By Arnault Kasa, Class Teacher, Peel Primary School, West Lothian
This post is part of a series of three blogs by educators and activists published in February 2023 and focusing on the Building Racial Literacy (BRL) programme. You can see all the blogs in the series at the link below:
Building Racial Literacy programme blogs
Being born in a country like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, you are faced with countless issues. From power cuts to paying for education to being mugged by armed robbers in the safety of your own home. However, racism was not something I worried about. I was 12 years old when my mother finalised our paperwork to reunite with her in Prague. She left me aged seven to go find a better future for my brothers and me. I landed in Prague on a Saturday morning and I started school on the Monday morning.
My whole world was turned upside down. I realised that discrimination was a way of life in my new environment. The reason I tell you about this is that the education system in my home country did not prepare me for the global issues that affects people of colour in the western world.
I was not aware that racism existed until I moved to a place where I was the visible minority and racism was prevalent. It was common for me to be spat at on my way to school or when I was walking back from the shopping centre with my brother. For me racism largely comes from ignorance and can be a subconscious or conscious rejection of the unknown, I can also describe it as an unwillingness to explore or discover the world to its fullest.
The only two worlds that I knew (Democratic Republic of Congo and Czech Republic) throughout my childhood were both spaces that were racially illiterate. It is only now as an adult, when I reflect on my first encounters of racism, I understand how crucial it is for people to be racially literate even more so those who are education practitioners. My teachers in Prague were semi-racially literate and they vaguely knew that other ethnic groups existed but they never taught this to their children or in a way that did not have a ‘deficit’ view of those who are different. It was evident that my classmates had never seen a person of colour as they tried to touch my hair to ensure that I was a real person.
I believe that it is paramount for education practitioners to have respect and awareness of other cultures, to value all learners and have a global citizenship attitude towards life. I quickly understood that the world is bigger than where I am from and the cultural wealth that the world has to offer is too beautiful for anybody to miss.
Because of my story with racism, I enjoyed being on the Building the Racial Literacy (BRL) programme with Education Scotland. I was part of the first cohort and I am now a facilitator. I agreed to become a facilitator so that I could continue to network with like-minded practitioners, I wanted to listen to ideas, experiences across Scotland, and share my own journey as well. Being a facilitator gives me the hope that our society tomorrow will be better than what it is today. I could not pass up the privilege to be a part of the cultural change that is currently happening across Scotland because of the BRL programme. I wanted my voice to be represented alongside other voices so that we can have a fuller picture of what our views are and what we can do to make things better, share good practice across the board.
The BRL programme unravelled the entire racial trauma I had buried deep within me. By engaging with tasks, which explore systemic racism and explained how the world as we know it is meant to remain as it currently is, exploring websites such as the Anti-racist educator, by listening to other people experiences, which were of a similar nature to mine. I was taken aback and I reflected on my role and how I can have a positive impact to make things better.
I was empowered to be the change that I want to see in society. Being a black and minority ethnic educator is an honour and having completed the BRL programme gives me the courage to talk about race, racism and anti-racism. I came to the realisation that identifying, as a person of colour did not necessarily give me the racial literacy I needed to be an anti-racist educator. To develop racial literacy, one must be intentional about the choices they make on a daily basis and those choices must come from a loving place. I need to be proactive about the impact I want to have and look for opportunities to develop people’s understanding of racial literacy and that it does not always have to be overt. To develop racial literacy you must be courageous and adopt a loving approach in what can sometimes be an unloving society.
I am still on this journey and working through my action plan, which I created because of my completion of the BRL programme. My favourite quote of all time by Angela Davis says, “In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.” I would highly recommend for the Scottish Government to make the Building the Racial Literacy course mandatory to all current ad aspiring teachers. If we want a better society where systemic racism is dismantled, we must act and be allies on this anti-racist journey. To conclude, I would like to share Martin Luther King Jr’s quote that says, “Judge a man not by the colour of his skin, but the content of his character”
We all have a story to tell and I know that my story is still being written and at the end of the day, humanity will prevail over all types of discrimination. I leave you with a poem that I wrote last year about what racism means to me.
Racism is (A way of life)
Racism is waking up to online abuse every other day.
Racism is taking the knee but still being called a monkey.
Racism is a daily reminder of your skin colour.
Racism is being called a black c*** rather than just a c***.
Racism is being spat on when walking to school and taking the bus back home.
Racism is clinching your fists and trying to stop the tears.
Racism is feeling helpless and alone in front of millions of people.
Racism is hoping one day you will stand out for more than just your skin colour
Racism is a story that we are rewriting!
About the author
Mr Arnault Kasa is a Class Teacher at Peel Primary School, West Lothian.
