Children defining and experiencing racism in 21st century Britain Ruth Woods Department of Applied Social Sciences Canterbury Christ Church University

Outline How have researchers working with young children defined racism? How do children themselves define it? –Behaviours that manifest racism –Attributes upon which racism is based Implications for children’s experience

Researchers’ definitions of racism in children Behaviours Name-calling (Olweus, 1991) Name-calling / exclusion (Verkuyten & Thijs, 2002) Bullying (Eslea & Mukhtar, 2000) Bases Skin colour / race (Olweus, 1991) Ethnic background (Verkuyten & Thijs, 2002) Name, skin colour, religion, language, clothes, food (Eslea & Mukhtar, 2000) …So how do children themselves define racism?

Research site Woodwell Green Primary School, west London Multicultural area Interviews with 26 year 4 children: ‘What is racism?’ Plus discussion groups, questionnaires to parents, participant observation

Children’s definitions: behaviours 15% ‘don’t know’ 27%: racism as general nastiness –‘It means rudeness.’ 58%: racism as direct verbal insults –‘Taking the mick out of people’s culture.’ –‘Like someone’s swearing about your colour of your skin.’

Year 4  year 5 Discussion groups on other topics Spontaneous reference to racism as discrimination…

Zak: Miss I was playing for Woodwell football club and they’re racist, and there’s one way I know they’re racist. You know Lee yeah […] Well Lee yeah, whenever I score he starts to cry. Then Lee’s dad, he’s the manager yeah, he takes me off. RW: Why do you think that’s racist though? Zak: Because he always takes me, Sandeep and Sufyan off yeah, and puts Lee, Alex and Sam on. RW: I didn’t get it, tell me again. Zak: You know the manager, he subs me for Lee, he subs Sandeep for Alex, and he subs Sufyan for Sam. Miss isn’t that racist yeah, he takes us all off and we’re the best players! Just cos his son always cries when I get a goal.

Year 4: Racism as name-calling –Connolly & Keenan (2002), Troyna & Hatcher (1992) Year 5: Racism as discrimination –More subtle than name-calling –Not noted in literature –Adults as protagonists

Children’s definitions: bases Traditional definitions: race / skin colour (Dennis, 1996; Olweus, 2001) Woodwell Green children: –15%: don’t know –27%: No basis mentioned –50%: skin colour –50%: religion –23%: place of origin / culture / clothing

‘If you say to other people, you’re brown. It looks like this, if you see a brown banana, you say ‘You’re like a brown banana’. If there was a white person, you could be racist to them as well.’ ‘When somebody doesn’t believe in your religion and they say something rude about it.’ ‘Taking the mick out of people’s colour skin, religion, God, or of their features.’

Racism as based on religion at Woodwell Green Year 6 class is discussing the Bradford ‘race riots’ of 2001: Miss Lock continues, ‘All that stems from racism. It’s hoped that you, coming from a multicultural school, growing up with children of different backgrounds, you develop an understanding, and a respect, for different backgrounds.’ She says that racists are ignorant, mentioning a school anti-racism poster. Leon calls out, ‘It could’ve happened with Ireland Miss.’ Miss Lock at first denies that this is racism, saying that it’s to do with religion. ‘Racism tends to be related to the colour of skin.’ But then she adds, ‘It is a type—you could say it’s a type of racism.’

A new definition of racism? Head teacher: Racism based on skin colour, religion & language –Broad definition –Connolly & Keenan (2002); Troyna & Hatcher (1992) Woodwell Green children are embracing religion but not language / accent –Religion as significant marker of different & tension in contemporary Britain –Second language as normal & advantageous at this school –Accent-based teasing usually from and to Asian children

2 nd language as advantageous In a game of Red Rover among boys and girls in year 5, the girls chant for Amandeep to come over. Farah shouts ‘Come on you budha, are you a wimp?’ and the Indian girls shriek with laughter. I ask Nisha, who is standing with me watching the game and laughing, what budha means and she replies, ‘Old man’. Miss Chahal notices Mohamed calling something in Urdu to Faizel across the class. She calls him up and asks him what he said. He keeps replying, ‘I was only joking’. Miss Chahal eventually says that if he doesn’t tell her he’ll get a detention. He mutters something in Urdu, and Miss Chahal tells him off. Seemingly he called Faizel a ‘fat black dog’. Mohamed protests that they all say it to each other and they’re only joking.

Maria (Pakistani, Christian) joined year 4 class from Pakistan 10 weeks previously. Kiran (Indian, Sikh) and a few other children complain that Maria, who has beautiful handwriting, is the only child in the class permitted to write in pen. A couple of them comment that she ‘talks funny’. ‘Miss, why are they jealous?’ says Maria to me. Simran (Indian, Sikh) says, ‘You’re jealous,’ imitating Maria’s accent, and Ayesha (Pakistani, Muslim) and Sohaib (Pakistani, Muslim), either side of Simran, laugh. Accent based teasing among Asian children

Who are the victims of racism? If racism is based on skin colour & religion at Woodwell, then children of certain skin colour— religion combinations may be particularly at risk Participant observation of 13 racist incidents at school Questionnaire responses from 36 parents Skin colour –Black > Asian > white Religion –Muslim > Sikh, Hindu, Christian & nonreligious

Conclusions Children’s & researchers’ definitions differ –Implications for methodology & prevalence figures 9 year olds can define racism as discrimination –Are schools geared up for this? Religion is as important as skin colour in racism definitions –New generations reconstructing racism? –Active process of construction: language resisted Children representing certain skin colour— religion combinations may be particularly vulnerable