Opinion - Look out for extremists
Marcia Hutchinson, managing director, Primary Colours
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Following the murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence, the McPherson Inquiry concluded that despite best intentions, organisations could still end up unintentionally discriminating against ethnic minorities. If people with good intentions can end up discriminating against ethnic minorities, then what about those who hold racist views?
Teachers can become, and are, members of the far-right BNP party, which believes in repatriation of ethnic minorities. How can they hold these views and treat all children fairly? Much of what a teacher does is at their discretion: which child to pick to answer questions, what grades are given, who is punished and for what. These powers could all easily be used to discriminate against non-white pupils.
For example, a relative of mine was constantly getting in trouble at primary school and thought he was being picked on. His mother spoke to the teacher, who admitted that sometimes a group of boys misbehaved and she couldn't identify each one, but recognised Roy because 'he does stand out with that hairstyle, doesn't he?' Roy has mini-dreadlocks and was the only black boy in the group. The teacher probably did not intend to be racist in singling out Roy, but he was easy to identify and therefore blamed for the group's behaviour. Until Roy's mother pointed this out, the teacher had no idea that she was effectively discriminating against Roy. She was not knowingly racist, but this is how institutionalised racism works.
Membership of the BNP is incompatible with the implementation of the Race Relations Amendment Act and the Community Cohesion Act, both of which impose legal duties on teachers to promote cultural diversity.
How would you feel if a BNP member was teaching your children? It's time to deal with the creeping extremism in our political system.
This alone would be sufficient grounds to ban BNP membership for teachers but the General Teaching Council has refused to do so and will not debate the issue.
