Hi! I am a member of a race education group in my school (11 to 18). We were discussing instances of racism and came to the conclusion that the school - teachers, especially - were not giving proper or effective repercussions for racist incidents. Racism in the school is quite normalised, especially against Black and Asian students, including:

CW: list of racist incidents
  • Calling black people "monkeys", unnecessarily calling them "fast" and that they "should be at the back of the bus"
  • Playing stereotypical Indian music and linking brown people to "curry" and tech-support scammers
  • The Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees chant and mocking the Chinese language

Most teachers report the incident, triggering an investigation into what happened; the student(s) are usually suspended - possibly being temporarily transferred to another school - the offending student(s) are talked to by senior staff members and attend anti-racism sessions. This approach feels appropriate, although I want to hear your thoughts on it as racism is still a significant issue in the school.

In addition, quite a few teachers instead push to "settle the matter" in-class (say sorry, shake hands) or give lesser punishments that are intended for things like swearing or talking over the teacher. These are not appropriate punishments and shouldn't be tolerated. Bigotry is never equivalent to just rude behaviour or minor arguments (that includes bullying).

The school administration has been made aware of our thoughts and fortunately they are very open to the idea of writing a clearer and more effective policy on racism in the school.

Do teachers need to be trained better on their tolerance of racism? Is the policy not corrective enough? How would you write a racism policy for a school for 11 to 18 year olds?

Thanks again!

  • temp_acc [none/use name]
    ·
    4 months ago

    To clarify, all of the members of the group are students, including me.

    Unironically the policy should be that you let and encourage people of color to beat their racist classmates and then have their back when they get in trouble for "violence".

    Honestly, I can understand that perspective and I know other schools that are far more diverse in their racial demographics (my school is predominantly white) in which students combat racism with violence. It definitely makes the victims of racism feel more welcome in the school, plus it does a good job at combating a culture of acceptance of racism.

    Beating racists is the only thing that ever got them to atop attacking me (yes, attacking, because it doesn't end with mere words). And it was nice when teachers looked the other way instead of bringing the hammer down on me (most brought the hammer down. Fuck those ones).

    Ideally, a target of racist abuse attacking their racist classmates in retaliation would be excused to an extent in the same way a target of physical abuse attacking their abuser would be excused to an extent. Understanding why they reacted that way rather than the reaction itself allows for justification of their retaliation. However, there is little chance that school administration would consider permitting violence (even against racists), though I'm sure that we could push for a reduced punishment as the repercussions for the two parties should never be equal.

    • CommunistCuddlefish [she/her]
      ·
      4 months ago

      Damn I misread your original post and thought you were a teacher, didn't realize you're a student. Also my comment got removed by mods with the hilarious but understandable reason, "do not advocate for children to beat the shit out of each other." I've got mixed feelings about that but for the sake of complying with the commissars of discourse I will clarify I am only talking about my personal experiences trying to deal with racism when I was isolated from any support in a system that was so profoundly racist that it denied me safety when I went through proper channels and only protected my abusers. I was forced to defend myself, I didn't rush to it. If you have other options then good for you! Please use those instead of mine! I wish I'd had a group of peers I could have turned to to stand up with me and for me instead of having to fight outnumbered on my own!

      So if you're in a majority white school it's going to be an uphill battle; the administration may be geared toward catering to them more than to defending you. One thing you could try to do is organize with other students of color and any white people who want to be your accomplices to make a solidarity action network and, if something happens that affects one of you but the administrators won't take appropriate action (e.g. they brush aside racist slurs and hate speech as "boys being boys", minimize it by calling it "bullying" instead of the correct term of "hate speech" , punish "both sides" in a fight even if the white kids started it by doing or threatening hate crimes), then you can take collective N O N V I O L E N T action together in any of the following ways:

      • Class walkouts
      • Disruptive protests as a group in the hallways to make people late for class, or make it so loud that teachers can't focus and teach effectively (if you do go with a noise route please try to be intersectional and have earplugs on hand to hand out to noise-sensitive autistic kids for whom the noise could be very upsetting)
      • Disruptive protests as a group outside the school
      • Asking your parents to call in and harangue the administrators for not keeping children of color safe from hate speech
      • Social media campaigns about the hate speech problem at your school, idk what platforms the kids are using nowadays but in the time of boomers it would have been something like making a facebook page and group to discuss it and sharing it widely, maybe passing that along to some local news group once the group got enough traction
      • Basically anything that will be disruptive, get attention, create buzz and negative press for the school administrators. None of them want to deal with being known as the administrators who let a racism crisis run rampant in their schools and it'll put them in a spot where they feel they have to do something to save face. It'll surely be insufficient, but you have to know where your opponent is soft to hit them where they're vulnerable.

      These still sound pretty confrontational but confrontation is the only way to not get swept under the rug. Formal complaints within the system just get thrown in the trash bin. And let's be honest, it is extra hard to learn anything when you're hypervigilant about racist abuse. The white kids don't have to have their learning impeded by that shit, it's not fair that y'all have to.

      • temp_acc [none/use name]
        ·
        4 months ago

        Damn I misread your original post and thought you were a teacher, didn't realize you're a student. Also my comment got removed by mods with the hilarious but understandable reason, "do not advocate for children to beat the shit out of each other." I've got mixed feelings about that but for the sake of complying with the commissars of discourse I will clarify I am only talking about my personal experiences trying to deal with racism when I was isolated from any support in a system that was so profoundly racist that it denied me safety when I went through proper channels and only protected my abusers. I was forced to defend myself, I didn't rush to it. If you have other options then good for you! Please use those instead of mine! I wish I'd had a group of peers I could have turned to to stand up with me and for me instead of having to fight outnumbered on my own!

        That's perfectly understandable! Thinking about such methods is justifiable from your own personal experience and it's one that a lot of students - me included - have used or contemplated from time to time.

        So if you're in a majority white school it's going to be an uphill battle; the administration may be geared toward catering to them more than to defending you.

        Honestly, (some of) the school administration has been really welcoming and open (or at least pretend) to our ideas. Though we haven't really had any proper disagreements, so I can't sure that they will be consistently welcoming. And generally, the white students were the most critical of us. Though in less of a complete dismal of us, and more of a "don't change the system" way

        But I know that school administration are inherently designed to look "modern" and we will likely have to push it to combat racism in the school, whether through dialogue, petitions, protests or demonstrations. My other concern - especially if we fail to put enough pressure on the school to make changes - is that as a race education group, our presence would help make the school to look "modern" without them doing a lot; I wouldn't be surprised if they were welcoming to our ideas for this reason.

        then you can take collective N O N V I O L E N T action together in any of the following ways:

        Speaking from my last point, this was my approach forward if we couldn't get our ideas heard, or if racism persisted to be an issue. It would be great if we could collect instances of racism - especially ones that were handled badly - and then used that as a basis for a school-wide demonstration or protest!

        Also, your written ideas sound effective to me so I'll keep them in mind when the time comes.

        These still sound pretty confrontational but confrontation is the only way to not get swept under the rug. Formal complaints within the system just get thrown in the trash bin. And let's be honest, it is extra hard to learn anything when you're hypervigilant about racist abuse. The white kids don't have to have their learning impeded by that shit, it's not fair that y'all have to.

        Definitely! Our current approach is still dialogue (though we have considered demonstrating and have used petitions as well), but if the school administration stops listening, we are very willing to engage in nonviolent action. If nothing does truly change, then we'll make sure that they make the needed changes so that the school can do its job properly of stopping racism in the school. Your nonviolent action ideas sound effective to me o I'll keep them in mind when the time comes.

        • CommunistCuddlefish [she/her]
          ·
          4 months ago

          Bless you for doing this. It's really nice to see younger people trying to work together to defend yourselves against systemic racism better than I was able to defend myself. I'm glad my nonviolent ideas sound like they could help. Good luck! If you get any updates and can report back without doxxing yourself I'd love to hear, but of course opsec must come first -- do not doxx yourself.