FAQs?

I hope you do this the other way around, because white people suffer racism too / It's a bit one sided

This depends on what standpoint you choose to take.  There is a sociological perspective that argues that racism is "prejudice plus power", as black people are not generally in a position of power in society they can not be racist.  Just as women cannot be sexist as they do not generally hold positions of power in society either.

However does this impact on the following example?

A white child in a predominantly Asian school who is being called 'Casper the ghost' 'milky bar kid' etc., could it be argued that he is experiencing racism as in this position he is in a minority and does not hold any power.  

We would argue that on a 'micro' (smaller level) he can be said to be experiencing racism, but if you take this white child out of this situation and move him to another school (i.e. looking at it on a macro- larger level) even a couple of miles away from this one, as a white person he would be in a dominant position in society and would not experience this.  

However if these positions were reversed and it was an Asian child experiencing racism in that school, they could move to nearly any other school in the country (and many would argue any other place globally) and he would experience racism.

Again looking at this on a macro level and taking into account institutional racism, the white child would be in a dominant position in the education system, employment system when he leaves school, legal and judicial system if he were to get into trouble, healthcare system if he were to need medical help and so on.

When we look at racism's because we believe there are more than one type of racism, we do however explore racism suffered by some white groups such as Irish people.  Historically when you look at the land clearances, the potato famine and similar to the experience of black people Irish people being called "white niggers", "the niggers of Europe" and being likened to monkeys, it would be difficult to deny that they have not suffered racism.  However once someone moves out of Ireland, they or their children lose their accent, are born and bred in Britain etc. would they be able to phase into the white dominant society and in all meaning of the word be 'British' Once a black person moves out of Jamaica for example and they or their children loose their accent, are born and bred in Britain etc. would they be able to phase into the white dominant society and in all meanings of the word be 'British' or are they still regarded as 'Caribbean' by many and exposed to racism because of the differences attached to their skin colour?

Some ask how the example of many Eastern Europeans coming to Britain to seek refuge, work or study would fit into this argument.  We would argue that they are regarded the same way as Irish people used to be, white, but not really white.  But yet again when they or their children lose their accent, are born and bred in Britain etc. would they be able to phase into the white dominant society and in all meanings of the word be 'British'? For those who think 'no', look at the example of Michael Howard a Conservative Party Leader, whose Romanian grandmother died in Nazi concentration camps, he seems to have managed to become accepted.

For all these reasons we would have to argue that skin colour plays a major factor in the level of racism people experience as other groups who may experience racism because of their culture, nationality etc can after a while phase into white dominant society.

All figures kept in various professions prove the fact that black and Asian people experience racism at much higher levels than white people (e.g. schools exclusion rates, deaths in custody, educational attainment, prison population, custodial sentences, mental health diagnosis etc. - all of these are disproportionately imbalanced linked to skin colour) for these reasons the training has to be imbalanced, because racism is imbalanced, just as other oppressive systems such as sexism, heterosexism, ageism etc. are imbalanced.  All groups are not experiencing the system of racism together or equally.