As children go back to school, the Mirror have published a front page piece on the rise in racist incidents in Britain’s schools: “11,619 children were suspended for racist behaviour in 2023…1,413 were still at primary school”.
This is an increase of 25% on the year before.
These statistics do not surprise us. On average ARC receives a minimum of two emails a week from teachers who are witnessing racism in their school and don’t know what to do.
But these stats most likely reflect only the most violent and overt cases.
The more subtle, ‘everyday’ racism is likely to have been glossed over, denied - regardless of the trauma this form of racism triggers. Consistently parents come to us in disbelief after being told that the child ‘didn’t mean it’, or that it’s ‘just bullying, not racism’.
These stats also predate the August 2024 racist, Islamophobic, and anti-Black riots, which have further traumatised Black and Brown children.
We’ve heard stories of children asking if they’re going to die and what will happen when they return to school. They are now entering schools alongside students who might have joined the violence, and those who, whilst rejecting the violence, share the sentiments behind it.
Racism in our schools is at a crisis point. Bullying policies and ‘welcoming everyone’ is not enough. Teachers need anti-racism training to understand racism and be able to spot it in their classrooms.
And this is just to deal with the racism that is already happening.
We urgently need action to prevent children from developing racist views. You only need to look at the white children as young as 13 being charged for racist violence to see: not only do we fail Black and Brown children when we don’t address this, we also fail white children.
Racism is learnt. Racism is preventable.
Teachers, parents and carers: does your school have a policy to deal with racist incidents? Are staff trained in anti-racism and able to understand what racism is, in all its forms? What is in place to educate children about anti-racism? To prevent racist views forming?
This won’t happen on its own. We need EVERYONE to hold schools and the education system to account.
