KEY POINTS:
I am writing in regards of the two-page write up that was in the Herald about the youth gangs of South Auckland.
I am a secondary student presently studying at De La Salle College and am also a prefect at my school. I am very proud to be labelled as a South Aucklander, which is why I am writing to you.
I believe that the article that you published was out of date and out of line.
Not only that, but it's not helping to solve the issue of youth gangs. It is making it worse.
I believe that South Auckland has been portrayed in the media for a very long time as the gang capital of New Zealand and I am quite disgusted with this.
Being brought up in South Auckland, I have developed great understanding of gang mentality in this area.
The simplest way to explain it is that it starts off with a group of boys just hanging around as normal friends usually do.
But because the popular trend in South Auckland is hip-hop and R&B music, boys are exposed to American gangster raps. Idolising these gangster rappers creates the desire to form a gang.
However, it starts off small until their numbers grow due to networking and influence on younger people.
Usually the pinnacle that these youth gangs reach is drug dealing, where the gangs are being controlled by organised crime leaders from outside South Auckland.
But the normal youth gang strives only for street prestige known as their rep, short for reputation. They gain such prestige by fighting other gangs from local areas or other areas such as Glen Innes or Onehunga. They may also tag to gain such prestige.
Publishing an entire article on one particular gang (JCB) not only elevates the rep that this gang has but also creates more conflict where other gangs are going to strive elevate their rep by fighting them, causing more conflict on the streets.
I want to stress that the majority of young people who live in South Auckland (the Southside as we like to call it) are not involved in youth gangs. [You should not] reinforce the view of the rest of New Zealand that we are a thuggish community. This is not who we are.
People like me know that the minority is making the rest of us look bad.
Many times I have heard people from outside South Auckland criticise our area due to what they see in the media and what they hear from other people.
It sickens me to know that that is what other people stereotype us as.
It demeans us and emphasises the negative rather than the positive and is heartbreaking for people like me, who have so much pride in where I come from.
We in South Auckland pride ourselves as hardworking people who strive to reach our fullest potential.
This attitude has produced many great achievers such as Jonah Lomu, David Tua, John Kirwan, David Lange and many other great people who were born and raised in South Auckland.
Many more are yet to come.
My own school has been nationally recognised for its efforts to stamp out obesity and promote healthy eating. Seven of our rugby teams have reached the semi-finals or higher in their competition.
We have done extremely well this year in acting, dance and speech competitions. We compete in these competitions in Auckland and nationwide and are judged among the best. I am sure that other Southside schools have similar success stories but few hear or read about their stories outside our area.
Instead our area is promoted in the media as the gang capital of New Zealand.
It would be a shame to see people desert their identity as Southsiders because of the fear of what others may think of them.
Successful people denying that they are from the Southside is a common practice now.
The rest of New Zealand needs to be educated about the real South Auckland whose sons have and are achieving great things.
* Hola Ta'ani is a Year 13 student at De La Salle College in Mangere East.
