No doubt, if you are reading this series, you have an intrinsic desire to be a good person, to not be racist and to ensure that nobody in your team is accused of racism. You’re aiming to lead a setting that is equitable, values people for who they are and makes everybody feel as though they can be themselves with a sense of pride.
The image of your setting is important, and to be caught up in any accusations of racism would be a nightmare! The thought of this is terrifying because you are such a good person and are NOT racist. Well, stop right there.
These concerns are not the right place to start an anti-racist leadership journey. We need to zone out of these binary descriptions of ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ person and that the label of ‘good’ is intrinsically linked to being a racist or not.
We live in a racist society, so holding racist belief systems and partaking in societal behaviours that uphold racist belief systems is expected. The two go hand in hand, in the same way that sexism is one of the reasons that a disproportionate number of people in the early years workforce are women but we tend to see more men occupying positions that influence the policies that govern how the sector is funded and run at a government level.
Starting conversations
Starting conversations about racism requires us to look at the global history that led to racial categorisations. It is only then that we can understand the power dynamic between the construct of whiteness being synonymous with ‘normal’ and any other racial categorisations falling outside of that construct as ‘other’ and thus not normal.
It is through this paradigm of power that we see how the evolution of the social constructs of race from the 1660s and latterly the rise of ‘race science’ in the 19th century were used to justify the enslavement of Black African people. It ensured that those racialised as white were kept at the top and those racialised as Black at the bottom of society’s pecking order.
‘Race science’ perpetuated the false notion that there were biological differences between Black and white people. These were used to justify why Black people were to be seen and treated as sub-human, thus in need of being humanised and saved from their ‘savage selves’ by the white man or enslaved and forever subjected to a life of servitude.
The long-lasting influence of ‘race science’ continues to heavily impact on life today in what the 1999 Macpherson Report defines as ‘institutional racism’: ‘The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. The presence of structural racism is about the retention of power being held by people racialised as white who are perceived as the dominant group in a racialised society which continues to ensure that through the enforcement of the other mechanisms which keep our society operating (as forementioned, the criminal justice system, housing, education and healthcare) we are caught in an endless cycle of versions of a reality which are further emboldened by our media and government that tell us that whiteness is normal (read right, honest, worthy, beautiful and aspirational) and those not enveloped within this safe haven are the opposite.’
As Professor Nelson Flores, associate professor in Educational Linguistics at the University of Pensylvania, states, ‘Whiteness is not an individual identity but an ideological position.’
You may feel totally lost because these issues have not been given much mainstream exploration within the early years sector. Once we acknowledge that there is an issue and that racism is pervasive and structural – not just name-calling or treating somebody unfairly because of the colour of their skin – then we can start to see the bigger picture and ensure that racial-equity work is not an add-on or an afterthought in our practice.
Personal reflection
Before you start to project, instruct, guide and hold others to account on their anti-racist journey, you need to lead by example and start a journey of reflection throughout your personal and professional life. Start by carefully and honestly reflecting on these questions (you may find some challenging):
- If I am racialised as white, have I ever thought about the messages that my own family and friends have given to me about race and racism?
- Did I grow up being taught to accept people as individuals irrespective of the colour of their skin, and has that now led me to have an approach which ignores people’s racialised identities?
- Do I spend time listening to people who have been on the receiving end of racism and listen to a range of people on this matter, recognising that one Black person does not speak for all?
- How many times have I ever been the only person with my racialised identity in a physical or online space in my home country? How would this make me feel?
- Have you ever looked at an all-white line-up of early years experts at an event and questioned why there are no Black, South Asian or East or South East Asian people in that line-up in the same way that you may be alarmed if you were to see an all-male line-up of people presented as early years experts?
- Have you ever thought about what the experiences of Black children may be in an all-white early years environment when you consider that your setting serves as a window and a mirror to society in general?
- Are you somebody who believes the early years is an apolitical space where there is no place for conversations about race as such discussions are ‘too political’?
Beginning to question
Take time with your team to discuss: ‘How do we define racism in our setting?’ The responses will give you a measure of how much, or little, work you need to do. This is a chance to explore nuance and situations of how racism shows up in practice.
For example, a repeated confusion of the two Black children’s parents at collection time by the white practitioner who always hands the wrong child to the wrong parent and then denies any presence of race playing a part in this (even though the parent has highlighted this repeated occurrence as being racially motivated). Acknowledging that race does, in fact, play a part in this is key to acknowledging the harm caused.
The point of these reflective exercises is to move past any feelings of shame that you may have, recognise any stereotypes – we are all guilty of them – and actively work to move away from engaging with children, families or our teams from a basis of perceived stereotypical assumptions.
A stereotype is defined in the dictionary as ‘a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing’. Think about your early years career and about the ways in which you may have celebrated festivals, made assumptions about families in your setting or leaned into stereotypes that you know are held about you depending on your identity markers.
For example, I know that a widely held stereotype of Black women is that we are aggressive, loud, confrontational, strong and angry. Because I am aware of these stereotypes, I am actively self-policing my behaviour to escape these damaging tropes. Perhaps that is why my website has lots of photos of me smiling enthusiastically.
How do you, as leaders, actively dismantle these things within your own teams when it comes to handovers with the Black fathers (because the intersection of race and gender is key here, another important nuance to consider where stereotypes are concerned)? Are you aware of how your team engage with the middle-class white mother versus the Somali mother whose accent is indicative that English is an additional language for her? What subtle body-language changes are there, the tone of voice and gesticulation? Where is comfort and familiarity detected?
Hiding behind ‘unconscious bias’
I want us to use the information that we have in the area of anti-racism and social justice work and take full accountability instead of hiding behind an excuse of ‘unconscious bias’. This is described by Dr Stella Louis and Hannah Betteridge as ‘when we intuitively draw on our stereotypes to make value judgements without enough knowledge, evidence, understanding or reflection. Unconscious bias can show itself in a whole range of ways including affinity bias, attribution bias and confirmation bias and – importantly – it may not even chime with our consciously held beliefs.’
We need to move into a state of consciousness so that we are more attuned to our thoughts and actions.
In the community – how to reach out
Many settings are based in all-white areas, but this does not mean it is not possible to reach out to other cultures and communities. Technology allows us to interact with people that we wouldn’t ordinarily see within our immediate community – I know an all-white nursery in Scotland that made links with an all-Black setting in Ghana via Zoom which was beneficial to them all.
But you don’t have to connect with another continent to gain a different cultural landscape. You could use social media to network with other nurseries in the UK that have a more racially diverse cohort – think Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Leeds and London. You could partner to do shared activities or just use video calls so that children are immersed in communication with other children. This is particularly impactful for pre-school-age children where there is a growing awareness of self and racial difference.
References
- ‘Let’s talk about Bias in the Early Years’ by Dr Stella Louis and Hannah Betteridge, Famly, 16 September 2020
- Macpherson W, 1999. The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry
Liz Pemberton is speaking at Nursery World’s Business Summit on 8 March: www.nursery business-summit.com
