Page 8 - Anti-Racism Pocketbook for Schools and Academies

• For sentencing, it was 13 per thousand population for
black people and five per thousand population for white

people

• 37.4% of black people and 44.8% of Asian people felt

unsafe being at home or around their local area,

compared with 29.2% of white people

Although these statistics determine that there is an issue of

racism, many people still debate the idea that racism is

ingrained and visibly apparent in UK society. In order to fully
understand the context and importance behind addressing

racism, there needs to be an understanding behind the

context and how it translates into modern society.

Understanding racial prejudice

Racism and racial prejudice is often shown through the

behaviour and attitudes that we express to others. With this

country’s history of slavery, colonialism, and the constant

marginalisation of ethnic people, these behaviours and
attitudes have unfortunately become severely ingrained into

the fabric of the UK society.

In our society, white is the default standard that we see.
Imagine you are walking through Primark because you need

to find a nude set of leggings or you are walking through the

pharmacy because you are looking for nude band aids to

cover scars, the immediate product that would be available
under the term ‘nude’ would be white. For a lot of ethnically

diverse people, it is frustrating that white is a default for

nude when it should be a universal description for all shades

of skin colours and people.

6