Reflections of Racism in Primary school

Born in England in the 1970s to a father from British India and a mother from the subsequent partition by the Radcliffe Line, attending Primary school as the only non-White child in my class was... an experience

Being told you are different

Suddenly from the outset being called "chocolate face" and having sand thrown in my eyes in the sandpit was upsetting.

I didn't respond with any horrid racism such as calling the racist "stale milk face!"

My parents brought me up to be accepting of all cultures and appearances and backgrounds.

But suddenly I am made aware that I am different snd I am not welcome in the Infant School.

Insults from a few children continued often daily and weekly. Words such as Golliwog and the reference to the first four letters of Pakistan were hurled often with parents of the children at home time smiling in approval of their child's racism.

When I was visibly upset in class, the teacher would often ignore and expect me to toughen up as sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me?

Comedy racism

Lenny Henry of BBC Television fame whose show was a breakthrough moment for Black entertainment albeit with some awful sterotypes was popular viewing growing up.

To be called "Lenny Henry" in Junior School I took as an upgraded form of racism as at elast I was being compared to somebody famous.

Of course I wasn't the only one mistaken for Lenny Henry!

School football and swimming lessons

Then there was Primary school football. Sharing my older brother's shin guards and a pair of second hand boots (with the thread damaged ok one stud on the right foot made running very painful!) I tried and as my friends said I should have been chosen to play for the school team.

I was overlooked season after season even when they were short of players! Only until the final years of junior school was I considered for team and that was thanks only to my class teacher and the Headmistress who ran the football team!

"Coloured people have heavier bones"

To think I was being discriminated was too difficult for me to comprehend but matters came ahead in weekly swimming lessons at the local municipality swimming pool... our class walked over a mile for more than 20 minutes with 1 teacher! The swimming coach said "coloured people have heavier bones" and kept us in the 'baby' pool until the final year of junior school where the water was barely above my knees! Only then were we - the three children of colour in two classes of junior school left to splash in the shallow end denied swimming instruction.

I believed it to true! watching the Olympics also reinforced the notion that white European and their imperial colonisers in North America and Australasia dominated the swimming competitions. Only later did I realise it was due to the privilege of swimming pools where the global majority swim for survival and livelihood.

Until I was reminded by my parents of the geography of the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal and the many rivers stemming from the Himalayas which make rivers in England look like streams!

My father explained how his family heritage were fishermen and swimming was as natural for our ancestors as riding a bike to children in England and Europe!

We all look the same so we must sound the same?

My last reflection of Primary School racism is the EAL provision. True I didn't speak or know how to speak English fluently until aged 7 or so. I spent most of Infant school following and copying with my friends around me... my white friends who defended me against racist name calling.

By the mid 1980s a few more non-White children joined the school. They were from Indian East African heritage who spoke Gujarati at home. Different geography, language and religion to me.

So to support our English language comprehension, we had weekly bilingual lessons in the TV room of the Primary school (basically an annex to the coal shed).

The lady spoke Gujarati and English. I was lost further and unable to speak fluently or without impediment - having had my tonsils removed very lately diagnosed and months of pain in my throat- and both were non-native languages to me and not what we spoke at home to our parents.

They concluded I was an elective mute and a 'Special school' was my destination until my mother fought valiantly to overcome this decision ironically speaking Hindi to an administrative staff at the Health Centre to ask for reconsideration to remain in mainstream education.