Young anti-racist voices of Scotland: Diversity and culture days

Schools often hold diversity and culture days to promote anti-racism. The Anti-Racism in Education Programme asked Youth Ambassadors:

How do we make sure diversity and culture days aren’t just for show?

They said:

“we are concerned that schools might be embedding anti-racism in a tokenistic way by having one-time lessons or events in which diversity and cultures are celebrated.”

“School staff should be trained on what to do if there is a potential backlash with these diversity activities as events like these could spark more racist attacks in school and put black students and students of colour in really uncomfortable or unsafe situations.”

“Teachers should refrain from encouraging students to take part in an activity solely because it is a part of that students’ culture or background. Participation from students should be voluntary and because they genuinely want to.”

“Schools could have more diversity activities, an example of this would be culture day or celebrating Chinese New Year or Eid so that people can be a part of this celebration and be more accepting of each other.”

“We recommend that young people are told about these diversity activities and events well in advance so that nobody feels uncomfortable.”

“We recommend that schools are given more time and space to do this so that it doesn’t become tokenistic.”

“Diversity and culture Days can be fun and engaging, but can also often be done in a tick-the-box kind of way. We recommend ensuring anti-racism is brought across all areas of the curriculum instead of these big one-time events”.