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By *heWolfMan
over a year ago
warwickshire |
"If anybody else has any ideas about how i can stamp out this kind of attitide i would be gratefull."
Well, not by informing the police about the comments of a child for starters, that'll just set you up for more serious abuse.
Guess what, kids can tell if someone is different and will pick on each other because of it - fatty, blackie, spastic, no-Dad, speccy Four eyes, gypo, etc etc. take your pick, there'll be something along those lines being used everywhere. If they are young kids, they will soon get bored, the smelly kid will become the next target, it's part of growing up, and you and your partner, though you obviously find this distressing, need to accept that. Whilst it is absolutely right for parents to protect their children, over-reacting by phoning the police will only get GRASS painted on your fence in 4' high letters, the abuse will go underground and become far more insiduous.
The current situation is one of life's little lessons for your child, that people are sometimes nasty, for whatever reason, and sometimes there is nothing one can do but weather the storm. When your offspring is backpacking round the world at 18 and goes to the Deep South, better they recognise the prejudice and rise above it, than be paralysed with shock and horror and phoning home for Mummy & Daddy to sort it out because some redneck has used a term of abuse. Being called a "darkie" is positively pleasant to some things your child will routinely hear if they travel outside this country.Many places in the world, even in Europe, still don't find the half-caste a part of normal life as we do here.
Time to wake up, toughen up, and equip your child to live in the REAL world, not just a fantasy place where everyone of every creed, caste and colour live in a happy melting pot in perfect harmony (playing "Ebony & Ivory" on the piano). The fact you are "aghast that in this day and age that we are still encountering this kind of prejudice" and informed the police says to me that you simply have been walking around with your head in the clouds, trust me, it's always been there, and always will be to some extent. It'll never be changed by legislation, coercion or criminalisation, that just drives it out of sight.
IMHO, this type of behaviour is best tackled by turning the other cheek, by making sure the little shit is invited to the parties etc, they will soon see your child for what they are, rather than what they have been brought up to see, and be shamed into perhaps changing their attitude towards different people. You can't make them like your child, but you can stop them disliking for no reason.
Not forgetting, of course, that it's not all smiling Morgan Freeman and racial harmony in the USA either. White people are certainly not welcome in certain areas, you don't know that the child's family hasn't experienced racial tensions that shaped their attitude, tensions that we here in the UK have no real concept of, in a civilised society. The USA is one of the most backward places I have ever been regarding race relations, totally at odds with the official idea that it's a big melting pot, black president or not. As a white man, I had more chance of being shot dead simply for being white than in just about any African city I have visited, frighteningly so, in this day and age.
Such is life, I'm afraid.
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And such "fight back" attitude has stayed with me ever since, and I refused to be a victum. This has served me well to this date.
Ooo, I guess making the effort to integrate helped!
I remember the advice from my English as a Foreign Language teacher at the time:
In order to get a good job, one needs a good accent (remember this was 30y ago, and I was at a boarding school).
People feel uneasy if you speak a different language in front of them, as they think you are speaking about them.
The second advice still holds true IMHO, more so in the multi-cultural society we live in today!
Anyone got any experience to share? 
