Racism: What It Is and How to Deal with It - Uned

A Guide to Talking about Racism | 112
4 Food For Thought
Algeria has undergone 10 years of “terrorism” that we could call a “hidden civil war.”
Everyone knows that the terrorists have carried out ignominious massacres of the civil
population. When the television reports an attack in Algeria, I have often heard the
following comment here: “the thing is that they’re bloodthirsty, they’re hotheaded, they
kill each other…”
When there is an attack by ETA in Spain, the insult is directed at ETA, not at the
Basques or Spaniards.
When a woman is a victim of domestic violence and the aggressor happens to be an
immigrant, this behavior is attributed to his culture and not to individual causes, as
would be the case if the aggressor were Spanish.
There have been cases of school violence resulting in death in the secondary school
context. If the assassin was a South American, the discourse was directed toward
explaining the events based on the “Mafia origins: gangs” of the South Americans. If it
was a Spaniard, he was a “problematic kid.”
In addition to families and communications media, we have seen that the school
medium is a source that transmits racism. In the information section, there is a specific
section on textbooks, but the influence of the hidden curriculum is also mentioned in
this process. Read the following recommendations made by the Foundation Gypsy
Secretariat (FSGG, 2003):
It is necessary to review “being teachers,” considering that students learn from
everything the teaching staff says and does. They are their direct and continuous
reference; and that also includes values, ways of thinking, ways of acting, etc. (...). It is
important that none of the decisions made be arbitrary, one should always reflect on
intentionality:
a) Regarding school culture and the curriculum:
- on the previous decisions about what will be taught
- on the real academic tasks that are carried out
- on the way they are linked to the internal life of the classroom
- on the way the contents of the lessons relate to the outside
world
- on the relations in the group
- on the use and exploitation of the material
- in the practice of testing...