To think that whilst DS' comment was wrong it was not racist?

[HaHaLOL]

DS is in year 7. An Indian girl was talking very quickly in English to him and being silly. He said "stop talking flippin' Hindu".

Today we've had a letter saying he has been given a Senior Staff Detention, in big bold letters - "for making a racist comment". He told me he had to write a letter to her and her parents (don't have a problem with this at all). This is all because the parents have made a complaint against him.

Now he has a fiery temper and we can imagine him saying sth like that out of anger/frustration. DH is sure it's not actually a racist comment and thinks it's like saying to someone "stop speaking double Dutch" and he thinks its PC gone mad.

DS' head of year told him today that his comment will go to the local council and be recorded in a "racist comments" book. Is this true?! Surely she wouldn't have made it up!

I would add that DH's best two best friends are Chinese and Indian. We lived in Asia for a year. DS went to a huge international school. He would have had more nationalities in his class than the whole of our town I would imagine. His best friends were Japanese, Korean, American and English. For 2 years DS has been learning Mandarin. I cannot imagine a more culturally aware 11 year old among his peers.

DH wants to write to the Head to challenge the racism angle, particularly if it's gone down in some record at the council.

I hope this post doesn't offend anyone. I just want to get some other views, please.

Thank you.

I agree it is racist. All lea(local education authority) schools have to pass on racist incidents to the lea. This is normally done at the end of the academic year.

It is racist.

She is Indian, she was speaking English, he told her to stop speaking flippin Hindu, to shut her up basically. He knew she was speaking in English, so he did say it in a derogatory way.

I don't think it's racist at all - his comment didn't imply that he hated her - he was a bit of an idiot - Vitalstatistix is right, he had a choice of phrases to use and the one he chose wasn't appropriate or kind. But not racist.

I hate that the term 'racist' has become overused - it really does belittle ACTUAL racism.

It was racist.

Not a nice comment from your son,I don't know if it is racist but it certainly would have been belittling and disrespectful and was based on her race.
Possibly an over reaction by school but I think if you challenge it it is likely to get even bigger. I think the detention and letters of apology would be suitable. The council bit sounds odd.

I'd say it's racist. But I'd also say that an international school background might explain it, because the way languages are talked about in international environments is different and it may well not even occur to him that it was racist. He may need support to understand what is acceptable in his current environment.

The incident will be recorded on the racist incidents log, but that is just a record of number and types of incidents, it won't have his name attached.

At our school there is a special form to fill in for racist incidents, that does indeed get sent to the local authority. So his HoY could well be meaning that.

I am not sure but I think these type of things are recorded. It seems that Labour may have had something to do with it.

"Labour put schools under a duty in 2002 to record all incidents involving perceived racism and report them to their local authority."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2148621/Britains-schools-record-115-racist-incidents-day-teachers-admit-seen-pupils-abused.html

I don't know, but complaining might make it worse.

No, not like double Dutch as that's a generally accepted synonym meaning nonsense, hard to decipher.

'Stop speaking Hindi' is saying:

You look different
You sound different
I dislike it.

smallandnoisy - something doesn't have to be said with hatred to be racist! And the OP's son, unfortunately, chose to express his irritation with the way she was speaking in a way that needlessly invoked her race - so yes, that's 'proper' racism.

Sorry OP, I agree with PP. I think the Hindu comment was a direct reference to her ethnicity. She was speaking English and his comment was intended to be derogatory.

I don't think your little boy is a horrible out and out racist but I do think his language was in this case and you fighting his corner sends the wrong message.

Instead I think you should discuss it with him and encourage him to be more respectful and careful in what he says (especially in temper) in the future.

I would advise your dh to write to the HT but not to ask for the record to be removed but point the difference between being racist and being naive. Your DS sounds like he was naive.

I don't think that's true at all, Original. He didn't invoke her race, he invoked a language that he didn't understand.

I'm not saying what he said was right or that I would use the same words, however I have been a victim of 'proper' racism and I don't think that this particular incident is racist at all.

I'm really shocked by your OP.

I can't believe you are justifying his use of language.

Would he have said that comment to a white girl? I doubt it, therefore it is racist IMO. I would be mortified if my ds said that, not least because Hindu is a religion, not a language.

It is not political correctness gone mad, it is rude.

However I am uncomfortable with labeling children as racist at a young age.

This is not to justify his choice of words at all. But she was belittling him or trying to embarrass him and he is uber sensitive. I think that is why he was trying to shut her up. Not because he was just being mean and didn't want to listen to her. But because he was the target of whatever she was trying to say and he would have felt mortified.

So you think he would have told a white girl to stop speaking flipping Hindi? Or just a brown one, cos that's what some brown people are?

generally accepted.....but what if the dutch people find it offensive? its ok,its 'generally accepted'?

asmalland, while I agree that the definition of the insult might be technically incorrect, I think the parents could do far more harm than good if they start arguing with the school about this. In my view, the correct thing do do would be to reply, yes, that's awful. We'll speak to our son about it, and not to start criticising the school's inability to tell a race from a religion. That would probably come across as overly defensive, uncooperative and part of the problem.

Read the Daily Mail article. Apparently Labour advised schools to report tbut the Coalition dropped the obligation and there is no legal duty to do so. Seems schools can do different things about it.

Nobody wants to read a Daily Mail article, Claig!

I wouldn't argue with the school about it if I was in that situation - I just don't think that it's racist. Not nice, not kind, inappropriate - but not racist.

Not racists! The school is being ridiculous. I would write to the head.