Officers from Brighton and Hove City Council have been called in to investigate claims of a “culture of racial abuse” at Varndean School.Claims by people who stand to profit in some way by it? Yup!
The alarm was raised by Mosaic, a charity supporting black and mixed-race families in Brighton and Hove.Shocker, I know…
Abigail Sinclair, a Mosaic community worker, said she was in contact with the parents of six children at the school who had complained of repeated verbal and physical racial abuse.
She added the “majority” of school racism cases dealt with by the charity in the past 18 months had involved students at Varndean.So the school calls in the ‘experts’ and negotiates with the charity and boxes are ticked left, right and centre.
The school can congratulate itself on its academic achievements, though, clearly:
Ms Sinclair claimed white students had developed their own codeword insults to keep under the radar of teachers including ‘reggin’- an anagram of a racial taunt.That’s impressive! Most schoolkids would be hard-pressed to spell it correctly forwards…!
It also underscores the utter futility of ‘anti-racist’ and ‘derogatory language’ campaigns; the kids will just invent new ones.
This intrigues me. Is 'reggin' now going to be outlawed as an unacceptable racial slur? Will all true anagrams of those letters (as opposed to merely reversing the word) also be off limits? If someone gets called a ginger (which I have just realised is such an anagram) will the racial police be called?
ReplyDeleteThis opens up a huge vista of any word being a racial slur because it contains the same letters as other words. How clever of the race pot stirrers to invent a whole new category of insults for them to counter. Extra salaries and pensions all round!!
What you also need to bear in mind is that the last thing these "Cheridees" actually want, is for the problem to be solved - there would be no further need for them then would there? and that would mean no funding, and that would mean no job - so perpetuating the situation is a must if you want to protect your income stream.
ReplyDeleteFidel, youve hit the nail squarely on the head. One of the worst examples is the definition of poverty as a percentage of median income. Anyone with O-level Maths can twig that this means poverty will NEVER be eliminated as the line always shifts.
ReplyDeleteOf course all the little black children are absolutely angelic aren't they? I wonder at the background to this as my experience is that such things do not grow in isolation nor generally without some cause.
ReplyDeleteI had a brush with one of these charities years ago, when a pupil told me he had been told by a youth worker how to identify racist behaviour or language used by white teachers and classmates; he was, of course, expected to report back if he spotted any.
ReplyDeleteIt rather reminded me of the I-spy books - remember them? - and their list of target objects to tick off as you found them.
Meanwhile, your post brought to mind a local character from my home town, universally - and affectionately - known as 'Nodrog' because he was 'a bit backward, see?'
XX It also underscores the utter futility of ‘anti-racist’ and ‘derogatory language’ campaigns; the kids will just invent new ones. XX
ReplyDeleteWhich kind of puts paid to the idea that "racism" is learned as well.
If that were so, as opposed to NATURAL, after a generation and a half, to two generations of this shite, surely the wee bastards should have "unlearned" the attitudes of Grannys and great grannys by now?
It was 'Gow' when I was at school in the eighties
ReplyDeleteWe used 'bozrin', dunno why but I seem to recall that it only applied to small ones.
ReplyDeleteI remember when they banned "spastic" but helpfully supplied an alternative insult, "special needs".
"This opens up a huge vista of any word being a racial slur..."
ReplyDeleteA Brave New World indeed!
"I wonder at the background to this as my experience is that such things do not grow in isolation nor generally without some cause."
Spot on!
"...universally - and affectionately - known as 'Nodrog' because he was 'a bit backward, see?'"
:D
"If that were so, as opposed to NATURAL, after a generation and a half, to two generations of this shite, surely the wee bastards should have "unlearned" the attitudes of Grannys and great grannys by now?"
ReplyDeleteWell, indeed. Of course, the sociologists will just insist that all this means is that Granny's attitude is far more persistent.