Today, 12th March 2019, the Coalition of Racial Equality and Rights launches an anti-racist poster campaign aimed at encouraging the public to intervene in racist incidents. The poster shows a white person shouting racist abuse at a Black person. A third person ponders what they heard and what they should do about it. In Scotland, we hear racism daily on the buses, in taxis, at libraries, doctors’ surgeries, sports clubs, museums and pubs. What do we do about it?
Scotland’s schools have recorded over 3,000 racist incidents in the past five years, according to figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats through Freedom of Information requests. While this may seem shocking to some, we’re confident that it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
In 2012, CRER undertook detailed research into racist incident recording practices and policies in Scotland’s schools. What we found was a patchy, problematic range of approaches. Based on research carried o...