Critically honest account lamenting what in fact is a virulent and insidious form of child abuse – false entitlement and intersectional racial discrimination which children are subjected to.
‘Macpherson defined institutional racism as “the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin”. It further added, that it can be seen in “processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic people”.’
This is not an academic piece.
But it is a necessary piece. Like most emotionally heavy writing, it needed that impulse and perhaps a little less head to get ‘on paper’. The threat of anger, sadness or hopelessness can make it difficult for words to come, and to make themselves heard. So I am getting on with it. As a young child, I watched my mother fight many battles. As a mother, I look upon her struggles with much sadness. I remember her standing in front of White female teachers, having argument after argument, about our intelligence, their expectations and proposed trajectories for our studies. I will write below some of these experiences. As anecdotes, without much analysis.
When I was five my mother fought the primary school who would not allow me to start school. This is the first battle I remember. Being born in February and missing the…
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