Over recent months Somerset Youth Parliament have spoken about how racist opinions, language and behaviour seem to be steadily increasing in our schools – both in primary and secondary. At our last meeting, one of our members shared how she had to move primary schools because the school didn’t address the issue or even seem to understand how serious racism is. The impact of racism on the pupil and their family is devastating and threatens their sense of safety and belonging, wellbeing, and feeling devalued and disrespected.
So, what’s the root of this age-old issue? Social media can now infect children and young people’s minds, where there is a gap of underdeveloped intelligence and ignorance. Greed, blaming, jealousy and paranoia breed in vulnerable minds. Do our schools and educators perpetuate the problem through their own ignorance and apathy? Do parents engage in meaningful conversation with their children around values, respect and self-respect?
Here’s Daniel’s perspective and thoughts on racism:
Throughout time, racism has always been present though rarely acknowledged as a problem (unless you are a victim). Now, especially in recent times, this problem has become regular in younger generations. It’s s a difficult topic to discuss, yet that means it’s even more important to cover.
What I state in this, is just to try to inform and is not trying to offend or be harmful. To many this may be quite an unfortunately recent and personal topic.
If you have been a victim of racism or have experienced/viewed an act of racial discrimination or want to report racism, call the numbers at the end of this article.
We are going to discuss who exactly is at fault and why. Should parents and teachers be held accountable? Is it social media’s fault?
There are a wide variety of reasons for why racism occurs. From bad online influences to the people, children are surrounded by – including parents and the children’s home life. All of these factors can determine a child’s racial outlook.
That said, culprits should still be held accountable for their actions as racism should not be allowed to flower. This may not have been entirely their fault but, to prepare them for adulthood and to nurture them into caring and respectful people, they still have to understand that discrimination is not acceptable or kind.
People often inquire whether social media and online influences are a cause of racism in youth. From a recent survey about online racism, the results were as follows:
- 95% had encountered violent or abusive racist content online.
- 16% saw racist content online every day, including violence and abuse
- 38% saw racist content at least once a week
- 41% saw racist content “occasionally”
- 4% said they never saw it
Although this doesn’t directly state whether it encourages children, it still tells us that a massive proportion of people have witnessed hate crimes and racism. This shows us that the population of younger generations are surrounded by this online. Studies have shown, people are more likely to be influenced by their surroundings at a younger age. This is due to how at a younger age your brain has an already minimalistic amount of knowledge, so your brain will register and mentally absorb everything around you. This makes children more susceptible to being negatively influenced.
A good way to stop this would be to fill kids’ early years with kindness and respect.
A common question when contemplating this matter is to ask whether the parents and teachers should be held accountable. I would say both yes and no. I believe that teachers are partially responsible yet not totally, as most racism occurs away from adults and in the absence of teachers.
This then brings up the question of whether teachers should be permanently monitoring children. I believe that although that may be good in the short term, teachers would not be able to supervise children perpetually and our young people wouldn’t be able to grow independently or function in the coming years. So overall I would say teachers try their best with nurturing and protecting kids from hate and are not particularly to blame for acts of hate or racism. Yet some can be slightly to blame for the possibility of a lack of education on respect and racism.
As I touched upon in my last part, are the parents at fault? I’m going to say this doesn’t apply to most parents and generally parents are a brilliant influence and educators to their kids. But in most acts of hate speech and discrimination in youth I would say it is ultimately down to the parents. For example, if parents don’t monitor what their children watch or have access to online, then the issue I stated earlier could take place. This would overall be the parents’ fault. Another action that nurtures hate and discrimination would be the act of family members directly using racist or discriminatory words and opinions. These can negatively impact children and young people.
Throughout my article I have shown many reasons why the child is not to blame and that it isn’t already their fault. This does not mean that I believe that this behaviour should be excused or be allowed to continue. I’ve heard from other’s experiences, that in some environments and schools, racism can be punished with an apology. In my opinion I seriously disagree with this policy. The perpetrator should issue an apology, but I believe the punishment/consequence should be a bit harsher. For example, I believe being suspended and multiple consecutive detentions would be a decent option, but overall, it is down to the school. Even though it may not be entirely their fault they should still be given a punishment that is appropriate, yet serious enough to make them seriously reconsider their actions and teach them the severity of their discrimination.
Overall discrimination should not be tolerated and if you experience or view any please report it. Thank you for reading.
Dan
If you have encountered racism or have been in any way impacted by anything mentioned in this article, please reach out to these support organisations:
Childline – 0800 1111
Avon and Somerset Police – 101 or 999
Citizens Advice Bureau – 0800 374 618
Stop Hate UK – 0800 138 1625
