Despite over 250,000 incidences of racism in schools being reported since 2002, the Manifesto Group have called their report on the issue “The Myth of Racist Kids”.
According to civil liberties organisation The Manifesto Group, young children are being branded racist before they even know what the term means – and playground spats are being turned into full-blown racial incidents.
Little kids might not know what the word ‘racist’ means, but they’re more than capable of having racist views. Try telling this woman that there’s no such thing as a racist kid.
Report author Adrian Hart said:
…such anti-racist policies can create divisions where none had existed…
So, not only is racism is a myth – but by being actively anti-racist, you are creating racism where previously there was none? WTF?!?!
In all of the news reports on this issue, The Manifesto Group are described as a civil liberties organisation. Seriously? Civil liberties for who? White people’s right to be racist? Fuck off!
Ignoring the issue of race does not solve racism – only active anti-racist politics can do that.
Racism is a very real issue for children across the world, and if you don’t believe me, look at the impact racism has already had on the lives of these children.
Theres a lot of kids who’ll pick up words like ‘paki’ etc from their parents or parents friends as well, it doesn’t mean that they are racist cos they dunno what the words mean but a teacher should take them aside and tell them not to use it.
I bet the daily mail wouldnt protest if teachers were pulling up kids for using words like fuck, or cunt, where the kids wouldnt know what the words meant but theyd still be offensive.
To be fair to the schools, people who are racist usually get disciplined pretty quickly, from personal experience. I don’t think the right approach is taken most of the time though; kids pick up racist attitudes from their parents in the majority of cases, and just sending them to the head teacher isn’t going to solve that.
Aye kids are much more likely to get their parents approval than teachers, so if their parents are ok wi racism the kids will be too.
Children take their lead from the adult world. Most parents I know are not racists, and their children are not. But schools are always reminding children what colour they are and what is expected of them because of their colour. It used to be called racism, today it is called anti-racism, but the meaning is the same: schools expect black children to fail, and it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.