On Thursday, 10th September, Naomi Ebanks visited Brampton College to deliver a talk on ethnic minorities and the criminal justice system to A1 and A2 sociology students, who study the topic as part of the A-level syllabus. London-born Naomi, 20, is a youth worker and sociology undergraduate student. Her blog, Opinions of Naiya, and twitter account have attracted a wide range of online followers, including Metropolitan Police officers and government decision makers, who have invited her to several meetings as a representative of young Afro-Caribbean’s. Her talk covered her personal journey from someone with a sociological interest in media stereotyping of ethnic minorities to devastatingly losing a friend to knife crime. Since this event, Naomi has been very passionate about youth crime, particularly knife crime and youth violence. She shared her personal experiences with us, and compellingly discussed several widely known cases, such as the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the police shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and in particular the story of Mark Duggan that initially led to the London Riots of 2011. From her personal blog to her popular twitter page, she has a powerful voice that is internalised by her followers because of her inspirational and courageous efforts to help the community come to terms with knife crime and to remove it from society.
Seth Marks, A level Sociology student
