Chicken boxes with practical solutions to knife crime are being delivered to the Home Office this week in response to it’s “racist” scheme which saw the stories of young people who stopped carrying knives printed onto chicken shop boxes.
Over 300,000 boxes have been distributed to 210 chicken shops – costing the Home Office about £57,000.
The scheme met with disbelief by top MPs who branded it “racist” and “stereotypical”.
People find it offensive and think it’s a waste of money. How can they justify spending £50,000 on chicken boxes when youth services have been cut so drastically?
Ndubuisi Uchea, Founder, Word on the Curb
“Boris Johnson has already called black people ‘piccaninnies with watermelon smiles’. Now his government is pushing the stereotype that black people love fried chicken. This ridiculous stunt is either explicitly racist or, at best, unfathomably stupid,” David Lammy, the MP for Tottenham, said.
“I know it might cost a bit more time, effort and money, but I would love it if you would announce a programme of investment in our local communities instead of spending five minutes on a harmful gimmick.”
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott added: “Instead of investing in a public health approach to violent crime, the Home Office have opted for yet another crude, offensive and probably expensive campaign. They would do better to invest in our communities not demonise them.”
‘A Programme Of Investment’
Image Credit: Unsplash
Hayel Wartemberg, Ndubuisi Uchea, and Shiva Tarbhaker of the content creation agency Word on the Curb came across the scandal and decided to put in motion a response to the scheme, in the shape of practical responses to knife crime.
The three founders of Word on the Curb took to the streets and asked members of the public to write their ideas down (on chicken boxes of course) so that Word on the Curb could deliver the ideas to the Home Office.
Some of the practical solutions included better funding of youth and education services and an interest-free loan fund which could be made available to young people.
“It was really beautiful to see people coming up with ideas and then other people coming over and reading those ideas,” said Uchea.
An interest-free business loan would help turn someone who is running a business as a drug dealer, which does take some business sense, into something with a better purpose.
Ndubuisi Uchea, Founder, Word on the Curb
“People find it offensive and think it’s a waste of money. How can they justify spending £50,000 on chicken boxes when youth services have been cut so drastically?”
“A lot of the time, the policymakers are so far removed from those people living the reality. An interest-free business loan would help turn someone who is running a business as a drug dealer, which does take some business sense, into something with a better purpose.
He added that he can see the easy mistake the Home Office made when it chose to go with the chicken box campaign, but they “missed the mark” because they failed to talk to their target audience.
“A lot of the time people miss the mark because they do not speak to young people, or the people in their target demographic. We wanted to get on the street and get some real insight into the issue,” he said.
