I have been thinking about writing this blog for a while now. Since I saw the terrible pictures of George Floyd's death on the news and all the events that have unfolded since. It has taken me a while to process my thoughts and I like many people have been overwhelmed with the prejudice that is the reality of many people’s lives.
Also as a white male who is middle aged, I feel like I am part of the problem. I carry that existential guilt of knowing it is middle age white men who run the world; the world that is full of hate and prejudice and inequality.
Throughout my life I have considered myself to be non-racist, but as Pran Patel puts it in one of his blogs being a non-racist is like being a non-rapist, it’s not really enough, by not being anti-racist I am still condoning racism just as if I took the stance of being a non-rapist rather than anti-rapist. (I’m not quoting Pran directly here, but this is the message I took from what he wrote).
I grew up in a family that taught me that people should be treated equally, people shouldn’t be judged by their colour, race, gender, religion, sexuality-people are not their stereotypes. I was taught to judge people by their actions and words, I was taught to treat people with fairness and understanding. I am very grateful to my parents for the moral compass they instilled in me and it gives me great pride when I see my children questioning stereotypes and prejudice and challenging unfairness when they see it. Both are quiet children but both have the bravery to speak up when they feel something isn’t right.
In reflecting on myself lately I have realised that for most of my life I haven’t had the same bravery that I see in my children. I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s in the same coastal town in Suffolk that I returned to as an adult. There is very little diversity here, and in that respect my current teaching experience is very different to the experience I had training and starting my career in South West London. Where I live now there is a level of ignorance about diversity and difference that stems mainly from lack of exposure to difference and diversity. Although it is a more diverse place to live than it was 20 years ago.
When I was at school if friends told racist jokes I wouldn’t join in; I wouldn’t laugh but I also wouldn’t challenge. The fear of being ostracised for taking a different view weighed heavily on me. When I did come into contact with someone who was different to me, I took the approach of ‘don’t see the difference,’ see the person. But by not seeing the difference was I really seeing the person? Ignoring someone's colour or cultural difference is ignoring their different experience of life, it is ignoring the reality of the prejudices they will have to bear on a daily basis-this is diminishing who they are; I realise that now and I realise how my attempt to treat people equally and fairly, however well meaning, did not help anyone.
Our society isn’t equal, and it feels to me that inequality has grown over the years. The rich and powerful minority that sit at the top of the privilege tree have gotten more rich and more powerful and the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ has grown ever more.
I think this image represents the reality of modern British society quite well.
Overt racism may be a lot less prevalent than when I grew up, but systematic and institutionalised racism is still the rot at the core of our society.
I have seen this video a few times on twitter now and it does highlight the issue of privilege quite well. The message of taking time to get to know other people’s stories and experiences is a good one. However, I have a couple of issues with it, one being I am not comfortable with the racial stereotypes the facilitator reinforces by talking about the ‘some of these black dudes would smoke all of you in a fair race’ I’m pretty sure not every African American male can run fast, the other issue I have is related to the term white privilege.
I don’t have a problem with that term applied to myself-I am white, I am male, I have a good job and a home. I am privileged. My life has been a lot easier than many people’s just by the luck of being born as a white male whose parents stayed together and worked themselves into the middle classes, (both my parents come from Glasgow and their own parents were working class people who lived in council houses for their entire lives and worked in low paid jobs and had to scrimp and save just to survive). If I were to place myself in that video (or an equivalent with British examples) I would be near the front in the advantages stakes.
My wife however, wouldn’t have gotten off the starting line. She is white, but her background is far from privileged. Her parents didn’t stay together, she grew up seeing the damage alcoholism does to a family, her memories of growing up include hiding from the milkman because they couldn’t afford to pay yet again and not knowing from day to day whether there would be food in the house or not; her birthday present for her 21st birthday was a set of bookends. She has worked hard and had to struggle to climb out of poverty. She hates the term ‘white privilege’ and doesn’t feel she has had any advantages or privileges in her upbringing at all. I don’t completely agree with her, one privilege she has had is not to have with racial abuse and prejudice throughout her life. The colour of her skin may not have given her many advantages but it has given her that.
When I apply that video to many of the children I teach as well, they would also stay on the start line. Inequality is everywhere in our society. Many of the children that I teach, for the simple fact of being white, working class boys, growing up in a coastal town, will have very few life chances and advantages. White working class boys from coastal towns are the poorest performing group in British schools. Their only advantage is the colour of their skin and the fact they won’t have to face racist abuse.
I’m not going to dwell on that fact because I actually what to focus on the #BlackLivesMatter movement and what I can do to support it as someone who is trying to be anti-racist not just non-racist.
Living in my safe little bubble on the Suffolk coast has meant I hadn’t really thought about the bias and prejudice people face on a daily basis. I am not exposed to it so I haven’t thought about it. So many people have shared their views and experiences recently and it has opened my eyes. A few days ago I watched a video that Jaz Ampaw-Farr posted on twitter talking about her experiences of racism and talking about being braver by actually talking about it. What she said moved me deeply; here was someone who I think is inspirational and I look up to as a positive role model putting their vulnerability out there for all to see. After watching her video I decided it was time I started being braver myself. Not engaging with racism isn’t good enough; living in a place that means I rarely get exposed to the ugly truth of our racist society isn’t an excuse for not saying anything about it. In her message she invited people to talk to her about the issue so I sent Jaz this message partly as a plea for help from someone who I look up to and admire.
Being the brilliant person that she is, she actually gave me some of her time and I spent an hour listening to her share her experiences with me over Zoom (Here is the link to the conversation if you want to watch). I am honoured and eternally grateful that she gave me some of her time. One of the things I took away from talking to her was that I am going to keep asking questions and engaging with people; I am going to keep being curious; I am going to get that wrong some of the time and I have to accept that, but I have to keep being brave and I have to keep engaging with this issue. It’s by understanding people’s experience that we can hope to do something to change it.
I’ve been reflecting on the term ‘tolerance’ as well. I don’t like it. I don’t think it is a good term. At the moment my school’s curriculum encourages ‘tolerance’ of others. Tolerance is a term that has negative connotations-tolerance means putting up with something you don’t like. Being tolerant isn’t the way to move forward to a fairer more equitable society, putting up with people isn’t really good enough. It’s a start, granted, but I think we are past the point where a start is enough; Britain is a diverse country, it is filled with people with many diverse backgrounds, with roots from around the world. It’s time we stopped being tolerant and grudgingly putting up with each other and actually started to accept each other, recognise our differences and celebrate them.
So what can I do? As a white middle aged man living in a part of the country that has little diversity? I can educate myself; I can find out more about the issues in order to challenge my thinking. I can reflect on my own unconscious biases (some of which I am aware of others which I am not) and attempt to do something about them. I can engage in the conversation; I can be vocal about my support against racism.
As a teacher I feel I have a duty to use the power of education as well. I am not in charge of the curriculum in my school but I can voice my support for a more integrated curriculum that celebrates diversity and actively promotes it not in a tokenistic way or as an add on but as a genuine integral part of the curriculum. BAME voices have been marginalised and written out of British history; BAME children have very little representation in the literature available at my school. My passion is reading for pleasure, I can actively do something about this in my classroom; I can ensure that there are role models represented from a diverse range of society.
Most importantly I can keep talking about the issue of racism, I can keep asking questions and (this is the biggest change for me) I can be brave and challenge inequality when I see it not stand silently in fear.