Prevention of Right-Wing Extremism, Xenophobia and Racism in ...

REWIND: This organisation carries out anti-racist work with young people by deconstructdeconstruct-
ing race and challenging the myths around racism. It uses the ‘Human Genome’ initiative to
deliver engaging and entertaining programmes with young people. REWIND has trained peer
educators who go into schools and youth clubs to deliver anti-racist work. For more examples
and info about their work, please visit: www.rewind.org.uk.
SOFT TOUCH: This is a co-operative group that runs a number of projects with communities,
and mainly young people, using music, graphics and video to address issues of racism and
promote greater understanding. The Respecting Others Project undertaken in collaboration
with the Leicester Leicester Youth Service brought together 25 young people from different backgrounds
to develop peer education videos, music and posters for delivery in youth settings. The
Divided Union Union project was a video diary of a dialogue between young Somalians and white
working class young people. Because the groups had strongly different views and would not
normally come into contact, a dialogue was set up where one group’s view would be recorded
and played for the other and verse versa. For more information about the above mentioned
projects and more, please visit their website: www.soft-touch.org.uk.
Kick It Out/Show Racism the Red Card: Kick It Out Out has been in existence over the last decade
and works through football, educational settings and communities to challenge racism and
“work for positive change”. It works with professional footballers, amateurs and minorities in
Britain to support capacity building as well as challenge racism. More information about Kick
Racism Out of Football is available from: www.kickitout.org. A similar organisation is Show
Racism the Red Card, which also does similar work and in addition develops educational mate- mate-
rials; more information is available from www.srtrc.org/campaign.
Informal education approaches like these are critical in the engagement of young people
because of their ability to promote close work with them in informal settings. In addition the
principles of youth work – education, empowerment, equal opportunities and participation –
as well as the voluntary nature of work with young people makes it a highly desirable vehicle
to engage young people.
Conclusion
Anti-racist work with young people has operated under many guises such as multicultural edueducation, Personal, Health and Social Education (PHSE), Anti-Oppressive Practice (AOP), Citizen-
ship Work and mainly now under the government’s policy of Community Cohesion. Anti-racist
work with young people challenges the most deeply rooted views; it is based on deconstruct-
ing a young person’s concept of social reality. It is evident that for historical reasons, Britain is
now a culturally diverse entity with the non white population amounting to 9 %; additionally,
some cities like Leicester have minority groups that constitute about 40 % of the population.
In these areas anti-racist work, given the racial tensions discussed in this chapter, is sine qua
non for peaceful co-existence.
92 Racism and Young People in the United Kingdom