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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To expect my white dd not to be an ethnic minority in her own country

506 replies

squatchette · 07/09/2007 13:26

First of all i would like to make it clear that i am in no way racist.My childrens father is half asian (although he is also an irish catholic too).
Anyway today i was late dropping DD2 at pre school and i got to see her whole class for the first time.This is when i was shocked to realise that she is the only white child in her class.
I think i was shocked as we don't live in a particularly ethnic area or so i thought.I read in the schools ofsted report that 40 % of the kids in the school speak English as a second language.
At first i thought it would be good that she can mix with children of different races and i am all for a diverse society.However something about the fact that she is the minority has worried me.AIBU?

OP posts:
browniedropout · 07/09/2007 14:27

well queenofquotes certainly my ex teacher friend and the t.a. who quit did find it a problem - simply a numbers game. I have been a helper in a school with a proportion (but not top heavy) of children from Eastern Europe and yes, all the ones I helped have made amazingly quick progress - but it takes time and people.

Don't u think most 1st language eng speaking kids going to spain are raising the same issues in Spain? Many of the schools are just not able to keep up with the ever increasing demand.

Issy · 07/09/2007 14:29

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request

TheQueenOfQuotes · 07/09/2007 14:30

I'm not talking about those that do need the help - I know of several children (including my niece) who's parents put down the main language spoken at home as NOT being English (because they do tend to speak in their mother tongue more often than English).....BUT they were already perfectly fluent in English as well so their DC have been bi-lingual since they started talking!

Actually DH's mother tongue isn't English..........but he speaks (and writes) the language better than I do

MrsMarvel · 07/09/2007 14:30

So the OP says 40% of the children in the school have english as a second language. That means 60% have english as a first language. My mother's been here for 50 years but english still isn't her first language so I would assume that many of the remaining 40% speak good english.

So OP is basically racist, because most (60%) of the children have english speaking parents and speak english as their first language. I would then call them British.

Her daughter is the only white child. She's focusing on race.

TheQueenOfQuotes · 07/09/2007 14:31

ahh - MrsMarvel has said what I'm trying to say much better (there you go again evidence that my first language - and only one - isn't up to scratch ).

NotAnOtter · 07/09/2007 14:32

jeez

Anna8888 · 07/09/2007 14:32

What are you worried about? There are 66 nationalities at my daughter's new French-English bilingual school and I think that is fantastic - I'm so glad that she will be going to school with children from all over the world. In her tiny group of seven children for their introductory morning there were at least six nationalities and three religions.

beansprout · 07/09/2007 14:34

I was in what you would call the "minority" at school. There wasn't a "majority", just a mix.

At least I haven't grown up to be a racist though

LadyTophamHatt · 07/09/2007 14:35

I predict MN with combust during this thread.....

YABU btw.

SueBaroo · 07/09/2007 14:36

I can understand why it would be a bit of a shock, perhaps, if you really weren't expecting it, but that would be because you had a certain mental picture that reality squished.

And I can well imagine your first thought being 'Is this something I should be concerned about?'

However, a very quickly following thought should have been to examine why it was I felt perturbed by it, and examine my own prejudices.

I can also understand why you haven't returned to the thread, because you rather honestly opened up your thought-process and left it before the 'Actually, what is it that is worrying me?' question which I would hope has now occured to you.

whiskeyandbeer · 07/09/2007 14:36

"The OP said her daughter was the only white child"

yes but in a class of mixed race so not exactly the same as a child going into a class room where there is only one other race (e.g. black kid in an all white class)
and even then i would think very poorly of anyone who judged a classes criteria based on the ethnic make up of its pupils.

McEdam · 07/09/2007 14:42

Oh for heaven's sake, in a country where the population is still mainly white (something like 90 per cent), of course it's going to be a surprise if you walk into a classroom and your white child is in a minority.

TheQueenOfQuotes · 07/09/2007 14:44

McEdam - I can't find the stats at the moment but I'm sure the % of "white" people in the UK is lower than 90.........

SueBaroo · 07/09/2007 14:45

No, MsEdam is right, it's around 90% see here

OrmIrian · 07/09/2007 14:45

I'm not sure what you mean by 'in her own country'. Surely all the children in her class are also in their own country.

SueBaroo · 07/09/2007 14:46

McEdam, rather.

Dinosaur · 07/09/2007 14:46

87% according to www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/commentaries/ethnicity.asp

Dinosaur · 07/09/2007 14:47

87% of people in England that is...

OrmIrian · 07/09/2007 14:48

But OK, I sort of see what the OP means. There's one little Asian boy in DS#2's new class. I look at him and wonder if he feels at a disadvantage but of course he might not. I think I'd feel nervous for my DS if that was him. Simply because he's stand out.

TheQueenOfQuotes · 07/09/2007 14:48

ok I stand corrected on that one.

Anna8888 · 07/09/2007 14:48

There are areas of the UK where the population is very predominantly white - rural areas, country towns etc. But in the big cities it should come as a surprise to no-one to find a mix of cultures in the classroom.

browniedropout · 07/09/2007 14:49

but scatchett - OP hasn't been back, so how do u know if the major concern is education or race, although I think u are right and it is race. In the case of my teacher friend who quit lack of language support was the final straw, closely following massive amounts of paper work. They were told they could employ a bi-lingual t.a. with the dominant language - polish but the money never came.

TellusMater · 07/09/2007 14:49

I don't understand the use of "her own country".

Her father is half-Asian and half-Irish. How does this make her any different to any other child also born in the UK, of recent immigrant extraction, in terms of being in their "own country".

Apart from that she is white?

Dinosaur · 07/09/2007 14:49

It is still an astonishingly white place, isn't it? Hard to remember when you live in Hackney!

I very much hope never again to live anywhere which is majority white English [shudder].

whiskeyandbeer · 07/09/2007 14:50

"Oh for heaven's sake, in a country where the population is still mainly white (something like 90 per cent), of course it's going to be a surprise if you walk into a classroom and your white child is in a minority."

yes but there's a huge difference between being suprised by something and having a problem with something.

situation one: oh your new girlfriend is asian?what a suprise

situation 2: what?your new girlfriends asian?is it too much to expect that my son has a girlfriend who is not an ethnic minority in his own country.