in the world of successful professionals, can make a huge difference - and keep the worlds colliding in a good way.

She is so likeable. Go Yinka!

I disagree with the gentrification part because it does not help the people in the ghetto to "progress". Instead they just move to a new location with as little money and economic knowledge as they had before. BUT everything else she said I 100% agree on, and I live in the U.S. this talk really spoke to my love of Pan-African unity and realising how we are all connected.

She seems so likeable and engaging. Kind of person you have some interesting convos over a few drinks...Her topic was on the mark. Rather than "escaping the ghetto" we should invest in it so that when gentrification comes we don't get priced out and our kids don't get the opportunities they need and deserve.

Dear yinka bokini, if you ever read this, then I would like to tell you I enjoyed this ted talk more than many many other ones. ❤️

"Invest in yourself, please." Yesss!

Idk if yinka will ever read this, but on the rare chance you do, I'm so proud of you and how far you've come! I've been around since you were just starting with your blog site and radio gig, and you've just blossomed so much from then! This was an awesome talk. ❤

I really feel this. Im from tower hamlets, immigrant bengali parents, 5 kids in total, 2 bedroom flat. My whole life was about escaping the ghetto. Im studying architecture rn but im starting to realise its a myth. Nothing has changed and i did everything you're 'suppose' to except invest in myself or my area. Makes me very bitter and sad.

This mentality is universal. She speaks for us all. Amazing talk, Yinka.

This is great. Education CAN be a means to escape poverty but so can't entrepreneurship and ingenuity. Those characteristics are undernourished in immigrant communities.

that's a Nigerian mentality, education is the way outta poverty.

Success is not about the amount of money you earn or what kind of degree you have or in what neighborhood you life. For me it's only about how much happy you are! Many so called "successful" people are not happy at all!

Generally speaking, it is the mentality of most parents, to want better for their children, thus many of the financially poor parents believe that 'a good - formal - education' will ensure this for their child(ren). However, like many have already stated, obtaining certificates often results in little more than debt, and great disappointment because there is no guarantee that one will ever get to work in the field that they have studied for, and for those that do, many go on to realize that their chosen career does not make them happy. So, what parents should be telling their children to do is: be happy, do whatever it is that makes you happy - so long as it does not hurt or harm anyone else; and life is short, so make the most of it.

If I knew there had been a TED talk in Peckham, I definitely would have shown up.

Lovely girl and deserves all the luck in the world.

Brilliant way of speech yinka.

Very proud of you Ms Lawyer children are a blessing not poverty. Bless you

We would be lying if we all disagree and just say it's a mentality. Education has an important place in our being. With it, find something worth doing and once your candle is lit, light others. I think that's what she's saying in a nutshell

Gentrification is different from the impacts of honest urban revitalization or community investment. Gentrification push out the people who are from that community by increasing the cost of living. If a neighborhood gains certain attractions, it becomes "prime" real estate which makes developer build condos and rises with expensive rent and the old landlords are forced to increase their rent. So then a family that has been living with affordable rent for years suddenly gets a huge spike in the rent payments and simply can't afford to live there.