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Bernard Dineen: 'Racism' industry criminalises our children
A VETERAN teacher once told me about a playground incident long ago. During a netball match, with the teacher as referee, a black pupil ran up to her and said: "Miss, Miss, she just called me a black bitch."
The teacher replied instantly: "How dare you interrupt the game. Come and see me at the end." When the game was over, she said: "You wanted to see me?" and received the reply, "No thanks, Miss, it's all right." She then went off with the other girl, best friends again.
These days, such a solution would be impossible. The accused girl would be removed and sent to the headteacher's office. Forms would have to be filled in and parents informed. The little girl's offence would be logged on the appropriate website. The veteran teacher would be disciplined for failing to follow correct procedure and using her common sense.
Council officials in the race relations industry, with titles such as ethnic-minority co-ordinator and diversity officer, congratulate themselves on discovering racism in schools. The more cases they produce the more they justify their well-paid, index-linked salaries. They have a vested interest in exaggerating the problem and branding children as racist.
Such incidents are by no means isolated. There were 5,000 "racist incidents" in Yorkshire schools between 2006 and 2007. It is a growth industry. One county council has set up a project to train nursery staff in "challenging racist statements" from toddlers. Schools which submit "no incident" returns are accused of ignoring and therefore condoning, racism, according to the official local government mantra.
Here are some examples. During a playground game, one girl called another child "blacky". The black girl didn't complain or even notice, but a playground supervisor immediately marched the offender to the office and forms were filled in. The terrified child immediately became a government statistic.
A nine-year-old child called another "chocolate bar". Her parents were notified, she was reprimanded, and denied playtime. During a boisterous game of football, a black girl called a boy "white trash". Tens of thousands of children have been found guilty of racism since the Labour Government implemented its racist-incident reporting policy in 2002.
Another county council hired a community film-maker involved in video projects to make films in primary schools as part of a project called "Watch Out for Racism". Anxious to help in the fight against racism, he went into schools with a team of drama teachers to "raise awareness of the issues" through anti-racist workshops.
He expected to find a widespread problem but instead he found good schools with vibrant, diverse communities in which white, black and ethnic-minority children mixed well together. But it had been ordained that these schools had "issues" and it was his job to unearth them and force the children to acknowledge them. So the drama tutors' remit was to make the children focus on their racial identity, to the obvious bewilderment of many of the youngsters.
The anti-racist fanatics believe "a celebration of difference" resolves prejudice whereas it can encourage separation that didn't exist before. Many teachers disagree with the zero-tolerance approach but are scared to say so for fear of being accused of being branded racist themselves.
We have allowed a tiny minority of zealots to bully the majority in this way, and it is poisoning society.
MAKING promises to vulnerable people that will never be kept is the most contemptible kind of politics, and is a speciality of this Government.
Last week's ludicrous promise of "free health care at home for those in greatest need" is a prime example. Nothing could happen before the
next election anyway, even if it could be afforded, which it can't.
You may have forgotten another of Gordon Brown's dishonest promises back in 2008. Primary care trusts were to be given money to provide "respite breaks for carers" to help them in their task.
The small amount of money soon vanished into the accounts of PCTs. One trust member says not a penny of the additional money has been passed on to carers in his or other trusts.
Still, no matter. It produced a few "caring" headlines, which was Labour's only aim in the first place.
THE great-grandson of a Field Marshal in the Indian Army has found a letter from him dated 1878. His great-grandfather was a subaltern in the First Afghan War and was wounded many times.
The letter says: "Anyone who knows the Afghan mind must be alive to the fact that, with all our desire to do justly, the great majority of the people would be glad to see us depart and would rejoice to return to the state of things we pride ourselves on having delivered them. We are aliens. We are wanting in every bond that binds people together. Further, we are conquerors who act as if everything we say or do is best."
Why is it that what was obvious to a crusty old field marshal a hundred years ago still hasn't dawned on the White House and Downing Street? It is a tragedy that good men will continue to die until the message finally gets through.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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