| Description | An interview with MING, a single man with no children, who is a School Pupil, born in Birmingham and now living in Birmingham. MING’s father was a Doctor, born in England and his mother a Freelance born in England. In the interview, he talks about …
' Logged by Sonia Southern
01
I was born in 1985, in Birmingham.
02
His father is a doctor who builds artificial legs for the disabled people, he sees him once a week.
27” Parents never married, they had Ming when they were going out together. His father married and went on to have three children.
1.00” His mother was training to be a social worker, which is where she met his father. She helps in a choir; she worked at the BBC and now wants to become writer.
03
Early memories of his Grandfather on his father’s side, but he has moved back to Dominica.
04
His Nan on his mother's side was born in Jamaica, she worked as a nurse when she came over to England. Mostly her sisters raised his Mother.
05
His Nan is now retired and he explains how his Nan's family who all live in Jamaica were quite rich.
45” Describes how there is a vibe between his Mother and his Nan but doesn’t know the whole story.
1.20” The relationship between him and his Nan…mentions her religion and the type of food they eat.
2.20” The only connections he has with the Caribbean are from his Nan.
06
He is going to Dominica for the first time and explains how he pictures the country to look…he sees it as being very hot and colourful. Describes how he hasn’t been taught any history about the Caribbean at school.
07
Runs through examples of Jamaican slang…and patois.
30” Describes the different types of Caribbean food.
1.00” Explains how he prefers junk food, like pizza and chips.
08
Talks about his friends
09
Runs through where he has lived - between the ages of 1 and 4 he lived in Portsmouth with his father and they moved in with his Auntie Cecilia in Wellingborough. When he was about 4 he moved to Watford to live with his mother. Then he and his mother moved to Birmingham and a year afterward he moved in with his father in Wolverhampton, until he finally stayed with his mother in Birmingham.
11
He has no recollection of moving between homes. He describes the areas he has moved to with his mother in Birmingham…Aston, Sparkbrook and Winson Green.
40” Starting school.
1.23” Describes Seventh Day Adventist school that he attended, this was a private school.
2.36” Talks about how was mischievous and sly as a young boy.
12
Gives a description of where Harper Bell school was, and he stayed there until the beginning of the nineties.
13
He began Park Hill School in year four and describes the difference between the two schools.
2.00” Education, it was a multiracial school.
14
Anecdote on how he left Park Hill after a year and a half and moved to a school nearer to his home called Foundry. However he moved there in the last year, so he got into lots of trouble.
15
Describes the type of trouble that he got into at school.
42” The school was mainly black and Asian and says that it was more demanding on the quality of education than the other schools that he attended.
1.15” Sport at the school.
2.18” Describes how he didn’t like the school food, there were fish fingers and hula hoops.
2.42” The ethnic background of other pupils…and the uniform regulations.
4.24” Describes the area around the school.
16
Tells about how people knew everybody's business.
17
1997 attended George Dixon School, which had the first black head teacher in Britain.
1.20” Talks about racism and how some teachers thought that you couldn’t do anything because of the colour of your skin. Talks about the time he did a great paper which changed a teacher’s opinion of him. Describes the colour card scheme that they had at the school.
18
Description of George Dixon now…pupils smoke, the school’s relatively safe, the teachers are friendly.
50” The school itself and what it has to offer.
3.37” There are school buses allocated which run on the 11 route - these were brought into action because of fights with other schools…describes timetable.
19
Discipline in the classes and how stand-in teachers are treated.
20
Gives his opinion on the bullying that takes place.
1.50” Ming has a mentor at school and he believes it’s for encouragement to achieve.
2.17” There was a scheme set up, which he found racist, called ‘The Hundred Black Men’, there were mentors for just black children because they were seen as under- achieving.
21
Describes why he believes black children under-achieve…he mentions clothes and icons like Puff Daddy and Will Smith.
2.00” Says how the black girls are more mature and good-looking.
2.34” There are not so many white children and the Asian children are more interested in their work. He doesn’t think they're good at sport or very good-looking, which is why they concentrate on their education.
4.00” Sports day…and how well he did.
22
His friends are mostly black, but there is one white boy and a couple of Asian lads.
50” Mobile phone craze and how it effects social life.
2.36” Describes how he arranges his social life on the mobile phone.
3.35” talks about what the parties are like that he goes to…most of them take place at community centres and they take place between 7 and 12.
23
Concludes on party.
24
What he does in his spare time…he travels around on buses if he is bored and wants to get out of the house.
1.29” Gives a description of Winson Green, he doesn’t think that there is a community atmosphere there any more.
25
Anecdote of local Youth Club that is run by a two black people, a man and a woman. They go out on trips, play pool and table tennis and they have been go-carting.
1.50” His father has three houses, five children and his son sees him as being rich.
26
Discusses his father's wealth…he had a Mercedes S200 and then a week later he got a Toyota people-carrier and he has a motorbike as well. The house that his father and stepfamily live in is the largest and has five bedrooms, which is in Wolverhampton. His other properties consist of a group of flats, which he lets out to elderly people and finally his grandparents live in the other accommodation.
2.10” Comparison between his parents' interests.
3.11” His mother has jumped status between middle to working-class, she worked for Edwin Starr for a while and nearly married his brother Angelo Starr. Winson recalls her being quite rich then, but never had poor times.
4.29” Childhood…he’s always seen both parents and says he got what he wanted most of the time.
28
His mother's relationships…. Became a backing vocalist for Edwin Starr, which is how she met Angelo Starr, and they got engaged and moved into their home. Ming was around 6 at this time; he doesn’t recall why they split up. It wasn’t until Ming was twelve that his mother met her husband on a trip to Saint Kitts.
2.34” He describes Abdul, his step-father, he wasn’t keen on him actually marrying his mother.
3.30” His mother converted to the same religion as her husband, but Ming wasn’t and still isn’t happy about that.
29
How he feels about his mother wearing a headscarf and what he feels about religion in general.
30
Winson Green area…nobody really pays that much attention to the prison.
2.05” He says there’s always something going on somewhere in Winson Green.
2.40” Future aspirations…won’t be living in Winson Green, hopes to have a good job doing sport. Doesn’t want to get married. He sees marriage as a huge weight carrying you down. He doesn’t like the idea of having to discuss everything he wants to do with a wife.
31
Going to Birmingham City Centre…he sees it as being very industrial.
1.00” He goes to Town to buy clothes, hats, a new phone face. He says, “image is everything”, and designer labels like Nike and Lacoste are some of his favourites. He sees Brindleyplace as being quite boring and they are there mostly for people who are on a lunch break from work. He would like there to be an entertainment centre in the City somewhere…he doesn’t have many problems with his colour.
4.04” His visit to the Malvern Hills.
32
He feels that his friends have a problem when they go to posh places.
33
Places that he has travelled.
50” Explains that he couldn’t imagine living in the Caribbean, and gives a description of how he pictures it to look.
34
Believes that women’s independence has happened ever since the Spice Girls came out.
35” Masculine jobs that woman have taken up…he thinks the role of women in the home has changed, and they are becoming more intelligent and compute-literate.
2.01” Describes the part that computers play in his life he first started to use them at the age of 11.
3.03” Gives his opinion on chat rooms… people talking to one another from different countries.
3.44” Recalls life before computers…he believes that community has broken down to a certain extent due to computers, because people stay in their homes more rather than coming out.
35
Gives his opinion on his generation being materialistic…he sees technology as taking over life.
ENDS |