Definitely! Thanks to the book recommendations from a while back, we were able to add books with anti-racism themes that we hope students will read as another method of combating (systemic) and internalized racism. We hope to find more refined and effective ways of combating racism, and we will keep pushing and advocating for change until it is truly eradicated!
Your racialized students are all victims of racism at nearly all times.
I should clarify that everyone in the group are students, including me.
So when someone uses a racial slur, racialized people experience harm if they are exposed to it. A) what is that harm if the slur was used at them versus if that slur was used near them but not at them? B) is there harm if no racialized people are exposed to that event?
A) As a marginalised person, if I did hear a slur not being used directly at me, I would still feel uncomfortable and unwelcome as it sets a precedent on what is and isn’t accepted by the students as well as the teachers.
B) Yes; a culture of acceptance would be created that racialized people would inevitably be exposed to. Additionally, it would effectively tolerate more slurs and acts of racism that would further harm racialized people.
To put a finer point on it, if a white child, in a room of 5 white children and a white teacher, uses a racial slur, how would you describe that, how would you understand the consequences of that, how would you make the decision on whether and how to intervene, and how would you communicate your decision in context?
A racist incident of that nature exposes the internalised racism of white people against people of colour, and is an example of how much more frequent racist attacks are in white-dominated spaces. I’m not a teacher, and I’m not sure what term I would describe it as. But it is the most covert form of racism and must be corrected to the highest degree.
The consequences would mean an increased normalisation of racism and other discriminatory language. Now that I think about it, this is likely the origin point of a lot of the racism in this school. Whether or not I was a teacher or a student (ideally with multiple other students), I would intervene, especially as white people are generally more likely to tolerate and to be the cause of racism.
With everything I’ve written here so far, I would communicate the fact that white-dominated spaces do a far better job of normalising racism. Everyone has a role in combating racism, but white people especially as they do not experience racism and therefore are most likely to tolerate and perpetrate acts of racism. The role of white people in combating racism is one of understanding, zero-tolerance and solidarity with people of colour.
Thanks for all these questions! It took me a while to properly answer them, but in the end, I’ve learnt a lot figuring out my response to them.
Yeah, I was thinking that. Their comment was unnecessary and questionable given the actual topic of the post and what they decided to reply to it with.
Sorry again, my understanding of bigotry was that it encompassed all forms of racism, sexism, transphobia, etc., not by what seems to be its actual definition. The post will be edited.
I am aware of the many aspects of racism; the school administration and us did agree on a policy for racism specifically as opposed to bigotry in general to allow for different repercussions and action as racism can be structural, institutional, systemic and ideological.
I challenge you to get more precise about why you think bigotry is different than other forms of conflict, connect it to the structural so that you’re not only dealing with the individual, and proceed from there with a refined analysis and set of proposals.
Good point; we wanted a more educational than “punishing” approach because punishments were ineffective in correcting racism. I have a list of points for them to take into consideration, including assemblies at the start of the year on race education and the finalised racism policy, as well as pathways to reporting racism to students rather than teachers if victims of racism feel more open to reporting racism to them instead (plus the issue with reporting to teachers mentioned in the post).
Sorry, my understanding of “preventative” was that it implied the correction of the behaviour through education and learning. The post will be edited.
People are who they are
I may be interpreting this wrong, but I disagree with this statement. People aren’t born with racism, they learn it.
Thanks! Added to the reading list. This book will be even more relevant given the war in the Middle East right now.
Yeah true! We do have a school cultural celebration day and racism isn’t really an issue there.