Oh, I see. For me, I would evaluate the idea of calling the police to school like this:

• Further clarifies the weight of racist incidents and the zero-tolerance policy that the school has for it
• Relies on a tactic of fear, plus the police are a major source of racism

In that perspective, inviting the police does seem like a very bad idea. Though I still like the idea of at least including senior members of staff to talk to the students as they should further clarifiy the severity of racism.

Your racialized students are all victims of racism at nearly all times.

I should clarify that everyone in the group are students, including me.

So when someone uses a racial slur, racialized people experience harm if they are exposed to it. A) what is that harm if the slur was used at them versus if that slur was used near them but not at them? B) is there harm if no racialized people are exposed to that event?

A) As a marginalised person, if I did hear a slur not being used directly at me, I would still feel uncomfortable and unwelcome as it sets a precedent on what is and isn't accepted by the students as well as the teachers.

B) Yes; a culture of acceptance would be created that racialized people would inevitably be exposed to. Additionally, it would effectively tolerate more slurs and acts of racism that would further harm racialized people.

To put a finer point on it, if a white child, in a room of 5 white children and a white teacher, uses a racial slur, how would you describe that, how would you understand the consequences of that, how would you make the decision on whether and how to intervene, and how would you communicate your decision in context?

A racist incident of that nature exposes the internalised racism of white people against people of colour, and is an example of how much more frequent racist attacks are in white-dominated spaces. I'm not a teacher, and I'm not sure what term I would describe it as. But it is the most covert form of racism and must be corrected to the highest degree.

The consequences would mean an increased normalisation of racism and other discriminatory language. Now that I think about it, this is likely the origin point of a lot of the racism in this school. Whether or not I was a teacher or a student (ideally with multiple other students), I would intervene, especially as white people are generally more likely to tolerate and to be the cause of racism.

With everything I've written here so far, I would communicate the fact that white-dominated spaces do a far better job of normalising racism. Everyone has a role in combating racism, but white people especially as they do not experience racism and therefore are most likely to tolerate and perpetrate acts of racism. The role of white people in combating racism is one of understanding, zero-tolerance and solidarity with people of colour.

Thanks for all these questions! It took me a while to properly answer them, but in the end, I've learnt a lot figuring out my response to them.

Yeah, I was thinking that. Their comment was unnecessary and questionable given the actual topic of the post and what they decided to reply to it with.

police were called

I don't think calling the police would be a good idea given their reputation of brutality against people of color and the fact that it would rely on more of a tactic of fear against children.

My 5 years there, saw at least a dozen expelled or fired.

Firing teachers for racism is a good stance for me! We'll probably still push for temporary suspension rather than expulsion unless they are a repeat offender.

Edit: Removed idea of calling the police as I have since changed my opinion.

I think the main thing that your group needs to do, is train your fellow students to not tolerate this kind of behavior and call it out when they see it.

Yes; our primary aim is to educate people on racism as a means to prevent people from being racist in the first place. We're also aiming to motivate students to report racist incidents as there is a culture of not snitching on other students, even with racism.

Peer pressure is FAR MORE powerful than what a teacher can do by themselves. I think that, ideally, if there was a racist incident that happened, and the teacher AS WELL as a group of students called it out as being unacceptable, that would be far more powerful and effective. Social shaming is a powerful thing and having students call out other students for racist behavior is far more powerful than a teacher or authority figure saying it's bad by themselves.

Our group is composed of students only, and we believe that makes it more appealing and approachable to new members as there are usually no teachers there. We have had new members join the group because they wanted to report a racist incident, but they felt that a teacher wouldn't do enough against it - or too intimidated - and that allowed us to collectively report a few students already!

Find some teachers that you think would be receptive, and ask them to join your group.

We plan to meet with the school leadership every month to discuss any concerns or plans we have. It would be nice for other teachers to come every once in a while, though maybe not in every session.

Sorry again, my understanding of bigotry was that it encompassed all forms of racism, sexism, transphobia, etc., not by what seems to be its actual definition. The post will be edited.

I am aware of the many aspects of racism; the school administration and us did agree on a policy for racism specifically as opposed to bigotry in general to allow for different repercussions and action as racism can be structural, institutional, systemic and ideological.

I challenge you to get more precise about why you think bigotry is different than other forms of conflict, connect it to the structural so that you’re not only dealing with the individual, and proceed from there with a refined analysis and set of proposals.

Good point; we wanted a more educational than “punishing” approach because punishments were ineffective in correcting racism. I have a list of points for them to take into consideration, including assemblies at the start of the year on race education and the finalised racism policy, as well as pathways to reporting racism to students rather than teachers if victims of racism feel more open to reporting racism to them instead (plus the issue with reporting to teachers mentioned in the post).

Sorry, my understanding of “preventative” was that it implied the correction of the behaviour through education and learning. The post will be edited.

People are who they are

I may be interpreting this wrong, but I disagree with this statement. People aren't born with racism, they learn it.

Thanks! Added to the reading list. This book will be even more relevant given the war in the Middle East right now.

Yeah, most of our books are on very recent topics and we could use some books from older times. Some people have the tendency to completely shun older media for aspects that have become unacceptable (eg. revolutionaries with bigoted views of LGBTQ+ people) and while those books should probably not be the main focus, they should still be included as a way to educate ourselves on history, reflect on our mistakes and learn to do better!

And being able to not only appreciate but also critique an author and their works for their outdated ways of thinking is a great way to get people to critically think about race.

Fiction is perfectly fine and admittedly there should be more of it, too. We can account for the different age range too as the books are already sorted into "Junior" and "Advanced" categories.

Not sure what to make of an author notably critiquing another author's book on colonialism, but I will add them both as they seem like really interesting books to read.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe- Classic Nigerian Book, about how colonialism affects a Tribal leader

We actually already have this book on the reading list, although your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your contributions!

Okay, the book itself is very interesting and one that I will add to my personal reading list, although I'm not sure how suited it would be for the group's reading list. I'll add it on anyways and see what the rest of the group thinks about it.

Thanks again for the suggestion! I have a general idea of the overlaps of capitalism with fascism but not much idea on what fascism is.

Thanks! From the synopsis I found, it does look like a good starting book.