People Get Killed Cause Of There [Their] Skin. It Cannot Be Stopped': A Midlands Case Study Considering Experiences Of Racism Amongst Pupils In Uk Secondary Schools And The Community
| Author | Sarah Page |
| Pages | 64-81 |
64
British Journal of Community Justice
©2020 Manchester Metropolitan University
ISSN 1475-0279
Vol. 16(1) 64–81
‘PEOPLE GET KILLED CAUSE OF THERE [THEIR] SKIN.
IT CANNOT BE STOPPED’: A MIDLANDS CASE STUDY
CONSIDERING EXPERIENCES OF RACISM AMONGST
PUPILS IN UK SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND THE
COMMUNITY
Sarah Page, Staffordshire University1
Abstract
This paper investigates UK pupil experience of ra cism and race-hate-related extremism.
World Café research was conducted with 57 school and college pupils aged 14–17 years
from a city in the Midlan ds. The c ollege students mainly reflected upon their secondary
school experience. Follow-up questionnaires captured demographics. Just under half of the
participants were black and minority ethnic (BAME) pupils, and the res t were white British.
Race-hate victimisation ranged from verbal abuse to physical assault, including
Islamophobic abuse (including headscarves being removed) and attacks with weapons.
Some experiences indicated underlying far-right extremist ideology. Teachers were
perceived as favouring white pupils when incidents occurred, with some teachers described
as ‘racist’. As well as racial hate between white and BAME pupils and between BAME pupils
of different origins, inter-school racial conflict was apparent. Schools with higher BAME
pupil populations were negatively labelled by pupils from white majority schools. Bot h
BAME and white pupils reported b eing victims of racial abuse, but BAME victimisation was
more apparent in school. Race-hate in schools was reflected in the community and
exacerbated through social media communication and media reporting. The British
government needs to better address racism and race-related far-right extremism in schools
in conjunction with community efforts.
Keywords
Racism; education; white supremacy; Islamophobia; inter-school conflict; Worl d Café
1 With recognition to Vicki Chamberlain, Michael Dean, Hannah Flaherty and Leah Salt for their
research assistance with this research project.
Page
65
Introduction
Key UK institutions in a child’s life, including schools and the police, have been shown by
Phillips (2011) and other scholars as demonstrating racial discrimination towards black and
minority ethnic (BAME) people. Reflecting upon the Equality Act 2010, Pearce (2014)
highlights that the coalition government removed the obligation for schools to record racist
incidents, redu cing national understanding of the exten t of the problem. However,
guidance on the Equality Act promotes recording discrimination complaints and encourages
schools to articulate progress towards identified equality goals, giving schools the discretion
to identify priorities (Govern ment Equalities Of fice, 2011). Guidance for schools explains
that documents required for Ofsted inspections include reports on racist incidents
(HM Government, 2019). There is also a requirement for schools to report concerns about
extremism under the Prevent Duty, and some extremism concerns are related to race-hate
(HM Government 2011; 20 15a; 2015b). Reported crime does not capture all crime
committed (Croall, 2011). As such, it is likely that the extent of racism and race-related
extremism is greater than that recorded in scho ols’ reports. Self-report victimisation
information helps in understanding some of the hidden picture of incidents (Radford et al.,
2013). My research team an d I asked young people about their experiences of race-hate
and race-hate-related extremism, and for problem-solving ideas. This paper highlights some
significant policy, practice and research observations within UK secondary education
pertaining to anti-racism following the Macpherson (1999) report to contextualise the
findings from our study.
Significant events and issues
The high-profile racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and the associated Macpherson
(1999) inquiry spurred mandatory changes to eliminate racism. The murder occurred
outside school premises and hours, yet Ofsted (1996:51) records it as a significant incident
regarding education. Stephen, a black sixth-form pupil, was murdered by a group of white
young males (Lewis, 2003:121). Prior to this , headteachers such as Honeyford had argued
that anti-racist policies facilitating multi-cultural education should be abandoned because
they implicated all white people as racist (Lewis, 2003; Solomos, 2003). State-funde d
schools after the inquiry were required to address racism (Gillborn, 2008). ‘The move was
hailed a turning point in British race relations’, but the impact has been ‘short-lived’
(Gillborn 2008:118). Warmington et al. (2018:410) interviewed British school and policy
experts on race equ ality and found ‘a largely p essimistic view of 1993–2013 as a period in
which the race equality in education policy built in momentum, touched the policy
mainstream – and then failed’. Statutory obligations addressing race-related issues in
education came into effect with the Race Relation s (Amendment) Act (2000), but
interventions declined after 2003 (Warmington et al., 2018:415).
Twenty years after the publication of the Macpherson (1999) report, this paper provides
evidence of racism in the UK education system. The term ‘institutional racism’, coined in
late-1960s America (Phillips , 2011), was used by Macpherson (1999:43 section 6.15) to
describe the racism that was permeating public sector organisations, including those in
education. ‘Ins titutional racism’ recognis es the in stitutional behaviours and systems that
create race inequality and oppression. Race inequality is apparent in the co mposition of
teaching staff in education and, more acutely, within senior leadership (Johnson, 2017).
To continue reading
Request your trial