Welsh children take a stand against racism

Children from across Wales have been taking a stand against discrimination as part of a creative project with Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC).

The anti-racism educational charity says schools in Wales are increasingly asking for help to tackle racist attitudes in children.

SRtRC today hosted its annual Creative Competition Awards Ceremony. The ceremony celebrates creative work by young people in the fields of diversity, anti-racism and equality.

10-year-old Raeesa Miah wrote a poem about a child experiencing racism in the classroom.

Prize winners aged five to 15 had the chance to meet celebrities and professional Welsh sport stars.

Wales Campaign Manager for SRtRC, Sunil Patel, said, “the standard of entries has been brilliant.”

“At a time when racism remains on the rise, it is encouraging to see young people empowered to produce such inspiring entries which highlight this important issue in society."

"The competition is a massive part of our work to educate young people about racism.”

According to the organisation, SRtRC Wales has received more enquires for anti-racism workshops this academic year than the two previous years combined.

“41% of the enquiries recorded between September 2018 and April 2019 were in direct response to a racist incident in the school.”

In a survey of teachers in Wales, racist incidents are happening in classrooms with pupils as young as seven.

Teachers have overheard racist comments from children, which allegedly include referring to a black child as “poo”, calling another a “terrorist” and saying that a classmate “shouldn’t be in our country anyway.”

In another survey of primary school pupils in Wales, 70% of children thought the term “coloured” was acceptable before receiving a SRtRC workshop and 14% said they have experienced or witnessed a racist incident.

Their testimonies included being called “the N word”, “a slit-eyed c***”, “a dark chocolate bar” and one Polish child was told, “Polish people are retarded.”