Responses To Racism in UK

Photo: Sarah Lee for The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/27/sadiq-khan-muslim-council-britain-warning-of-post-brexit-racism

The Polish Social and Cultural Centre in Hammersmith suffered racist graffiti on Sunday. Within 24 hours the centre was inundated by flowers and messages of goodwill from local residents.

Meanwhile the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan used Facebook to spread his message about racism. On Friday he said, "I want to send a clear message to every European resident living in London - you are very welcome here. As a city, we are grateful for the enormous contribution you make and that will not change as a result of this referendum."

What do you see in the picture?

Why do you think someone wrote that card?

Explain the story

- Why do you think someone left racist graffiti on the arts centre door?

- What was the response from the local community?

- What do the flowers and cards tell us about people in the community and people living in the UK today?

- How do you think the Polish people felt when they saw the graffiti?

- How do you think the Polish people felt when they saw the flowers?

- Why did the mayor of London make that statement? What does he want people in London to do?

- How do we stop racism in our own community?

- What do we say in our school, about people who speak a different language or who come from a different country, or people who are different in any way?

- If you hear someone making racist comments, they don't understand about No Outsiders. What can you do to help them?

- Why is what we say about No Outsiders so important? 

"No Outsiders in our school: Teaching the Equality Act in Primary Schools" by Andrew Moffat

www.equalitiesprimary.com

EU Referendum and democracy

photo: @guardian_clark  (picture by Tom Clark)

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/23/referendum-day-queues-polling-stations

The photo shows people in Hackney queuing to vote in the EU referendum on 23rd June. Long queues were reported across the UK with some standing in torrential rain to have their say. The turnout was huge.

What's happening in the picture?

Explain the image

- what was the election about?

- what did the people in the UK decide?

- What is democracy?

- The weather was terrible during the day; why do all these people want to stand in the rain, just to vote?

- How do people vote? What do they have to do?

- Who is allowed to vote in a democratic election?

- What do you notice about the people in the picture? Are they all the same gender, same age, ethnicity? Do you think they all follow the same faith? We can't know by looking, but do you think there may be people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender in that queue or people with a disability? What does this photo tell us about living in the UK today?

- How is democracy similar to what we say about No Outsiders? 

No outsiders in our school: Teaching the Equality Act in primary School by Andrew Moffat

www.equalitiesprimary.com

City Hall flags demonstrate diversity in UK

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3646807/Last-words-MP-Jo-Cox-assistant-revealed.html

Flags were flown at half mast outside City Hall, London last week, following the tragic death of MP Jo Cox. Jo Cox was meeting her constituents when a man attacked her. 

As an MP Jo supported difference and diversity and said in Parliament; "Whilst we celebrate our diversity, the thing that surprises me time and time again as I travel around the constituencies is that we are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us."

There were vigils around the UK to remember Jo Cox. 

What do you see in the picture?

What is the building for? (City Hall is the HQ for the London assembly)

What do the three flags represent?

Why are they being flown at half mast?

What did Jo Cox mean by, "we have far more in common that that which divides us"?

How does that relate to what we say about No Outsiders?

City Hall could just fly a Union Jack. Why do you think they want to also fly a Rainbow flag and a European Union flag?

What can we learn from City Hall and this photo?

Do you think people in City Hall would agree with what we say about No Outsiders? How do you know?

No Outsiders In Our School: Teaching the Equality Act in Primary Schools by Andrew Moffat

www.equalitiesprimary.com

Responses to Orlando attacks from around the world

Picture by George A Anastassatos)
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2016/06/13/christian-muslim-hindu-buddhist-and-jewish-leaders-unite-to-condemn-orlando-shootings/
Religious leaders from different faiths gathered at an interfaith conference in Nevada at the weekend. After the attack in Orlando where LGBT people were targeted and 50 people were killed, leaders of the different faiths met to share their feelings and make a statement..

Leaders of Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Baha'i, Native American and Athiest traditions gathered in a church to strongly condemn the attack.

Rajan Zed, who organised the gathering said, "We, as people of faith, despite our different belief systems, must take a stand against violence by coming together with kindness and love."

Meanwhile many countries are showing their support LGBT people by lighting up land,arks in rainbow colours. The rainbow flag is a LGBT symbol.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

What's happening in these pictures?
Why are religious leaders of different faiths choosing to meet up?
Why do the religious leaders say, "despite our different belief systems"?
What can we learn from these religious leaders?

Why are different countries showing rainbow colours?
What does this say about how people in different countries feel about LGBT people?
How does this relate to what we say about No Outsiders in our school?
What can we do at school to make sure all people know they are welcome, including LGBT people?

No Outsiders in our school: Teaching the Equality Act in Primary Schools by Andrew Moffat

www.equalitiesprimary.com

Community response to Orlando attack

Gerardo Mora/Getty Images
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/12/481795633/blood-banks-see-massive-response-after-orlando-attack

Blood banks in Orlando are now full after people queued for hours to donate their own blood, following the attack on a gay club on Saturday night where 50 people were killed.

Workers at one blood bank said they had never seen a response like it, with 600 - 700 people waiting to give blood. Some waited for 7 hours to donate.

Trucks came to serve free drinks and food.

What's happening in the picture?
What do you notice about the different people?

Explain the image

-Why do people in this photo want to give blood?
-Explain there was an attack was on a gay club over the weekend where 50 people were killed and the people in this photo are waiting to give blood to the hospitals.
-Do you think all the people in this photo are gay? Why do these people want to give their blood to gay people?
-There are people here of different races, genders, ages; what does that show us about people in Florida?

-How does this relate to our No Outsiders belief?
-What can we learn form Florida and this picture?

Conclude by saying what happened on Saturday night was a terrible act of violence against one section of our community. We know that not everyone agrees with us about equality and No Outsiders and that is why we have to spread our message. This photo shows that there are many many people around the world who do agree with us and want a diverse community where different people live together.  Think about what we can do in our own city to make sure attacks like this do not happen here; how can we make sure everyone in our city knows they belong and are welcome no matter who they are.

No outsiders in our school: Teaching the Equality Act in primary School by Andrew Moffat

www.equalitiesprimary.com

Human Library: Dialogue to overcome prejudice

http://www.upworthy.com/check-out-a-human-library-where-you-borrow-people-instead-of-books?c=ufb4

Human Libraries are setting up around the world where you can borrow people for 30 minutes in stead of a book. The idea is that you borrow a "book", but the book is human. You can sit down and talk to your book and find out about someone who may be different to you.

People volunteer to become books to speak openly about their experiences. Readers are encourages to ask any questions they want, but without judgement.

You can borrow a person with autism. a refugee, a gay person or a person who is transgender, a person who is homeless, blind or deaf, a police officer, a person who follows a different faith, the list goes on.

Ronni Abergel founded the idea in 2000 in Copenhagen. Ronni says, "When you meet our books, no mater who you are and where you are from, in the end, inside every person the result will say, ' we are different from each other, we see things differently and we live life differently. But there are mote things that we have in common than are keeping us apart."

The human library has now spread to over 70 different countries around the world. 

http://humanlibrary.org/about-the-human-library/

- what do you see in the picture?

- What is a refugee? How can you "borrow" a refugee? Why would you want to?

Explain the image

- why do you think Ronni set up the first human library?

- why do people talk to people they do not know?

- what does the phrase, 'Don't judge a book by it's cover!' mean?

- what do you think people learn when they use the human library?

- the human library has spread to over 70 countries, what does that tell us about people around the world?

- If we were to run a human library, what experiences could we share?

- how does this link to our No Outsiders ethos?

No Outsiders in our school: Teaching the Equality Act in Primary Schools by Andrew Moffat

www.equalitiesprimary.com