Ronan Bennett from Northern Ireland, the writer of Top Boy,
has lived what can only be described as an eventful life. Convicted and then
acquitted of the murder of a police officer as a young man. He later defended himself (in court) against
claims that he was a member of the IRA and that he had plotted to cause explosions.
However, he did spend time in jail before being acquitted. He has since trained
to become a barrister but has also made a living as a successful writer. He is now married to the editor of The
Guardian. In the wake of what has been a
turbulent time for inner city London, considering the unrest during the summer
of 2011, he has written Top Boy.
Bennett claims that his inspiration behind writing the
series came from witnessing what he believes was a drug deal in the place that
he calls home, Hackney. In an article on the Channel 4 website he claims that
he wants tell the story of the ‘tinies’ or the youth in Hackney rather than the
police. The problem being that when he claims to ‘tell the story’ he is trying
to root what is a drama into a reality. He claims to tell the story of the
youth, yet in his drama there is a somewhat absence of police. It may be the
case that he doesn’t want to tell the story of the police, but that doesn’t
mean they don’t exist. Indeed, the police form an everyday part of young, especially
black and Asian youth’s life because of the ubiquitous nature of stop and search.
It is for this reason that the selling of hard drugs amongst the youth is relatively
rare. A fact that Bennett has distorted,
he indicates that hard drug selling, rather than low key marijuana dealing, is
rife.
The stereotyping by the police and also the public, of youth
has undoubtedly served to increase gang activity. If the public and police
have such low expectations of someone who happens to like wearing a hoody and
nice trainers, then what reason does the young man have to try and change their
mind. For all we know he could be a budding painter, he could be a comedian, he
could be a writer of poetry but we don’t
see these things. Bennett fails to address
this and rather enforces what people already believe.
Bennett prefers to pander to the stereotypes that already exist
about the inner city youth. There is no doubt that some of the things he has
written exist, but his exploration of the issues have served if anything to
simply glorify what’s happening. He has
also mixed reality and fiction by setting it in a fictional estate, but then
naming one of the gangs ‘London Fields’ which can only give them added kudos in
the turf wars which currently exist in
London.
Bennett needs the series to be popular. He needs the drama
to be accessible to all strata of society. It is for this reason that he has
employed some obscene stereotypes. The ‘slang’ that the characters use include words
which are employed ad infinitum. ‘Fam’, ‘blood’, ‘yute’ (amongst others) are
all words that people may have heard and understood on the bus or the tube on their
way to work, when in fact most ‘urban’ slang is far more creative. Nice middle
class, trendy Hackneyites are then able to come to the conclusion “ah so I was right,
these guys with hoodies do speak like this and they are dangerous ‘good for
nothings”. There’s also the fraudster with the distinctive Nigerian accent, the
helpless mother whose children have to fend for themselves, the bull dogs and of course the older brother
who leads the younger brother astray, these are all pernicious stereotypes which I feel Ronan Bennett has
strengthened.
Bennett has ignored the fact that within these inner cities
there is huge diversity within one community. You can like wearing a black
hoody but still be compassionate and caring. You can wear a black hoody and
still take an interest in current affairs. You can wear a black hoody and still
be academically brilliant. You can wear a black hoody and still be a computer
nerd. You can wear a black hoody and write beautiful prose. You can wear a
black hoody and not be a member of a gang or deal drugs.
Some interesting reads:
