Yesterday, I was listening to the debate about adoption on the 'Today' programme and was completely dispirited by the 'discussion' on matching children's ethnic identity to families.
I am not against cross-cultural placements - I spent the first four years of my life in what's now called a private fostering placement. The love and security from the family buoyed me along for many years.
However, I find it very frustrating when racial identity is treated as a mere inconvenience, something that local authorities would do best to ignore to meet their targets. The discussion on Radio 4, of course, did not include any looked after or adopted young people, any people who have experienced a cross-cultural placement or, indeed, anybody who wasn't white. It was really poor journalism.
On Sunday, I went to the Deaths in Custody march. I know this is a bit outside our remit here and certainly outside my comfort zone... I haven't come from a background of community activism - there wasn't much of that going on in Mid-Sussex in my youth other than the occasional anti-nuclear march around Molesworth.
The protest was about more than deaths in custody and included families of people who had died while being arrested or been shot by police. Although unexplained deaths in custody have often been highlighted by black activists, the families speaking at the protest came from all backgrounds including the family of Brazilian Charles de Menezes and of white Scottish-born Harry Stanley, who was shot dead in the street when the chair leg he was carrying in a bag was perceived to be a gun. It was a deeply emotional day. Hugh Muir wrote about it in yesterday's Guardian.
Hugh |Muir also delivered the annual NUJ's Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture, last Thursday. He highlighted the recent stand off outside the Sutton shop selling golliwogs. There's an interesting article about this on the Operation Black Vote website. Hannah Pool has also written about the contentious doll.
This is particularly interesting in the early years context. When I was delivering the 'Mummy's Black, Daddy's Yellow, I'm Orange' training course, we deliberately offered a chance to discuss golliwogs. They have been part of the cultural landscape for a very long time, but mainstream discussion about their offensiveness has been relatively recent. Unfortunately, many early years workers had not previously had a chance to talk about and understand why the seemingly benign toy of their youth caused so much ire.
In the Psychoville Hallowe'en special last night, the aesthetically-challenged antique toy expert slept with his beloved golliwog called 'Jamjar'. The toy expert met a sticky end. Was it immature of me to laugh?
Free Event - on 17 November, Roehampton University are hosting a free seminar (Not) Belonging in the Creative World: Challenging HE Exclusions.
Speakers:
Professor Jocey Quinn, Plymouth University and Dr Kim Allen,
Institute for Policy Studies in Education, London Metropolitan University:
‘The Silence of the Curriculum: equality as an intellectual absence
in Higher Education for arts and culture’
Professor Penny Jane Burke, Roehampton University and Jackie McManus,
University of the Arts, London
‘Art for a Few: Exclusions and Misrecognitions in HE Admissions’
Panellists:
Mark Miller, Tate Britain and Tate Modern
Christine Atha, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
Dr Mehri Honarbin-Holliday, artist and writer
Laura Woodroffe, D& AD
Fergal Kilroy, D& AD
Places are free but limited, so please book a place soon to avoid disappointment. To book a place, please email ;Ada Mau (a.mau@roehampton.ac.uk).
Free resource -Hft’s Family Carer Support Service (FCSS) was commissioned by the Valuing People Support Team to develop this resource, to provide a range of information about meeting the needs of families from black and other minority ethnic heritage and seldom heard communities. Access it here.
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