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Is there systemic Racism in Education?

Does Racism exist in schools and teaching?

By Lifestyle with CassandraPublished 4 years ago 4 min read
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Two words. George Floyd. A name of a black life needlessly killed because of the colour of his skin. The world is ablaze with anger and pain at the sheer brutality of his death in the United States of America. Demonstrations are taking place all over the world . This time it is different. This time the blood of this one black man has spoken and is speaking loudly. “I can’t breathe”. His death has brought racism to the forefront of all our minds. For some of us it is a painful reminder of incidents where we have been victims of it. For some of us it will be a wake up call. An uncomfortable and undeniable truth that racism still operates in every aspect of our society. It’s in Finance. Its in Sports. It’s even in Government and finally where it all began , in Education.

Racism was taught

For centuries the black man in order to justify the violence and brutality of colonialism was made to be sub-human . Europeans in their quest to conquer and expand their empires imposed the mindset of being inferior onto the black man so that they as white men could assert themselves as superior. This was done to remove from the conscience of the coloniser that it was an actual human being that was being killed. Lives and cultures were wiped out and black men were captured like creatures and sold as slaves. Formal Education was introduced under the guise of enlightenment and this inferior mindset was taught to and entrenched in the black man. Corporal punishment and violence was used to punish those who would not conform. So the black man lost his identity , learned the ways, the language and the culture of the coloniser . Fast forward to 2020 . The news is full of scenes of demonstration upon demonstration in increasing numbers of global cities to drive home the fact that black lives matter. Will the message be heard this time ? What kind of change can effectively take place to radically change the ugly truth that racism has been alive and well in our world all this time?

Racism needs to be ‘untaught’

Well I dare suggest that the same medium that was used to propagate and fuel this notion of a black man being inferior to the white man be used to rewire the minds of this generation. The medium of education. Is this too simplistic? Could this be effective? How do we tell our children that all humans including black men are equal? Don’t they know this already? How do they as children start to think of themselves as not good enough or better than? Should we hide the truth of the horror of colonialism from them or must our children learn about it in order to recognise it and snuff it out in any new way or form that seems to be happening now? How will we teach our children not to be racist? Can we teach them if the governing systems in schools themselves have racism sitting alongside them on the board , or amongst teaching staff , in certain aspects of the curriculum, among pupils and in the playground?

What can we do now?

The conversations must start in our homes. All people of African descent must imbibe worthiness into their children . The inferiority and the passive and submissive thinking taught by colonial masters can not be continued to be passed down to the next generation. People of Non-African descent should also change the narratives in their homes. Black children are not the source of bad behaviour and will not corrupt white children if they mingle with each other. Rather by Black children knowing their identity and culture and being secure in this will use this security of thinking to view white people as equal and not superior . Friend not foe, brother , sister not master and just simply and equally human. This way the change will start from the children. If such unity exists among pupils , they can stand up and speak out each time a black child is given disproportionate and more severe punishment in class. Black teachers will stop having their excellence used to benefit schools and then subsequently blocked by systemic racism from any form of ‘overly ambitious‘ educational career opportunities.

According to the 2018 school teacher workforce statistics , 85.9% of all teachers in state-funded schools in England were White British (out of those whose ethnicity was known) and 92.9% of headteachers were White British. These facts speak for themselves. We have no time to waste. Change has already started . Let this change continue.

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About the Creator

Lifestyle with Cassandra

Lover of life, love and peace. Everyday is a day to be enjoyed and an opportunity to learn something new!

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