Please fill out the form below if you would like to post a comment on this article:
Comments
09/11/2022 - SadZ
First of all thankyou Rama for sharing your experience with us. Indeed it was an eyeopener and a lot was felt as I was reading it !
08/30/2022 - Khan
Thanks for sharing your experience, I appreciate your bravery because it's not easy to speak the truth. We all are equal and should respect each other and spread humanity rather than racism. God is the best artist and I cannot doubt a single percent of his creativity.
every person is unique and has own importance and identity spread awareness and being a teacher we can try to make a difference.
06/28/2022 - AZJ
Every line you wrote made me recall moments and experiences in my life - both professional and personal. And the more I read, the more I realized how important it is to talk about this topic. If there is no conversation, there will be no change.
09/27/2021 - Yazan
Thank you Rama, an enlightening article indeed. Thank you for sharing!
I love your quote about "shame". Profound pain that would make one feel unworthy of belonging. Unless shame resilience is taught, my heart breaks to think of students and in particular the youngest feeling in such a way.
03/28/2021 - Anne
Hi, this is Anne, I was reading your portfolio and directed to this article written by you on anti-racism. I can't even imagine racism happen in a primary school setting against the host country China, blacks, and Muslims. My heart is sunken when I see people are discriminated against because of their skin not because of their behavior.
I hope this will change in the future with people like you working as front liners and pioneers. I support you fully.
03/23/2021 - JohnF
Thank you for writing this article! Racial equity work should be central to the philosophy of an international school. These days, one should not be able to describe a school as being "international" unless is has embarked on an anti-racist action plan. Accreditation bodies and recruitment agencies should be holding schools to account. When a school leader explains that it will "take time" before the institution is ready for this work, such a statement falls very short of what is immediately required. It is also cold comfort to hear school leadership teams acknowledge that there is "room to grow" when they have taken literally no action even to name racism as an explicit problem. The constant drip, drip, drip of racism experienced by Rama, and by faculty and students everywhere, cannot continue to be denied or ignored; the wagons of privilege should not be allowed to circle any more. People are tired of waiting. It is time for action!
03/20/2021 - Abena
Hi Rama,
It's so saddening to hear about your experiences but even sadder that many (like me) will read this and respond with, "That happens to me too."
I applaud your bravery in sharing your experience and hope that FB groups like AIELOC, Brothas & Sistas in International Schools and Diversity in Mind can support and sustain you to be able to carry on with the resilience you've shown.
Know that in moments of deepest despair there is a whole world of people right by your side. We may not be in the same room, or even the same country, but we are available. Let's hold each other up and continue doing the work because it's the only way it's going to get done.
Look after yourself - prioritise self care and know you're not alone.
03/17/2021 - BJ
Thank you for sharing, it is never easy to speaks ones truth and put yourself out there exposed like that. The section that stood out to me in particular was about perpetrators and bystanders realizing how much work it takes to create change and in response entering into the shame process. I find with colleagues, friends, and family that they often begin the process with good intentions. They acknowledge injustice and want to do something about it. But get much more uncomfortable once the discussion progresses to a place where they realize we aren't just talking about "other people" but also our own biases, our own privileges' and how white supremacy benefits all of us who pass as white whether we like it or not. The same people who were allies just moments before retreat into the white wall of complacency that is both comfortable and safe from the complicated and harrowing conversation of race. I don't say this while sitting on a high horse casting stones either, I have done the same. I have let myself be drawn into the crowd of white voices grumbling "not me!" because it's easier. Often our first instinct is to get defensive and search for reasons we are "good" people and then get angry when it seems like someone is saying otherwise. It is difficult to drop your pride and admit deficiencies. Especially when society has been built to accommodate you, stroke your gentle white cis ego, and make you feel safe superior to others. Then we take that same bubble of white supremacy and bring it with us into these majority white micro communities of expats overseas and naively don't understand why the issues remain. I apologize for this long post, I don't mean to take over/away from your article, it just gave me a lot to think about and contemplate on and I am rambling at this point. Thank you again for sharing, you are appreciated.
03/17/2021 - Anson71
I would have thought the majority of expat educators would have been intellectual and worldly wise to be without these prejudices. It is unbelievable that people with those views are educating children. I would be outraged and appalled if my kid was subject to that type of thinking from someone responsible for their education. My heart goes out to the author for the suffering she has had to endure. She is spot on when she talks about white people holding other white people accountable for their racism if we want to make real change happen. Silence, they say, is the voice of complicity......
03/17/2021 - Tina
OMG this article is just PERFECT!
I have nothing to add. I have exactly the same feeling since I can think by myself.
We want and need another article like this... PLEASE!
03/15/2021 - Tina
OMG this article is just PERFECT!
I have nothing to add. I have exactly the same feeling since I can think by myself.
We want and need another article like this... PLEASE!