Abstract
This chapter will start by foregrounding my experience as a Black teacher first in primary schools and then as a lecturer. My experiences of being ‘othered’ and ‘gaslit’ by colleagues and people in positions of power were disappointing, saddening and stress-inducing. It further opened my eyes as to the performativity of their speech acts in which colleagues referred to me as an equal. This led to the question that if a Black, female lecturer, ostensibly in a position of power, could experience and then call out examples of racism, bias and unconscious bias enacted on them, what more so for a Black student.
The contours of racism or contours of Whiteness will be discussed as a prelude to the discourse on racism and unconscious bias that underpins the experiences of the students. All this happened at a time when the United Kingdom and political class were in turmoil over Brexit (Britain’s exit from the European Union). Schools are microcosms of society; that is, the pupils and all staff come from society. So, if far-right rhetoric has become near-mainstream and normalised in society, then why should we be surprised to find it in schools?
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Notes
- 1.
This document has not been referenced because to do so will nullify the anonymity of the institution.
- 2.
Stephen Lawrence (1974–1993) was a young Black British man, murdered by racists whilst waiting at a bus stop in Eltham, South-East London.
- 3.
‘Lockdown’—normal freedom of movement is severely restricted to try and prevent the spread of the coronavirus—Covid-19.
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Poku, V. (2022). Black Teacher, White System: Critical Race Theory and the Contours of Racism. In: Black Student Teachers' Experiences of Racism in the White School . Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96064-3_1
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