Racism In schools

Racism in Schools
By: Ananya

Racism is in almost all schools around the world. Students, are often the ones who spread these awful ideas to one another. Teachers and parents must keep a close watch and try to discourage them from believing false ideas. They need to be taught that everyone is different and special, and nobody is better than anybody else.

What is racism? Is it just someone being a big bad wolf or is it something more intense. Racism is one of the most feared factor in school. For some children it is on the top of their list of fears. Racism of any kind is a bloodcurdling and intimidating experience and racism usually leads to bullying. When people bully others they usually oppress according to their culture, religion, skin colour and whether they are rich or poor. In this essay I will be presenting to you about how parents and teachers can prevent their students and children from getting distressed.

Hit 1996 film “The Craft” has a storyline in which a white character named Laura racially harasses an African-American classmate named Rochelle. In one scene, Laura and Rochelle are in the locker room after gym class, and Laura says, “Oh, God, look, there is a hair in my brush. Oh, no wait, wait, that’s just one of Rochelle’s little nappy hairs.”

When Rochelle asks Laura why she relentlessly teases her, Laura responds, “Because I don’t like Negroids. Sorry.”

Now there are ussualy many racist bullies that are the cause of another's distress but what is a racist bully? A racist bully causes violence, harrasment and abuse in a different way from regular bullying. Racist bullying victims are usually intended to be hurt deliberatly physically and mentally.

Mental injuries are more fatal than physical injures. Children who have been mentally injured due to what the bully imposed the consequents have distrupted their education. The students are not able to concentrate on their lessons because of the feelings that are conjuring up inside themselves (anxiety, self-loathing, rage, mournful and isolated). Their self-esteem will get drop by the degree and they will not be able to fulfil their potential in their classes. Many schools ignore or deny the fact that racist bullies exist which misguides many young people. Schools should teach children to respect the difference between people and to be prepared to speak out against racism.

The Daily Mail Reporter states a real life story (07:12 GMT, 23 July 2009) about a girl who was affected due to the abuse from a 15 year old boy. "The youth, 15, subjected his female victim to months of racist abuse, on one occasion telling her: 'Go back to your own country, you don't belong here.' A court heard the 14-year-old girl - who had already moved schools once to avoid racist abuse - was also called 'wog, c**n, n****r, gorilla and golliwog' by her tormentor.

He taunted her with chants of 'white, white, white is right, kick them out, fight, fight, fight' - taken from a film about football hooliganism.But the girl feared reporting the abuse would make him become violent and instead suffered in silence, the court was told.The victim, who has mixed white English and black African heritage, endured the abuse for four months before she attempted suicide in January this year. A source close to the case said the teenager, who, like his victim, cannot be named for legal reasons, was a BNP supporter who had actively tried to enlist other youths. Raymond Wildsmith, prosecuting, told Lincoln Youth Court the insults happened 'again and again and again' - anything up to four times a week. But the girl only revealed her torment after she tried to kill herself.

She took a mixture of stress pills and painkillers in January before writing a note telling her family that she did not want a 'sad funeral'."

What do you think can be done to prevent racism in our school. Most schools develop policies on multi-cultular and anti-racist education. There should also be clear procedure for dealing with racist incidents so that elders can tackle racism when they see it. The things schools should do to tackle bullying is to

Teach them about skills so that they have the knowledge about relationships, rights, responsibilities and openness to respect difference. This learning will prevent many bullies from child abuse. Teachers need to discuss about bullies and allow students to openly confess is they are getting abused.

Some tips parents and teachers can give to children are that they should descriptive appropriate responses and they should cover bullying by, and of, all members of the school community They should monitor and record all racist incidents.

The issue with stopping racism is a hard one. There is a greatly questionable if racism will ever stop. Racism has been a issue from the 1500s to the 1600s. This had all started because of the African slave trade and had passed down to each and every century that passes by. Each time a year goes by racism gets worse. From slavery to schools. Children and adults alike are bullied for the same reasons, colour, race and culture. Yes, there are many people in this world that get bullied for several reasons, it seems impossible to abolish racism but there is something that can be done. Parents, teacher AND other students can help support other in need.