I don't want to specifically address the lack of awareness here and there on thread.
But homophobic, misogynist, sexist Tony Sewell, who has said some very dubious things in the past, had input into this Report.
He is a stooge who is where he is because he plays the game well, of saying exactly what racists want to hear.
Some people just choose to be the "Gotcha!" for racists to roll out "see? He's Black & says we aren't racist, so that means you can't say we are".
Sewell isn't the first and won't be the last. It's a lucrative game after all, and also a fast way to climb the ladder.
Day to day life is my focus, as opposed to a dumb report. Today Pimlico Academy students, and the decent minded Teachers who supported them in standing up for their rights, won a victory against the headmaster who banned Afro hairstyles, set rules around wearing of Hijab, would not commemorate Black History Month, and flew Union Jack at school.
The Headmaster learned a lesson that he and his mindset type isn't as important as he thinks it is.
Along the lines of what Toni Morrison said, one of the functions of racism is to keep you distracted, keep you talking on and on about it, justifying why it's wrong, arguing about it.
Yes it needs to be discussed but we should never be so distracted and stuck in a loop that we don't keep standing up against racism in the real world, taking the powers that be to task locally and nationally.
The Pimlico students won their fight against racism. In the same week this whitewash of a Report came out. That's important.
This Report is not the be all and end all.
A pp (sorry, won't scroll back far to see who ) mentioned Black people shouldn't be giving their children the "victim" talk.
3 of my nephews are mixed-race. Their Mums (bar one) had this 'we are the world/if you're nice people will be nice/this isn't America you know it's not racist here' mindset.
Until their sons grew up and weren't seen as awww cute curly haired little boys anymore. Instead, seen as young Black men. Swift awareness that yes, there ARE ignorant people out there that will hate you solely because of your race and colour.
They, and others I know of actually, have issues and tension with their mother regarding this. For obvious reasons.
& Also an article I read by a widower, White male, raising a mixed race son who said when his son reached his teens he found himself "shocked that my son was treated as a Black man. It just hadn't crossed my mind that this could be a thing".
For mono-racial Black people it's definitely not sensible to never have a talk about racism with children. Or, the world will let them know and their shock will be greater.
UK has a Right Wing government and media which also fuels racism. There's no hiding from that.
Having a talk about what your children will face in this world, being knowledgeable about it giving them strategies against it, listening to them, being culturally aware, able to defend them when racism comes up at school etc, is common sense.
Nothing to do with victimhood at all. It's called being realistic. & having life sense.