Sikhs And Gangster/black Culture

[kullykhalsa]

I dont know if anyone has noticed but a lot of the time i see a lot of young sikhs taking on some parts of the glorified gangster culture.

This is from the way they dress with low jeans and the latest Yeezy 2 trainers to the way they drive s low down in there cars. But easily the most annoying is the way they speak and type "innit", "wagwan", "gwarnin". Even on this forum you see people giving advice using slang language

I myself sometimes easily fall into the trap. But surely we should do something to combat this problem makes us look like a joke.

[sweetshera]

this is because its 'cool to be black'

[chatanga]

its only these very common phrases that Sikhs use, wagwan, etc. I think its more amusing than anything. If anyone spoke Patois to any of these they wouldnt have a clue, take it from me, I used to work with a rasta, and i couldnt understand a flippin word he was saying most of the time.

[VanHelsingh]

It's not ideal but I suppose it's the same with youth culture from kids of any background. I'd only be truly worried if people were still talking like this after leaving school and entering their early 20s. :biggrin2:

[RebelSingh]

keep it quiet u grandads, every generation has had slang words and gang culture, makes me laugh so badly how ppl (especially old ppl) cry about street violence etc. LOL im sorry mr veterans, wat about 70's punks? wat about 60's/70's mods? wat about 60's/70's rockers? wat about skinheads? wat about later on with the donkeys/Shere panjab, pak panthers? there have always been gangs, and talkin of slang, wat about the slang of the 60' 70's? all those hippy phrases, like "radical", "groovy", "jivin" etc. anyone with half a brain knows times change and environments change. Words like "init" started off as a down south uk word, which now even my up north cousins use, stop tryna behave like oxford graduate mugs.

[kullykhalsa]

wow i can see why your under quality control singh!

more over the nature of the question was based on sikhs choosing to adopt black culture? If you actually read the question you can see it has nothing to do with "gangs" but gangster culture!

I agree the 60/70s had gangs off their own but our parents hardly joined up and SP was actually quite a small number of people.

p.s what exactly is an "oxford mug"....... if your struggling to articulate yourself i guess this section isnt for you!

[RebelSingh]

wow i can see why your under quality control singh!

more over the nature of the question was based on sikhs choosing to adopt black culture? If you actually read the question you can see it has nothing to do with "gangs" but gangster culture!

I agree the 60/70s had gangs off their own but our parents hardly joined up and SP was actually quite a small number of people.

p.s what exactly is an "oxford mug"....... if your struggling to articulate yourself i guess this section isnt for you!

gangster culture originated from GANGS, thats y i mentioned it, ppl for sum reason think its cool 2 b in gangs, as they feel some sort of security, unless its a vigilante type of gang, which i am all for (shere panjab). Also u say our parents didnt join gangs? Well in my town, my dad, my thaiya jis and some other browns/blacks did join gangs to tackle skinheads, they were VERY VERY successful. Obviously it depends where u grew up.

The oxford graduate comment is in regard to wat u may/may not be tryna insinuate, but jus coz ppl use the words u mentioned above, doesnt mean they are trying to take/be part of black/gangster culture. Its the norm and its part of our everyday vocabulary. Im sure those same ppl wudnt write those words like "init" and "wag1" in their school/college/uni essays.

safe

[Super_Singhni]

From what I gather and correct me if i'm wrong OP, but the topic is about Sikh youngsters adopting the 'way of black people' - most of which doesn't seem to be too good. I think of it as, what kind of image are the youth who choose to dress/speak/live like this representing to the rest of the world after all this is why we have a dastaar/5 kakkars etc so that we are recognisable to those around us as Sikhs. If we tarnish this image by mixing our dastaar (or sometimes worse...a doorag) up with jeans hanging down our butts and a balaclava round our necks, what kind of message is this sending out about us? It seems even young white people act like this and to me, it demonstrates how they want to be like their black 'gangsta' counterparts, I wonder if thats the same for the Sikh youth who dress similarly?

It's not about being pompous and uppity its about not looking like you want to be someone else!!

[kullykhalsa]

Hit the nail on the head last poster!

Rebel Singh once you start using those slang words and talking that way it is incredibly difficult to get out of the habit, asthe previous poster mentioned we are the youth trying to be something they are not?

[VanHelsingh]

I grew up in an area with a mix of Jamaicans, Muslims and white English folk. I also went to a junior school where the aforementioned groups made up the numbers. The Jamaicans were the largest group but people got on nicely by and large. I certainly didn't feel the need to talk like the Jamaicans, even though most of my friends were from that group, because it wasn't natural for me.

Sure, I knew all their terms like "battyman", "man-pea", "ackee and rice", "raasclart", "bumboclart", "cha-rasta-farein", "cuz", etc. I didn't feel the need to start talking like them. Why should I?

What's funny is the Sikh kids who grow up in posh areas (or exclusively Asian areas) away from such cultures and yet STILL talk with the Jamaican patois. You won't be able to "switch it off" when you get older. So best to tone it down and eventually fade it out. If they spent that effort learning about their own mother tongue rather than learning a whole new sub-language we might not hear excuses like "I don't get what the old man says in the Gurdwara".