Aanya G (SVI) and Jasmine T (SV) gave this incredibly impactful speech at Monday morning assembly to mark the beginning of Black History Month.
October 1st marks the start of Black History Month. This is a celebration of Black history and culture so it’s the perfect time to educate ourselves on the struggles that Black people continue to face in society and pay attention to the achievements of Black people through history. Black History Month should be a year-round celebration.
We are lucky to be on our way to the Gold Award in a Rights Respecting School and have such amazing resources available to us.
Under Article 2 of the UN Rights of the Child, it states every child should be protected from discrimination and Article 30 states any child belonging to such a minority should be able to enjoy his or her own culture.
Unconscious biases are social stereotypes that every individual makes about certain groups of people. These are subconscious beliefs that we make throughout our lives. However, these biases are often negative.
We live in a world full of unconscious bias. We live in a world where touching people’s hair, mimicking accents, uploading inappropriate photos of people of colour onto school documents and asking people where they are really, really from is normalised. These may seem like small things, “It’s just a joke”, “They didn’t mean it” or “Get over it” might come to mind. But when it’s the 10th time you’ve heard that in a day it affects you.
These are all examples of microaggressions. A microaggression is a statement, action, or incident regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group such as a racial or ethnic minority. You may be sitting here thinking “Well, this doesn’t affect me”, but the thing is it does. Microaggressions are the most prevalent form of racism in our community, and it’s affected me and several of our peers too often.
Different cultures should be something we celebrate and embrace in our community. We should be grateful to have increasing diversity in a small school. Personally, I want to be able to talk about what makes me me and a part of that is my heritage, skin colour and religion. It makes a part of all of us. My heritage has meant I’ve been marginalised my whole life, followed in shops, excessively questioned in airports, and I’ve dealt with simple things such as having people compare their tans to me.
At this school, I’ve seen friends’ names being made fun of, accents being mocked, and I’ve been asked why my second name isn’t Indian. I am not obligated to explain myself to anyone.
I’m not overexaggerating or being dramatic. I shouldn’t be made to feel as though I am being too sensitive. Because I’ve tried to invalidate my feelings one too many times. These feelings of being uncomfortable in my own skin and wondering if I’m the problem build up over time.
These aren’t just my feelings either. I know other people here have felt the same. It’s inevitable to feel out of place in a class where you feel like you’re the ‘odd one out.’
Every day we come into contact with social media trends and jokes which sometimes focus on stereotypes surrounding people of colour. They circulate on social media forming our opinions. Each time we laugh at, share, or ignore these jokes, we normalise stereotypes and reinforce harmful narratives about certain racial groups. Over time, these seemingly small interactions shape how we view and treat people in real life. They feed into an unconscious bias, making us more likely to judge, exclude, or stereotype someone without even realising it.
Just this summer, riots across the country based off a false rumour made many people of colour too scared to leave their house. Me personally, the thought of going into Glasgow worried me and thinking about all the people living down south in the badly affected areas was horrible.
Having family in England brought the reality of people of colour being targeted closer. Watching people that looked like me and my family being attacked, both verbally and physically took a significant toll on me mentally. Living in fear is not the way to live.
Anti-immigration views have also become more discussed, especially following the EDL riots. This stems from stereotypes and insensitive comments. Creating a space for these views only divides us further and isolates those from immigrant backgrounds. This should be acknowledged and challenged within our community to create a safe space for everyone. Nobody here should be made to feel as though they are ‘other.’
If you want a safe space to talk about any experiences you’ve faced, support others or you want to help run campaigns and learn more about racism and unconscious bias, Kick it Out runs every Tuesday in Room 16.
It’s easy to tell ourselves that we’re not part of the problem, that we don’t mean to hurt anyone, that we don’t “see” colour. But the truth is, subconscious racism can still exist in people who think they are doing everything right. And that’s why it’s so dangerous. If we don’t see it, we can’t fight it.
These issues may seem too big to tackle but as a community we can make a difference within our lives and the lives of others around you. Being able to recognise and call out microaggressions amongst your friends and peers will help people pay attention to their words and actions.
We have a responsibility as a community to confront this. We need to ask ourselves the hard questions: Am I judging someone unfairly? Am I in the wrong? Am I making assumptions based on stereotypes? Am I staying silent when I should be standing up for someone else?
Silence allows subconscious racism to grow unchecked. Silence is complicity. We have the power to break the cycle, to examine our own biases, and to challenge those of others.
Thank you.
