Topic: Sutton Coldfield

Errol Lawson recounts the culture shock of moving from a predominantly black and Asian primary school in Handsworth to a grammar school in Sutton Coldfield where he was the only black boy. He describes a formative experience at age 14 when he and his friends were wrongfully arrested for robbery in Coventry despite having evidence of their location in Birmingham. Lawson explains that his father's reaction was to punish him for being in a position to be targeted, reflecting a survivalist mindset of "playing small" to avoid injustice.