Posted 13th October 2010

I gave a talk on The Myth of Racist Kids to The Leeds Salon on Monday 11th October.  It formed part of a number of satellite events positioned around the annual Battle of Ideas conference in London which took place on the 30th and 31st of October.  The issue of 'racist kids' and the opportunity to discuss it at the Leeds event was picked up by the Yorkshire Post - it made a succinct prelude to a lively debate.  Read the Yorkshire Post article here.

Below is an edited transcript of the talk:

As a freelance community filmmaker, I’ve worked on several anti-racism projects in schools over recent years.  And it led to this report.  So I thought I’d summarise the main arguments I put forward in The Myth of Racist Kids:

In short I argue that:

A brand of top-down ‘official’ anti-racism currently operates in schools which interferes with the progress of a generation of kids who are fully capable of transcending race.

It’s most obvious manifestation is the government requirement (soon to become a legal duty) for schools to identify, record and report so-called “racist incidents”.   In Britain this has produced over 250,000 reported incidents since 2002; figures which have inspired numerous educational interventions.

I argue that official anti-racism undermines the authority of schools, mistrusts teachers and profoundly misunderstands children – who they are and how they develop.   

And I ask this question:  In an increasingly cosmopolitan Britain where race is less and less relevant, is it not the case that this phoney anti-racism is fast becoming the dominant racialising influence on young children?  

Its quite a toxic area to have sailed into.  People want to shoot you down just for asking these questions.  Certainly the advocates and architects of anti-racist policies don’t want to come here and debate this issue.