Racism, Education, and Strange Fruit

At the weekend, a comment tagging our social media page expressed disappointment that the school had not issued a condemnation of the way George Floyd had died, and that we had not publicly associated ourselves with the Black Lives Matter hashtag.

Our usual custom is not to respond publicly to comments, and to avoid overtly political statements or agendas, especially on social media, because these can often prove polarising or simplistic. It is a feature of ideologies that they simplify a complex world.

But while we try to teach nuances and to develop complexity of thought in our students, so that they understand and can therefore deal with different perspectives, when it comes to racism the response does need to be clear and unambiguous.

Prejudice and discrimination based on the colour of a person’s skin, their ethnicity, their gender is utterlywrong. Racism is a scourge. It is the lowest form of snobbery. Black lives matter. Of course they do.

It should not take a savage act committed 6,000 miles away to trigger this thought – but it has operated as a touch-paper, igniting anger and resentment at a wider sense of injustice, with synchronous conflagrations in cities across the world. 

What happened to George Floyd is morally repugnant, and as a school we unhesitatingly condemn it.

This should not disguise the fact that most racism is casual and unthinking, manifested in small and often invisible ways. It is the mentality that generates everyday racism that we need fundamentally to address in order to prevent any graver atrocities.

Martin Luther King was an optimist. He spoke of how ‘the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice’. This expresses a belief in an ultimately triumphant trajectory towards a state of equality and fairness.

The Civil Rights agenda has progressed hugely since the 1960s. Both in terms of race and gender, the level of equality has improved dramatically. And yet the stubborn fact remains that in reality people are still subject to prejudice and do not enjoy equal rights. This is profoundly frustrating, often toxic, and in many cases disgraceful.

For let us be clear: race may be biological, but racism is cultural. And if culture is constructed, then we can construct it differently. Young children exhibit no prejudice in this regard. It is a learned behaviour, and a matter of societal will to eradicate it.

As a white male, I have enjoyed a privileged existence. I am fortunate to have been immune from serious discrimination because of an accident of birth. But I did have a recent glimpse into the kind of prejudice that is a daily reality for many.

In the last months of her life, when my wife lost her hair following chemotherapy, she preferred to wear turbans rather than a wig. She was spat at, drivers hurled abuse from cars and vans, and people on the Metro regularly insulted her. This is really true.

She couldn’t understand the abuse levelled against her. Then she realised that, because she wore turbans, people assumed she was Muslim. It was a deeply upsetting experience, and an insight into the daily indignities suffered by ethnic minorities.

I have never spoken of this before because it felt too painful, but I feel compelled to raise it now because it reveals that racism is not confined merely to the routine brutalities of a police force given licence by a President who fails to reject white supremacist views. Instead it is a daily fact of life on streets throughout the world, including here in Milan.

So how do we counter it? Yes, by strengthening sanctions for discrimination, by zero tolerance of racist acts, by shows of solidarity for victims, but this will not necessarily change hearts and minds, or prevent more insidious forms of racial abuse.

The answer has to be education. Schools need to be clear about their values, and not just tolerate diversity but affirm it. Schools like the BSM, with over forty nationalities represented, can lead the way, actively showcasing the intelligence and celebrating the talents of all our students, irrespective of their background, culture or race.   

And we can do it through recognising heroes. These might be academic, sporting, musical, cinematic. The hero I would single out is Billie Holiday, the American jazz singer, who gave a voice to those who previously had endured only a small, non-speaking part.

If you don’t know it, I urge you to watch the clip of her unforgettable lament, Strange Fruit. Attend to the lyrics of the song, and listen to her heart-breaking rendition. It was written in the 1930s in response to public lynchings in the southern States of America.    

Click on the image to see Billie Holiday perform the song

Southern trees bear a strange fruit.
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root.
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze.
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South.
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth.
Scent of magnolia, sweet and fresh.
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop.
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

 In the photograph below (cropped for reasons of decency), what you notice, aside from the two black men hanging from a tree, is the look of ignorance on the faces. What these people lack is the ability to empathise with fellow human beings, the sophistication to recognise the simplest fact that people should be afforded equal dignity and respect.

There are some issues, it is true, that educators and institutions should not be silent on. Racism is one of them. And as a school we vow to imbue our students with the values of human compassion, inclusivity, and cultivate a fundamental respect for human life, irrespective of colour.

We also vow to combat racism both intellectually, emotionally, and I start by turning up the volume as Billie Holiday delivers her imperishable song.

Chris Greenhalgh
Principal & CEO