Racism in Schools

[RedMarauder]

First a disclaimer

Just in case this thread pops up in “Active”. This is a contribution to the Black Mumsnetters board which was established to be a safe space for black women and allies to discuss issues of interest black women, from racism to African history, from black hair care to culture-specific issues in relationships. If you feel triggered, nothing here is an attack on you. I would hate for a thread centering black experience to be hijacked so that it ends about centering those who may have hurt feelings because this discussion may be uncomfortable for them. Thank you!

On to my issue

The Guardian has been doing a series of articles on racism in education in schools. The voices of both black pupils and teachers are heard. The articles are worth a read as for those who don't have personal links to schools but went through the school system here, as they illustrate that schools have not improved over the decades in their attitudes to racism and inequalities.

This is also why, as I pointed out on another thread, it is not good enough just to have a black minister, whose portfolio covers some of these equalities. We need one who went through the state school system here so understands the racist attitudes black children and teaching staff have to deal with.

• Exclusion rates 5 times higher for black Caribbean pupils

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/mar/24/exclusion-rates-black-caribbean-pupils-england

• ‘I was terrified’: pupils tell of being victimised in UK schools

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/mar/24/i-was-terrified-pupils-tell-of-being-victimised-in-uk-schools

-‘Systemic racism’: teachers speak out about discrimination in UK schools
www.theguardian.com/education/2021/mar/24/systemic-racism-teachers-speak-out-about-discrimination-in-uk-schools

-British schools are institutionally racist. That must change fast
www.theguardian.com/education/2021/mar/24/british-schools-are-institutionally-racist-that-must-change-fast

There is the confidence that comes with age. I wish I could go back in time to certain race-related situations I have encountered in the past that I would have handled differently.

@HmmmmmmInteresting

There is the confidence that comes with age. I wish I could go back in time to certain race-related situations I have encountered in the past that I would have handled differently.

And then racist people take advantage of that reaction by saying well Hmmmmm didn't mind when I called her this/said this/did this in front/to her.

Yes definitely, there are plenty of situations I would have handled differently if they happened now.

I have a question about school rules and hair and I hope you don't mind. Please ignore if you'd prefer.

In PE lessons, we have a rule that kids with long hair tie it up. No specific length is mentioned, and it is done to ensure that it doesn't get tangled in things and so that it doesn't cover their eyes when participating.

On one of the earlier links, the Young woman said that tying her hair back would lead to a receding hairline. Is it an issue to tie back Black hair? Is it OK just for two hours a week? I guess tight afro curls wouldn't get in eyes anyway, but looser curls could, right?

It's not something that has come up, to be honest. Just want to be mindful in case it ever does.

I searched high and low for a school with a truly diverse cohort. This shouldn’t be so difficult considering I live in south east London. But it was. I found that although some schools on paper was diverse it really wasn’t. We were lucky that in the end we did find a school with true representation of people of colour. The Head is black as many other members of the leadership team. My son who is in Y4
has only had one year out of 5 with a white teacher. So on paper great but we still have issues. He was banned from football in Y2 because he was “lazy and defiant”. He wasn’t, he is dysgraphic and has adhd. There is no doubt that had he been white he would have been treated with more compassion and understanding. I’ll never forgive myself for not realising what was what sooner. I really really let him down. It took me too long to realise what it was, because I was too naive, to gullible to see it. My husband obviously knew straight away but it took me too long to act. I trusted them. And my let my son down when he needed me to have his back. Never again.

@Lndnmummy

You didn't let him down. Look at all the amazing things you are doing and how invested you are in his education.

Do you mind PMing me the name of your DS's school. I live in your neck of the woods and am really worried about selecting schools for DC. DC1 will start next year and I need to get it right. Ý

@Lndnmummy

I searched high and low for a school with a truly diverse cohort. This shouldn’t be so difficult considering I live in south east London. But it was. I found that although some schools on paper was diverse it really wasn’t. We were lucky that in the end we did find a school with true representation of people of colour. The Head is black as many other members of the leadership team. My son who is in Y4 has only had one year out of 5 with a white teacher. So on paper great but we still have issues. He was banned from football in Y2 because he was “lazy and defiant”. He wasn’t, he is dysgraphic and has adhd. There is no doubt that had he been white he would have been treated with more compassion and understanding. I’ll never forgive myself for not realising what was what sooner. I really really let him down. It took me too long to realise what it was, because I was too naive, to gullible to see it. My husband obviously knew straight away but it took me too long to act. I trusted them. And my let my son down when he needed me to have his back. Never again.

You sound like a lovely mummy who tries really hard so please don’t be hard on yourself.

@Lndnmummy Unless you have multiple children with a hidden disability or work/volunteer in an aligned field, how are you suppose to know people who should know and act better don't?

You need to stop blaming yourself.

@solidaritea
On one of the earlier links, the Young woman said that tying her hair back would lead to a receding hairline. Is it an issue to tie back Black hair? Is it OK just for two hours a week? I guess tight afro curls wouldn't get in eyes anyway, but looser curls could, right?

It's not something that has come up, to be honest. Just want to be mindful in case it ever does.

Presumably you teach PE and have black children in your classes? What are they currently doing to protect their hair during pe?

On one of the earlier links, the Young woman said that tying her hair back would lead to a receding hairline. Is it an issue to tie back Black hair? Is it OK just for two hours a week? I guess tight afro curls wouldn't get in eyes anyway, but looser curls could, right?

I've never had to tie my Afro back to do anything. My hair grows outward and upwards, as Afro hair tends to do.

There is too much policing of Afro hair and in fact far too many people over-preoccupied with our hair, clothes, style etc

Yes, for some a combination of hard water, climate and pulling/tying back Afro hair could cause breakage issues

It's already out of our face, makes zero sense to force a child with an afro to tie their hair. We are all different and the rules that apply to other hair types don't make any sense when dealing with our hair types.

In terms of the reasons why hair should be tied up, none appear to apply to Afro hair eg it’s not going to fly in the face of someone else whilst running/ playing team games. Nor is it likely to get caught in apparatus.

My understanding is that @Lndnmummy feels she made a mistake in not realising racism was impacting her son earlier.

I don't mean to be a stickler about it, but the sting she feels is probably useful to her. In that, I mean, she will likely not repeat her mistake again. Her mistake, as I understand it, was that her black husband told her he thought racism was as play and she instead trusted the school and denied it. In doing so her son's exposure to the racism was prolonged. Now of course, we don't know the ins and outs of their relationship, it might be the case that she is the reasonable sound voice in that relationship, I find that is often the case with women, we often make a lot of sense. In my relationship I am quick to point to prejudice and generally think the worst of people, my partner more likely to give the benefit of doubt.

I can give you an eg form my own life. A few years back I was talking to him about the adultification of black girls and that I fully expect our girls to start experiencing sexual harassment from about the age of 8 or 9. I remember this was the case with me. I remember being scared to go to a local market because a disgusting fully grown man used to give me those 'but you are ripe!' looks. Yuk. I didn't tell my parents, it was all to cringey, too much, but he actually made me cower in his presence. I wanted DP to be aware. He found that incredible (couldn't bear to think about it?) and said no way will his girls be treated like that before their 10th birthday. I didn't even push it. I know what I know about womanhood so I will prepare my children, and he will see. Now, if instead this were me saying 'I think sex harassment is happening our girls NOW' and he said 'nope' and blocked my moves to address it, but it came to pass that it was happening, that would honestly imperil my relationship.

So to that poster and anyone else who tells black people that what they are seeing is not racism, be careful because there is clearly a lot at stake when you are dealing with people's children.

@lndnmummy, we all make mistakes, this is one you won't make again and hopefully it was a relatively cheap lesson because you are happy with the school overall. You will be better equipped next time.

Unless I misunderstood your post PP!

@Sugarintheplum, yes EXACTLY like that. Word for word that is what happened. I was blindsided by my own white privilege, despite having a black husband and two black sons. My husband and I have been together for 20 years. We talk about bias and racism every day. I thought I was someone who “got it”. I’ve spent years reading up and educating myself. Because I wanted to but also because my husband and his family insisted I did so before having and raising black children. But STILL I missed it.
Conscious I’m doing another white thing and derail the thread to make it about me, that is not my intention, I just contributed as my children have been impacted by racism and bias in their schools, in particular my eldest. I know that he would have been treated differently had he been white and his adhd would have been diagnosed. As it is now we are having ridiculous conversations such as “do you have boundaries at home” or “does dad read to xxx?”. The attitude from the school is that my son struggles because he is choosing to not confirm. That he is defiant, and unruly. He is not, he struggles with concentration as he is an 8 year old with adhd.

thanks for all of the replies - you confirmed my thoughts. It would be silly to ask people to tie back hair unless it was actually impeding their safety or ability to join in. I understand what @DeeCeeCherry means about too much policing. I hope I didn't offend - I feel that the only way to avoid making errors is to understand.

In terms of @NurseButtercup questions - I have no black children with long hair in recent classes. Other children I have taught either tied it back as a matter of course or wore hair in braids, so it hasn't come up.

news.sky.com/story/thandiwe-newton-corrects-spelling-of-her-name-after-years-of-being-known-as-thandie-12266454

Hi all, I really wasn’t sure where to post this and I didn’t feel it warranted it’s own thread but I thought you’d find it interesting as the topic of names had arisen on this thread.

And the first sentence in the story is wrong. Thandiwe means loved one in Ndebele (Northern Ndebele) and Zulu.

Her mother is a Zimbabwean Shona woman, hence where Sky probably lazily got the idea her name must be Shona. The two languages along with English are the official languages in Zimbabwe.

Even children in Zimbabwe suffer the same microagressions of having someone non-Black choose to use a shortened version of their name or anglicise it because it's easier. Although Thandi (without an e- that's anglicised), is a genuine shortened version also used by people of the same tribe, it's a choice one should make not one made for them because people struggle or refuse to learn the whole name, spell it right etc. It is literally one extra syllable (we- literally say it phonetically) and you hear people add 30 other nonsensical non existent letters when the arguably hard part of the name is already said probably and you have got through 90% of the name.

I'm glad Thandiwe is comfortable to use her full name. Hope other actors especially like Gugu(lethu) Mbatha-Raw feel more comfortable using their full names if that is what they want.

Because our names are beautiful and they tell a story.

I thought the quote saying she was taking back what was always hers was quite telling.

I know some actors tweak their names for registering/ ease of recognition etc but this wasn’t her choice as you say @DastardlytheFriendlyMutt it was only one syllable.

The only time my DD was asked to tie back her afro was for a ballet exam. She goes to a pretty (very) strict secondary school and she has never been asked by teachers to tie back her hair.

I am unaware if boys have any restrictions as my DSs also had pretty big afros. As I said a strict school which makes me wonder why other schools are insisting on regulation hair.

My children are mixed heritage.

So far in primary we have had one child not being allowed outside to play due to not wearing sunscreen and a hat at the first sign of spring sunshine. All my children have vitamin D deficiency, which is being treated and this blanket policy which failed to take into account the needs of people with darker skin shades for sun exposure for their health did not go down well with us. The local education authority were involved after the school repeatedly kept my child inside even after we spoke to them. They agreed the blanket policy was discriminatory.

Recently we had children with darker skin shades being targeted in the school by other pupils due to Covid, which the school to be fair did clamp down on quickly.

Youngest had support from his school after a student made a racist comment to another child who is black, but he also was impacted emotionally. His school dealt with this well.

We have had issues with not pronouncing names correctly at first, but most regular teachers learn them correctly quite quickly.

Lndnmummy I have also seen this discrimination of children who are black, mixed heritage or Asian with special needs. There is a long history of this within education (the recent Small Axe series on the BBC had a film that covered this). Often diagnosis is delayed as the school look to blame families for the child's behaviour whilst completely failing in their duty to support the child who has obvious needs. It is not your fault, my youngest has ASD and I have friends who have children with ADHD who have been treated this way, so I completely get it. It also happens less frequently to white families too, particularly the poorer families where class prejudice operates towards them.

I think that there might be some times when hair needs to be tied back for safety reasons if possible, such as using a Bunsen burner in Science. I have seen Bunsen burner incidents just caused by carelessness or mistakes and looked after children with burns and wouldn't wish this for any child.

None of my kids has had issues yet with hair policies. Dd1's school says no outlandish styles, but braids and afros are permitted, her school is not particularly multi-cultural and the leadership are all white (we are not in London or another major city). Hijabs or turbans are meant to be school colours in all their schools which was something mentioned in the Pimlico Academy protest.

@choconuttolata very interesting. I had forgotten the sun screen in primary school. We had similar arguments but the school didn't push back.

Very interested in what you say re special needs. One of my kids was dyslexic and had shockingly poor support. One is high achieving and has had loads of support. I am currently trying to get support for another and am not impressed with level of engagement so far. Hmmmmm...

On sunscreen, a few weeks ago one of my children was asking about it and why some people get burned etc. And maybe for the first time, because I had to explain it, I really gave it some thought and actually I felt so sad for people who burn. What a thing to actually have to run from the sun when it is so life giving.

What a thing. Melanin is a blessing, truly, no matter how many centuries of brainwashing has tried to convince us otherwise.

@jewel1968 Some schools are mistaking an extremely strict uniform policy for good discipline and getting good academic results.

Experienced teaching staff know it doesn't work like that.

@Orchidflower1

Would you feel ok to pm me the details of your Portuguese therapist?

Sorry for the thread crash.

On the topic of strict behaviour policies, in my view this is to give the teachers a stick to beat more or less any pupil with when they step out of line in a less tangible way.