Boy, 7, Accused of Racism After 'Curious' Question at School

quote This Is Hull And East Riding

A BOY of seven is facing accusations of racism after asking a fellow pupil if he was “brown because he was from Africa”.

Elliott Dearlove asked the question of the five-year-old boy at Griffin Primary School in Barham Road, east Hull.

The younger boy’s mother complained to the school, which launched an investigation.

Elliott’s mother, Hayley White, 29, says she received a phone call to say her son had been at the centre of a “racist incident”.

She was summoned to the school by her son’s teacher, where she was read the school’s zero-tolerance policy on racism.

Miss White, an NHS healthcare worker, said: “Elliott does not even know the meaning of the word racist. The policy made clear that racism would not be tolerated. But this was not racism. It was simply curiosity from a seven-year-old boy, nothing more.”

More at source: Boy, 7, faces racism claim after 'curious' question at Griffin Primary School

I sense there could potentially be another side to this story, however I think it raises an important question: as a society, are we becoming too sensitive to race or discrimination issues? Are we becoming a little too politically correct?

On the face of it, this kid comes across as ignorant more than anything. Perhaps you could blame the parents, or school in fact, for failing to make people more aware of race issues. I think it's a bit much to see a racist element in the incident though.

I think people are too quick to jump to the conclusion of racism in many cases. I don't know how many of you were following the race row that emerged after football pundit Alan Hanson referred to black players as "colored" on TV recently, despite praising their involvement in the sport in the context it was used. This was another example when people were a little too quick to take offense, imo, and not taking into account context.

Oh man, people really jump at the chance to accuse someone of racism of late, don't they? One of the most endearing things about children is their innocence to the world around them and, to racial stereotypes. This was simply a harmless question. Unless the child had been raised to view different races as inferior, there's no issue here.

One thing that gets me is when someone gets grumpy at being called "black" or "coloured". In my eyes, that's not racist (unless it's paired with derogatory terms), that's a descriptor. I don't get upset and start declaring someone as racist if they call me white instead of Caucasian! It's as innocent as pointing out hair colour to identify someone.

I have six year old siblings who ask the same type of questions with intents of pure curiosity and nothing else. It's disturbing that the teacher took it this far.

I definitely agree that our society is pushing the "you're racist!" thing way too far as well. You can't say anything without being flamed with "RACIST!" remarks.

Society today is way to quick to try and pull out the race card. This kid is seven years old, clearly has no idea what he is talking about and probably doesn't even understand what racism is. Doesn't look like he was trying to be derogatory. Just lack of understanding.

Don't know how many of you follow sports but if you are in the US you probably have heard of Jeremy Lin recently. He's an Asian-American basketball player that is insanely popular right now. You can Google him for more information. Anyways, after posting 9 TO's a few nights ago that led to a Knicks loss ESPN published an article with the title "A Chink In The Armor." You can see a screenshot of it here. Didn't take long at all before people were complaining everywhere that the title was racist as chink is a derogatory term. Yes, if this title was deliberate and the author knew before hand the meaning of the term then it's incredibly offensive. However, I think people were way to quick to attack ESPN. "A Chink In The Armor" is a fairly common expression and describes the situation that occurred perfectly. It was undoubtedly a bad choice for ESPN to use this headline, yes, but I still think that people are way to quick to take offense.

quote King X2

The kid's seven years old. A time where children are still very curious. He's just asking an honest question as a result of the knowledge he's picked up about African Americans.

This kid is English and this happened in an English school, so he wouldn't be familiar with the term "African American". I just thought it was important to point that out as the way we deal with incidents like this in the UK may be different from elsewhere.

quote Dynamite

On the face of it, this kid comes across as ignorant more than anything. Perhaps you could blame the parents, or school in fact, for failing to make people more aware of race issues. I think it's a bit much to see a racist element in the incident though.

I wouldn't say he's ignorant, he's seven. He noticed a difference in the colour of someone's skin and innocently asked about it, as kids tend to do. When I was a child I used to look at people who didn't look like everyone else and ask why they were different, even disabled people. Even if this may have been deemed offensive no offence was intended, which is where the distinction lies although it's often impossible to prove. UK law now demands that a mere mention of race to be reported and investigated, while we often throw away common sense in the process.

The boy is not old enough to understand racism yet.

quote King X2

Oh my bad. I just assumed it was the United States seeing how corrupt our society is.

Don't worry, our country's in shit too.

According to one news report, the mother was called into the school and forced to sign a document declaring that her child was racist so that he could be put on a hate-crime register! According to the same report last year in the UK more than 20,000 pupils under 11 were put on record for so-called hate crimes such as using the word ‘gaylord’. When I was very young I used to use words like "f-gg-t" and "gay" without knowing what they meant or intending to be homophobic.

quote ctrl

I don't know how it is there in the UK, but here we just have blacks. To call someone in this day-in-age an African American is stupid. Not just because we have black cultures from other countries, but that it's a term that perpetuates ignorance. Because we are all Americans.

We don't have any equivalent here of "African American", there is no such thing as "African British" for example. As far as I know, "black" is the most common term, although there are people who now find that offensive, so I'm not honestly not sure which word we're supposed to use. There are a lot of Indian and Pakistani citizens here in the UK and it is generally offensive to refer to them as "Paki's" even though I have Pakistani friends at University who call each other this without any problems. It's really hard to know who is going to take offence with what word.

I remember a case of someone calling another person "black" which was deemed as offensive and declared racist because they weren't literally black.

quote Traydor

That doesn't mean you weren't being. What you're describing isn't even close to the example in the original post. I'm certainly not suggesting you should have been put on a register, but some kind of bollocking wouldn't have gone amiss.

It was an example of an innocent 10 year old me using words I didn't understand with no intention of being homophobic. I didn't even know gay people existed at this point or what homophobia was.

Also, I didn't direct these names at gay people, or for being gay. Where I grew up they were just general insults friends light-heartedly flung around at each other all the time. The meaning of the word in that context had changed, although I had no idea where the word stemmed from. I see absolutely no reason why "bollocking" of any form was required .

quote Traydor

If someone from a different racial group used an offensive word to describe my race, that would be a totally different situation than if someone from the same racial group did. As you said, it's a different situation if you use the word 'Paki' than if someone who is Pakistani uses the word.

I personally disagree. The way I see it, a Pakistani has the right to be offended by the word 'Paki' but I think it's hypocritical for them to think it's fine for a Pakistani to use it and not for a white person to use it, if it's used in the exact same context without meaning of offence. They use it because it's a shortening of 'Pakistani', a white person can also use it in exactly the same way, and I do understand that some non-Pakistani's use this word in a racist fashion but I'm not talking about it in that context.

Something I deem as a sexist statement from a man I would deem as sexism. If 'one of my own' sex were to use that same sexist statement, I'd still deem is sexism. That's because my idea of what is sexist and what is not sexist does not depend on which sex says is.