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Blood In The River (part two)
It is the nature of racism that it can be enacted without the perpetrators saying anything specific against one’s race.
The school I attended from aged 8 to aged 13 was Wolborough Hill School in Newton Abbot in Devon. Like many of the private boys schools of the period, the children, their parents and the teachers were largely Conservative, misty eyed about lost empire, patriotic and, often, racist. That is not to say that there were not many teachers and pupils who were kind and decent; there were. But the overall culture was most definitely one that revered the idea that Britain should be ‘Great’ as it was in the days before the Second World War.
It is, of course, impossible to know for sure which actions and comments by teachers at Wolborough Hill were racist and which were simply unkind or unpleasant. It is the nature of racism that it can be enacted without
the perpetrators saying anything specific against one’s race. There is also the additional problem of the odd-one-out being overly sensitive to comments and taunts that are not meant to hurt to the extent that they do; one can hardly expect children, in 1960s Britain, to be particularly aware, or understanding, of difference. But the reading of Biggles was the least of it.
One of the first Scripture lessons involved our teacher, Mr. Leakey, asking us each our religion. As each boy in turn was asked and gave his answer, it occurred to me that I had no idea what religion I was. Indeed, at morning prayers I really had no idea what the Headmaster was talking about. None of my family attended church and I had not been christened. When it was my turn to answer, I replied, 'I don’t know, Sir.' Mr. Leaky told me not to be ridiculous and said, 'Well, if you don’t have any preference, you must be Church of England.' And I was entered as a Church of England Christian in the school records. When it was the turn of another boy sitting further down the row, He said, 'Sir, I’m Jewish' and Mr. Leaky dismissed him from the class and told him to go and sit in the School Library till break time.
