I'm hesitant to start this one because of the anger I feel over it.
On a Saturday morning my child goes to football. He goes together with many of his friends from the local primary which is a delightful mix of multiple nationalities. We are fortunate that he has the benefit of growing up with friends whose parents hail from countries near and far including China, India, Pakistan, Japan, Cameroon, Poland, Ireland, France, Iran.
My take on this is completely positive. I am so pleased that in his formative years my boy will get the chance to form real friendships with children who have a different cultural heritage. We are lucky in our little Southern English village to have this level of diversity and only good can come of it in my opinion.
An incident was reported on Saturday whereby a team manager had told a non-Caucasian boy that he wasn't listening, which was true enough. The man then suggested that the child would be more attentive if he was spoken to in his mother tongue and proceeded to annunciate some pigeon rubbish, presumably meant to mimic.
Apparently casual racism is alive in the eastern counties and there is no shame in directing it at young children.
What's worse is this person will likely be known among the community as a nice chap and anyone calling him on his behaviour would be told he meant no harm, it was just a joke. Some of my best friends etc......
Not acceptable, not acceptable at all.
The child happily was oblivious.
I am getting worked up again thinking about it.
When you think to yourself about having kids and bringing them up there are things that you don't want to consider. Having to teach children how to deal with racist bigotry from adults entrusted with their care is one of them.
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