Responding to racist incidents: Guidance on racial slurs
This section has been adapted from national guidance on antiracisted.scot and previous Education Scotland guidance.
Reporting and verbalising racial slurs
When reporting the use of a racial slur, do not repeat it back or verbalise it. Using the initial of the slur is enough.
Proceed with caution when using texts with racial slurs. There is some powerful literature, including effective anti-racist texts, by writers of colour that use racial slurs more sensitively and authentically than white authors. These would arguably be more acceptable to study in classes. In those cases, it may be appropriate to use that literature. However, never verbalise the slurs.
In music and other cultural contexts, people choose to use slurs to reclaim them and take the power away from those who have been causing harm. This may lead to other children and young people using slurs and thereby harming others. Explain the degrading history of such words, the origin and that they were invented to dehumanise and legitimise the inhumane treatment of people of African heritage.
If a learner uses a racial slur to reclaim the term describing their own identity, don’t penalise them. Instead, support them, show them compassion and give the matter appropriate attention. This can include ensuring that all voices are heard and that all learners understand the context in which the slur was used.
Ensure that learners of different racial and ethnic backgrounds don’t use the slur, explaining that you want the environment to be a safe and enjoyable place for all learners and that it is important to keep violent language outside of it.
It is important to strongly emphasise why racist and dehumanising language is unacceptable. You can explore this using the Facing History and Ourselves activities to learn more about the history of these racial slurs.
The Inclusion, Wellbeing and Equalities Framework resource 'Talking about Diversity' can support your understanding of harmful language.
Unacceptable racial language
If a person from a marginalised group tells you that is not acceptable to use a word that describes them in a pejorative way, then don’t use it. This also applies to situations where a person with a marginalised identity is not present when the harmful racial language is used.
If some members of a marginalised group agree to use of a term, but other members from that same group find it harmful, then we should stop verbalising the word as part of our efforts to minimise harm.
To be able to do that, teachers need to be sensitive to both visible and invisible social identities and the power dynamics happening within. This requires awareness of your own social identities or 'positionality'. For example, a white cis-gendered, able-bodied woman.
Simply having the role of a teacher, which is a traditional figure of authority, creates an imbalance of power. This means, a teacher may not appear as approachable for a young person of colour who is struggling to voice their discomfort around the use of racial slurs, especially in front of a classroom full of peers.
