In September 2023 I published a book called Letters to a Young Generation: Aspiring School Leaders. In October, the Guardian newspaper published an article about the book and used wording from the letters as the headline: ‘Black headteachers in the UK say pupils are crying out for ‘people who look like them.’ This article was perhaps one of my proudest moments as a publisher, as it propelled the book into the limelight, bringing it to the attention of many who had never really considered the fact that representation amongst the Black and Asian teaching community was still so lacking in UK schools. There were many who read the article and the book and wanted to understand more. There were also those who used the headline of the Guardian article to share their own opinions on the matter.
When the article was posted on Twitter, the comments came thick and fast. Comments such as: “Africa is full of people who look like them,” “Nothing like a nice bit of race baiting from Black headteachers there,” and “Why would you move to north-west europe if you want people who look like you. Imagine being this thick.”
In the Bible, Proverbs 6:24 says ‘Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.’ So at the time I didn’t bother to respond, although my immediate response would probably have been, ‘Imagine being this thick….that you don’t even bother to read the article or the book before making such ignorant comments.’
Now we all know that newspapers exist to make money and the whole purpose of a headline is to catch people’s attention and this is exactly what the Guardian article did. Ok, so they put two phrases together to make one – the exact phrases in the book were: ‘You are needed to be part of the change this country is crying out for – the change our children need,’ and ‘Having school leaders who look like students is one thing, but having school leaders and teachers who have the power and autonomy to advocate for, to lobby for, and to intervene on behalf of students who look like them…’ But, it’s their prerogative to use their creative license to make the article more appealing and draw in more readers, which it succeeded in doing. I had no problem with the headline. If only those pesky (we’re keeping it U) keyboard warriors bothered to look beyond the headline and read the actual article. If only they took the time to realise that we know there are people Africa that look like us but our issue is not with what’s happening Africa, it’s with what’s happening the UK. If only they took the time to realise that we didn’t move to North-west Europe (and that Europe should be spelt with a capital letter as it’s a proper noun), we were born here (doh!) and if only they took the time to realise that this is far from race baiting, we are simply and clearly stating a fact, Black pupils would love to see people who look like them teaching them. At no point did anyone suggest that white students should only have white teachers – as one commentator suggested was the takeaway from this headline. No-one is calling for an apartheid education system as some of these critics seem to believe. We’re calling for a system where representation matters and at the moment the statistics clearly show it does not.
The problem with some people is that they don’t want to see things from other people’s perspective. As soon as a Black person stands up and says there’s an issue let’s talk about it, someone wants to claim the race card is being played, or that we (Black people) are being divisive and then claim that if a white person said something similar, they’d find themselves in hot water. What these, narrow-minded people fail to realise is that there would never be a need for a white British person living in the UK to say something similar because the system has always been in their favour…hello?! All Black people are trying to do is highlight the inequalities and create a more equitable playing field. Why is that so difficult to understand? Ahh, hang on, let me answer my own question….it’s difficult to understand because the narrow-minded, ignorant bigots who make the comments mentioned above, choose not to take the path of enlightenment and understanding and have a reasoned discussion. They choose not to ask questions and seek clarity; they don’t even bother to question the journalist who wrote the article about the statistics mentioned. Instead they wallow in their own cesspit of self-pity, decide it’s propaganda and whitewashing and call for any Black staff who are making these claims to be disciplined. Welcome to 2023, people….no doubt there will be more to come in 2024!