I Will Bet The Farm On The Response Brewster Will Get

Especially from black social in-activists and their white brothers to Brewsters remarks....."He is just another Uncle Tom bowing to the white man's whip."

Filmmaker hopes to change attitudes
By NICHOLAS DAVIS

Ian Brewster was saddened by what he saw when he recently visited his old high school in Scarborough. As he walked through the school he noticed security cameras, metal detectors and a police presence in the hallways. It wasn't like that when he was growing up.

"When I was younger if two people had a problem they had a fist fight and that was the end of it," says Brewster, who still calls Scarborough home. "I guess nowadays with the amount of guns out there things are different.

"Instead of fist fights people are shooting each other. And I feel it in my soul because a lot of times it's my people killing each other. And often times over foolishness."

Black-on-black crime is a massive pet peeve for Brewster. Having been a child youth worker for the province since the late 1990s he has seen his fair share of young black men behind bars.

"Too often they are there for crimes they've committed in their own neighbourhoods against their own people," says Brewster. "It made me start to question what was going on with these young black men that landed them in jail."

Brewster went through the files of the young men in his charge. What he saw time and time again was that a lot of the young men didn't have father figures in their lives.

"When I would ask them where their fathers were, many of them didn't even know who their fathers were," says Brewster. "And when I talked to the mothers they confirmed the lack of a male presence in the house."

Brewster is quick to acknowledge that the lack of a male figure in the home isn't necessarily a recipe for juvenile delinquency, but he does believe that a strong, positive male presence in their lives would give the young men he deals with a better chance of avoiding jail.

"My father always encouraged me to learn as much as I can and be the best I could be," remembers Brewster. "He taught me about Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and even Anthony Robbins. He made me read literature and study sciences. He was a hard-working man who led by example and would settle for nothing less than my best. These things helped shape who I am today."

Besides doing social work with youths, Brewster is a black belt in Brazilian Jujitsu and has his full instructorship in Jeet Kune Do and African Kalinda. He's also a writer and film producer.

Brewster has just finished making a film with Marta Nielsen called Shattered Dreams. It's a documentary based on his personal experiences, and his journey in Scarborough's Glendower neighbourhood to find out why so many of the young black men he works with were finding themselves in trouble.

"I would often hear things like, 'the white man is holding us down' and cries of racism," says Brewster. "But it's about time we got past all that stuff and start finding ways to help ourselves. The problem is we have to change the way we see ourselves.

"I once heard this story about a black man who says to a white man, 'you white people think all us black people are drug dealing, rapping, porch monkeys.' The white guy replies, 'that's not what we think you are, that's what you think you are.' Sadly, I think the white guy in this story is right."

HOPES FOR CHANGE

Brewster hopes his film will help change the perception that young black males have of themselves and also help others better understand their plight.

"There are so many good young black kids out there who only need to see that they can do better for them to actually do better. I want all people, white, black, Asian, gays, straights, Christian, Jews and Muslims to look at their children and say, these are our most valued commodity and we have to protect them at all cost."

- Shattered Dreams airs on Global Television Saturday 7 p.m.