Parents of MIXED RACe/HERITAGE children. Has your child had problems in school????

[drosophila]

I was reading a report by the some Gov Dept looking into the performance of mixed heritage children in schools. What interested me was that mixed white and Afro Carribean children tend to perform the least well and have to deal with many of the same issues young black boys deal with. In addition to this they can have to deal with the added problem of getting grief from both the black and the white kids.

My ds is mixed race and a few times he has had abuse because he is 'white' and 'all white people are nasty'. This uset his as you can imagine. I am intersted in your experiences.

DS is pale but is obviously mixed race I think.

Mine are mixed (dual heritage is the latest term, I believe!)
They are 7 and 5, and I don't think they have ever ever had a single negative comment (well, possibly no comment at all). Quite (pleasantly) surprised really.
Mind you, they don't go to school, but they mix with a huge range of other children of varying ages.
What is your area like? Some places have higher proportions of ethnic minorities than others. Mixed kids are quite 'common' where we live, and they don't really turn heads because of it. Or, not that we have noticed.

I live in a very multi ethnic area. The school however does not reflect the area. It is about 85% ethnic minority whereas the area is probably abput 40%. There are not a huge amount of mixed race/heritage kids in the school.

Nope! Nothing yet and hopefully they'll never go through anything that I did/do! A mother can dream can't she?

Mine are mixed race, not keen on the term dual heritage me and dh both born in Britain, DH parents from Jamacia but been here 50 years. My dd is 20 and never had problems at school, she is now at university. I refuse to let my ds become a govm statistic

drosphila, sorry I didn't read your thread properly,

for your ds, of course it would upset him. Is the school well mixed?

no. No problems at all. Doing well and happy.
And we live in the arsehole of nowhere, which people normally think means you have more problems if you're not white. It's just not an issue. I have come to the conclusion that nobody round here gives a feck . As it should be.

Mine are mixed too and we've not had any problems (touch wood). The school is fairly white for the area (SE London) though there are a lot of mixed kids and about the same amount of black kids. Agree about dual/mixed heritage term - my dp was born in the UK and calls himself British Black (very few forms have this as a term though, which pisses him off no end). I like brown myself. DS (4) thinks 'mixray' is a colour, like blue. Bless.

Horrible for your kids drosophila, really sad for them. Have you spoken to the school about it?

No I have not spoken to the school about it yet. I remember it happened to him at nursery too when a mixed race child accused him of being white. Obviously white is not a good thing around here. I believe the mixed heritage thing came about as some people think it covered more possibilities. My partner is a Londoner but his family come from Trinidad and South America. I am Irish and his great grandparents on dp's side come from Portugal and Scotland. A real mixed bag I guess His father's family are black but I guess because of the various genetic influences our kids are a milky brown colour with dark curly hair.

He tells me he is getting abuse about his unusual curly hair. It's not unusual at all. The only difference is probably that we don't shave it off like 90% of the boys in the school. I am wondering if he would have an easier time in a school that was more reflective of the community. The shortage of white kids is not a good thing for community cohesion I think.

Accademically he is doing very well and I agree that I don't want him or dd ever to be a statistic. He is only 8 though and already is called a geek by his peers because he loves science and maths.

Thinking about it. My firend's son is the only white kid in his class and I think in DS's class there are only 2 white kids. That can't be good can it?

I think it might be the hair. There's a child in our son's class whose mother is blonde and father presumably half white/half African and the children are blonde and white but with very curly hair. When he had it cut shorter he wasn't teased. When a ginger boy with loads of tight curls had all his cut virtually off he stopped being teased too.

It's not very long at all but I guess when most kids have a number 2 (or whatever you call it) it must seem like ringlets. Kids are sooo strange.

In dd's class there are 2 mixed race (ie, white/Afro-Carribean) boys who are both on the 'top table' for everything. They are good friends but apparently one boy got into trouble for calling the other one mixed race as an insult.

Kids can be rude to each other for almost any reason ime.

I can also think of a family friend whose children are mixed race (White/Indian). Years ago when they were children, the little brother was called a P* by a boy at school. The offender turned out to be the best friend of the older brother.

But I appreciate there may be some families where 'mixing' still isn't accepted.