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Ninastar · 10-02-2015, 07:43 PM

I want mature responses only please. No name calling/baiting/picking on posts etc.

I know this is a sensitive issue for some, but please look at this subject with an open mind.

I've been working at a school full of Muslim children for the past week and it's been... eventful. I've had some really nice moments and I've had some truly awful moments. Most of the kids have literally no respect, but I don't think that's anything to do with the fact that they are Muslim. It's more so to do with the fact that it's such a rough and scary area.

Anyway, more to what the thread is about.

It was my first day at the school last week (I'm in a year 4 class) and most of the kids were all happy to meet me and it was really sweet. However, I asked one of the boys to stop 'roughhousing' with another boy much smaller than him cause the smaller boy was clearly distressed and he got really annoyed with me. He said 'Miss, do you have a dog?' and I was like... 'No, why?' and he was like, 'Cause I'm going to get my dog on you.' and I was just like so shocked that a kid would say that. I was still in shock so I said 'Why would you do that?' and then he mumbled something that I didn't hear. His friends around him gasped and I was like 'What did he say?' and one of the girls was like 'Miss, he said it's because you're white.'

I literally didn't know what to say. I've never left a child without telling them off for doing something bad but this time, I just walked away. It bothered me a little but then I realised that it might have just been to make me leave or whatever. Anyway, I asked the teacher about it later and she said that this boy makes a lot of comments like that and that his family are pretty racist. She says his parents pretty much don't care how he acts up in school.

It annoyed me because there would be such outrage if it was the other way around. I don't like hatred of any kind, so the comment has really annoyed me and I've been debating about posting this thread since it happened. But I've heard the opinions of a lot of the teachers at the school and it's given me the confidence to post it on here.

Do you think that people of any colour can be racist? Or would you class this as something else entirely? I just wanted to see some opinions on here.

sassysocks · 10-02-2015, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chaos

I want mature responses only please. No name calling/baiting/picking on posts etc.

I know this is a sensitive issue for some, but please look at this subject with an open mind.

I've been working at a school full of Muslim children for the past week and it's been... eventful. I've had some really nice moments and I've had some truly awful moments. Most of the kids have literally no respect, but I don't think that's anything to do with the fact that they are Muslim. It's more so to do with the fact that it's such a rough and scary area.

Anyway, more to what the thread is about.

It was my first day at the school last week (I'm in a year 4 class) and most of the kids were all happy to meet me and it was really sweet. However, I asked one of the boys to stop 'roughhousing' with another boy much smaller than him cause the smaller boy was clearly distressed and he got really annoyed with me. He said 'Miss, do you have a dog?' and I was like... 'No, why?' and he was like, 'Cause I'm going to get my dog on you.' and I was just like so shocked that a kid would say that. I was still in shock so I said 'Why would you do that?' and then he mumbled something that I didn't hear. His friends around him gasped and I was like 'What did he say?' and one of the girls was like 'Miss, he said it's because you're white.'

I literally didn't know what to say. I've never left a child without telling them off for doing something bad but this time, I just walked away. It bothered me a little but then I realised that it might have just been to make me leave or whatever. Anyway, I asked the teacher about it later and she said that this boy makes a lot of comments like that and that his family are pretty racist. She says his parents pretty much don't care how he acts up in school.

It annoyed me because there would be such outrage if it was the other way around. I don't like hatred of any kind, so the comment has really annoyed me and I've been debating about posting this thread since it happened. But I've heard the opinions of a lot of the teachers at the school and it's given me the confidence to post it on here.

Do you think that people of any colour can be racist? Or would you class this as something else entirely? I just wanted to see some opinions on here.

Yes definitely. Some try to suggest only whites can be racist, but of course that is bull. Racism is racism regardless of what colour/race the person who practices it is.

MTVN · 10-02-2015, 08:09 PM

Yes.. though I do think it's a bit different in that white people are not going to and never have suffered from institutionalised racism in this country, so it is harder to relate a case of a white person suffering racism to that of a non-white person. Still obviously very unpleasant though and its sad that that happened with you

Creggle · 10-02-2015, 08:11 PM

The theory of only white people can be racist is ridiculous

Udanax · 10-02-2015, 08:14 PM

Plain and simply, no. They can be prejudiced towards white people (and I wouldn't blame them tbqh) but racism incorporates lots of different aspects.

Daniel-X · 10-02-2015, 08:16 PM

Absolutely I think it's ridiculous when people think it's only whites who are racist.

Smithy · 10-02-2015, 08:16 PM

No, racism is based on a system of oppression, other races can be prejudice but not racist

hijaxers · 10-02-2015, 08:43 PM

I watched something on tv this week discussing exactly the same situation you are talking about, and they are trying to get teachers to report exactly this kind of racism , i think it may have been The Big Question aired on Sunday morning - so it may well be worth a look regarding advice.

Firewire · 10-02-2015, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smithy

No, racism is based on a system of oppression, other races can be prejudice but not racist

pretty much this

Mystic Mock · 10-02-2015, 08:54 PM

Anybody can be racist.

Northern Monkey · 10-02-2015, 09:16 PM

Yes of course anybody can be racist.
I went to a quite rough school which was in a mainly Pakistani area and i remember when i was walking home or out on dinner groups of Pakistani lads driving past and shouting 'white bastard' out of car windows.I remember being called 'milky bar' and other stuff.Racism is universal.

Ninastar · 10-02-2015, 09:24 PM

I totally agree with people saying it's different. You're right. But I think anyone who calls anyone out based on their skin tone, is just plain racist. Yeah, some people have had it worse than others, but it doesn't make it right to make fun of skin colour now. Again, IMO, it's just plain racism.

Northern Monkey · 10-02-2015, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chaos

I totally agree with people saying it's different. You're right. But I think anyone who calls anyone out based on their skin tone, is just plain racist. Yeah, some people have had it worse than others, but it doesn't make it right to make fun of skin colour now. Again, IMO, it's just plain racism.

I agree.Suppose a white person goes to live in say Pakistan or Nigeria or any non white country.Say they get racial abuse hurled at them,Then obviously it is racism.So then take one of those people hurling the racial abuse at the white person and bring them to Britain and they do the same thing here.Does it then stop being racism?Imo no it is still racism wherever we are in the world.

Niamh. · 10-02-2015, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smithy

No, racism is based on a system of oppression, other races can be prejudice but not racist

I agree with this. The only time I ever experianced something like the story you told Caitlin was years ago when I lived in London. I worked in a bar so I would finish work late and get the tube home, it was about a 10/15min walk from the tube station to where I was living and one night on the way home a group of Asian guys started shouting stuff at me as I passed them, I ignored them and kept walking and one of them shouted "stupid ****ing white bitch" I was taken aback because it was the first time someone had used my colour as an insult against me but because as a white person I haven't been treated badly because of my skin colour it didn't effect me really (other than just being intimidated because a group of guys were harressing me late at night while I was on my own) what did effect me more was other occasions when the fact that I was Irish was used as an insult against me and that's because I felt there was a deeper history behind that, if you know what I mean? which I would imagine black people or Asian people might feel like?

Marsh. · 10-02-2015, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I agree with this. The only time I ever experianced something like the story you told Caitlin was years ago when I lived in London. I worked in a bar so I would finish work late and get the tube home, it was about a 10/15min walk from the tube station to where I was living and one night on the way home a group of Asian guys started shouting stuff at me as I passed them, I ignored them and kept walking and one of them shouted "stupid ****ing white bitch" I was taken aback because it was the first time someone had used my colour as an insult against me but because as a white person I haven't been treated badly because of my skin colour it didn't effect me really (other than just being intimidated because a group of guys were harressing me late at night while I was on my own) what did effect me more was other occasions when the fact that I was Irish was used as an insult against me and that's because I felt there was a deeper history behind that, if you know what I mean? which I would imagine black people or Asian people might feel like?

Good comparison and illustrates the differences well.

Marsh. · 10-02-2015, 09:41 PM

That post wasn't meant to sound like a pretentious teacher.

Apologies.

Niamh. · 10-02-2015, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marsh.

That post wasn't meant to sound like a pretentious teacher.

Apologies.

Marsh. · 10-02-2015, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Niamh.

Don't judge me.

Niamh. · 10-02-2015, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marsh.

Don't judge me.

I clicked the wrong one, it was supposed to be

Scarlett. · 10-02-2015, 09:50 PM

Definition of racist:

Quote:

A person who believes that a particular race is superior to another.

No mention of one specific colour, though I do agree that white people don't really face racism on the scale as other races. People tend to use the word racism in place of Xenophobia these days.

Quote:

Xenophobia
Dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries