One-minute guide on understanding racism for parents and guardians

Designed so that this information can be included in school newsletters. Please be mindful that some of this content maybe distressing.

What is racism?

Racism is when someone is discriminated against (singled out) because of their race, the colour of their skin, their nationality, their accent or first language, or their ethnic or national origin.

Other examples of racism include:

Making fun of someone’s name
Making jokes of someone’s culture (eg food, clothing, scents, where they live)
Commenting about someone’s hair and/or asking to touch it

A racist incident is any incident, which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.

It is also important to be clear that racism isn’t just about skin colour. Travellers and Eastern European communities also experience racism.

Different forms of racism

There are many different forms or subcategories of racism and incidents can manifest in different ways. It is important to note that these forms of discrimination and prejudice don’t solely relate to racism, but also apply for areas such as gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, sexism and age prejudice.

Unconscious bias

Unconscious or implicit bias is when we act with a range of assumptions and biases that we are not aware of.

Examples include:

Affinity bias – for example being more inclined to hire someone as they share the same culture as you.
Perception bias- for example that an East Asian child will need less support in Maths.
Halo effect – this is when you observe a trait in a person and this then feeds the rest of your decision making. For example, assigning a black child to run the 100m, based on their ethnicity.
Confirmation bias – for example you have a new ethnically diverse child in your class (such as Hindu or a Traveller) and so you research their culture online, but unconsciously dismiss all the information that isn’t what you originally thought.

Micro-aggression

An act or remark that discriminates against one or more of an ethnically diverse group deliberately or by mistake.

Examples include:

Where are you really from?
Go back to where you came from.
You’re dirty, you live in a caravan.
Is that your real hair? Can I touch it?
I can’t pronounce your name, can I shorten it?
You speak English so well.
You’re really pretty for an Indian girl.
You’re not like other black people.
Are you forced to wear that?

Racism is often displayed as either overt or covert racism. Overt racism in schools can look like:

Name calling, hate speech and derogatory comments. Comments such as ‘you are dirty, go back home on the dingy you arrived on’ towards Eastern European children and adults.
Physical and cyber bullying
A child/group purposely excluding an ethnically diverse child or a child moving to a different seat when a black child sits next to them.

Covert racism in schools can look like:

Only representing African Americans in the curriculum as slaves or civil rights activists, and not celebrating their contribution to Science and literature etc.
Studies show that school dress codes are being disproportionately enforced on ethnically diverse children.
Misunderstanding cultural norms – in some cultures it is disrespectful to look at you in the eye when communicating, or you are questioning a child from a South Asian background and you are telling them off for shaking their head, even though this is a common cultural form of agreement.
Not representing a range of identities in school presentations and worksheets.

What racism in schools may look like

Physical assault and harassment
Verbal abuse – threats, name calling
Visual- racist propaganda such as posters, notices or graffiti
Incitement of others to behave in a racist manner
Segregation- exclusion, isolation, refusal to cooperate because of their colour, ethnicity, religion or
Language barrier
Cyber- using social media/DM to promote or incite racism

Understanding a school’s duty

The DfE’s Keeping children safe in education guidance outlines the need to prevent and address racism in schools.

The Equality act 2010 outlines that all schools must give due regard to

Eliminating discrimination, harassment, victimisation, and any other prohibited conduct.
Advancing quality of opportunity.
Fostering good relations between people.

The education and inspection act 2006 outlines that

every school must have measures to encourage good behaviour to prevent all forms of racism amongst children. It also gives head teachers the ability to take measures to supporting children’s conduct when they are not on school premises or under the lawful control of the school staff.

Anti-racism discussions

All adults have a responsibility to ensure that children in their care are well equipped to understand racism and the impacts. Developing a growth mindset in children so that they have an understanding to respect different identities is crucial to prevent racism behaviour.

As parent(s)/guardian(s) your role will be to have open discussions about what racism is and it’s impacts, whilst challenging any discrimination and stereotyping – so that your children understand the importance of respect, identity, and health relationships. Studies show that as early as 6 months children begin to identify race-based differences.

Here are a few resources to help you with these discussions:

Supporting targets of racism

You may also find yourself in a situation where your role is to support your child who has been a target of racism, through listening, comfort and reassurance.

Signs your child is experiencing racism

While everyone is different, a child who is being experiencing racism may:

seem low or anxious
seem less confident in themselves
show signs of distress such as feeling upset, teary or panicky
avoid school or refuse to go altogether
often complain of feeling physically unwell
have outbursts of unexplained anger at home
seem withdrawn, isolated and wary of others
have few friendships
make changes in their behaviour, for example dressing very differently or suddenly doing new activities to meet peer pressure
eat and/or sleep more or less than usual
use things like self-harm or drugs and alcohol to cope with difficult feelings

The strategies below are for peer-on-peer racism within a school. For all other types of racism, such as violence, hate crime, discrimination or repeated harassment or intimidation please also contact the Police.

How to manage a disclosure

Reassure your child that they have done the correct thing by telling you that they are experiencing racism.
Explain that you will support them, that you will need some more details and will inform the school. Being open about the process you will follow is important to help the child to feel safe.
Turn off/put on silent all technology and sit with your child with a pen and paper. If this isn’t possible, reach out to someone in your community to take notes or ask the school.
Ask them to start at the first incident and to give you as much information as possible. Allowing them to have breaks if they want to.
Ensure that you are letting them lead their explanations. It is understandable if a child can’t remember every detail, but if the conversation is lead, the child may fill in the ‘blanks’ with incorrect facts. This can make it harder to investigate.
Once they have finished explaining, ask them what they need right now. This could be time alone, or to not be left alone, or even to do something to take their mind off of it.

Contacting the school

Your child’s school will have an anti-racism policy. This might be contained within the Behaviour or Relational approach policy. All policies can be found on the school website.

You may already have a key contact in the school, such as a tutor, head of year or class teacher. If you don’t have this, then you can email the school’s ‘admin’ email or call the school and ask for an email address.

Send the school an email outlining each event with as much detail. Details include dates, times, who was involved and where the incidents happened. It can be useful to number the incidents or bullet point them – so that key details don’t get mixed up. Sending an email also means that the school has all the information in one place. If you are unable to send an email you can of course call the school and you can ask then to write down the conversation and share the notes with you.
If your child is concerned about attending school the following day, you can follow up the email with a call to the school asking for an emergency plan to be put into place, such as a ‘My safety plan’.
You should expect an acknowledgement from the school by the end of the following day, during the school week. If you haven’t heard from the school, then please ring the school and ask them if you can speak to someone in the leadership team. The delay in responding, maybe due to a missed email or staff absence.
When the school do contact you, agree a timeline and ask them to send this to you in an email if you are discussing this over the phone.

Supporting your child during and after the investigation

The school will need to explore the incidents your child has outlined, as well as making decisions for education and consequences for potential assailants. It is unlikely you will be told exactly what the consequences were for identified assailants.

The school can arrange a meeting with your child and yourself to complete a ‘My safety plan’ to explore areas of worry or concerns and how collectively you can all mitigate these to help your child to feel safe.
The school should report all incidents of racism to the Local authority and seek support if necessary.
The school can arrange a staff member to be a mentor. Providing check-ins and ongoing support.
You can ask the school about counselling options, however, do be mindful there may be a waiting list. You can also explore other counselling and support alternatives such as through Young minds.
Ensure you make time for your child each day. Planning activities or sitting down together for dinner. Checking in with each other is one of the best supportive strategies you can utilise.
You may need to explore temporary arrangements for your child to get to and from school if this makes them feel anxious.
You may also decide to report the incident to the Police. It is helpful to understand that most school incidents of racism, where a crime hasn’t been committed will be referred back to the school. To understand hate crime and non-crime hate incidents you can read our One-minute guide and Citizen’s advice also had further information.
You can read our One-minute guide for parents on Bullying, prejudice and racism incidents, to have an improved understanding of incidents and next steps.

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