Spot the difference?

Question. What do African-Caribbean, English, French, Pakistani and Polish and children all have in common in the UK?

Answer. They can all be the victims of racism.

In a multicultural society people of any origin can find themselves confronted by some form of racial discrimination or bullying, and they don’t have to be a different colour to experience it.

Children from Europe can find life difficult at school in the UK, so can English, Scottish or Welsh children who live in one another’s countries even though they are all part of the same United Kingdom.

The most common form of racism in school is name calling and teasing, but it can also mean exclusion and isolation, and in the most extremes cases, violence.

Racism is usually thought of as discrimination based on race, colour, ethnic background, religion or culture. But at school it is often more direct and personal where the differences in language or accent, racial features, clothes, food, gestures become the focus of mocking, mimicking and cruel comments.

Whatever form it takes, racism stems primarily from ignorance and the flawed notion that one ethnic group is superior to another, or that people who are ‘different’ pose some sort of threat.

These attitudes and values are usually learned in the home, passed on through families or communities where ignorance and prejudice have existed for generations. And it is not an exclusive ‘white’ problem, racism exists between many different ethnic groups in the UK.

Racial Bullying

England and Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand was racially bullied at school as was British Olympic champion javelin-thrower, Tessa Sanderson. “The abuse was stuff like, ‘Hey, nigger! I'm talking to you, blacky.’ Guys would call me things like ‘coon’ and ‘golliwog’. In those days, golliwogs were on the jam jars and we black kids hated them.”