Education: What's in a name?: A 10-year-old in Ipswich is facing prosecution for calling another child 'Paki'. His defence? The other child called him 'Teletubby' first. Natasha Narayan is not impressed

A 10-year-old Asian boy, "G", is said to have mocked a 10-year- old white boy, "H", for being overweight - with taunts of "Teletubby" and "skunk". H allegedly retaliated by calling G a "Paki bastard" and punching him. When a kid calls a classmate a Y...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Guardian (London)
Main Author Narayan, Natasha
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London (UK) Guardian News & Media Limited 17.04.2001
Subjects
Children & youth
Harassment
Racism
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Summary:A 10-year-old Asian boy, "G", is said to have mocked a 10-year- old white boy, "H", for being overweight - with taunts of "Teletubby" and "skunk". H allegedly retaliated by calling G a "Paki bastard" and punching him. When a kid calls a classmate a Yid or a Nig-Nog or a Paki there is a network of assumptions in the term. This may be obvious but it needs restating. Racist words have a history. They also have a worldview. Both the history and the worldview assume that the Paki, or whatever, is deeply inferior. They strike not just an individual but a tribe. On one occasion Payne saw her sole Asian pupil, who was 11, being attacked by bullies. "It was on the edge of some woods that I saw some 16-year-old boys set on my pupil. They began clubbing him with golf clubs. It was obviously racially motivated as they were calling him stuff like Paki."
ISSN:0261-3077