Guest Post: Starting a Conversation about Anti-Racism

Guest Post

Aug 20

Written By Birmingham Early Years Networks

Janice, Early Years Consultant from Birmingham City Council, discusses how to start a conversation about anti-racism, including how to talk to children about race and racism.

*The following guest post represents the author’s personal view and does not necessarily represent the view of the Birmingham Early Years Networks (BEYN) as a whole. Any issues or questions arising from the content of this post should, therefore, be directed to the author and not BEYN.

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With the easing of the restrictions and warm sunny weather, I was able to have family around, sensibly of course, one glorious Sunday. We had not seen each other since March and had a lot of catching up to do. As usual, us ladies set to putting the world right including talking about the Black Lives Matter movement.

We have four children under-five in our group and a mixture of ages from 17 to 53-years-old, so it was a real mixture of thoughts and opinions. I was asked what my mother had taught me about race.

My mother is white whilst I am of mixed heritage and I remember our conversations well.

What My Mother Taught Me about Race

She would always say that our skin colour makes us stick out in the crowd so “make sure the crowd you are in is a good one.”

She would say keep your mouth closed and your head down: “Don’t think just because Jackie (my BFF who was white) can be a smart mouth you can too.”

She told us to work hard as everything will be harder for us.

She told me to “fit in Janice” and “don’t draw attention to yourself.”

I was 9-years-old when my mom had that conversation with me. It came about as a result of a supply teacher at school who, when calling out the register, pointed out that my last name was of course a slave name. I had corrected her pronunciation and I think perhaps had embarrassed her. I knew nothing about slavery and the film Roots had yet to be televised in the UK. I was left completely confused and embarrassed and, in my 9-year-old mind, ashamed and humiliated by her dismissive tone.

And so, my mom had ‘the conversation’ with me.

My World Growing up

I learnt about Slavery not from my teachers or my family but from that 1977 BBC mini-series called Roots, a story based on Alex Haley’s family history; it was an awakening for many Black people.

I remember it had a significant impact on my thinking and even at that tender age I sort of knew I had to defend and protect myself as someone of a mixed heritage.

I suppose back in the day people would say I had a chip on my shoulder…

If I did, I didn’t put it there, it was given to me by those micro-aggressions delivered by people who were supposedly my friends, my educators, my religious leaders, my neighbours and shop keepers, even the bloke in the local chip shop. I could go on...

What I Have Taught My Children about Race

With my children, I came from the stance that you can be whoever and whatever you want to be. You can achieve. You might have to go over or around or under obstacle. You might have to push twice as hard and you will be knocked back, but you can and will still achieve. Throughout their lives I continue to support them in matters around race and equalities.

But how times have not changed!

My daughter shared that her friend’s daughter sometimes goes to nursery with her hair not plaited but when collecting her from nursery her hair is plaited. There is no explanation as to why a practitioner would need to plait her hair, after all she’s not a doll.

It made me feel uncomfortable and I tried to reason with myself. She has short soft hair with a natural curl so it really would not get in the way of her learning. In fact, whilst she is sitting still having her hair plaited what is she missing out on? She is 18 months old, so really couldn’t request for someone to plait her hair and I can imagine her wriggling to get away. After all, her hair gets plaited after bath time and is part of her bedtime routine. As a group, we agreed that this was wrong and that this practitioner was using her privilege as an adult to ‘do to’.

Talking to Children about Race

We went on to talk about how we will talk with our children about race. There has been a steady rise in race hate incidents since the Brexit referendum and so this new world, post Brexit, presents us with in-your-face racism as well as those micro-aggressions, like my supply teacher all those years ago.

We also agreed that these conversations need to happen in all households and in all childcare settings with staff and children alike. Our practitioners need to understand and be given the language to support these kinds of conversations with even the youngest of our children.

Practitioners need to recognise their privilege as an adult, as a teacher, as a key person and be upskilled to recognise those micro-aggressions in themselves and in others and be given the tools to address and confront them if needs be.