Former teacher turned schools filmmaker, Adrian Hart is a veteran of anti-racism campaigns in the late 1980s. His more recent involvement with anti-racist projects in schools led to his controversial report The Myth of Racist Kids – anti-racist policy and the regulation of school life (The Manifesto Club, 2009). Achieving front page headlines in October 2009, his study revealed that the majority of the 40,000 so- called racist incidents officially recorded in UK schools every year derived from primary school kids insulting each other with phrases like ‘mars bar’ or ‘white trash’. The report was soon followed by Leave Those Kids Alone - how official hate speech regulation interferes in school life (The Manifesto Club, 2011) which based its findings on the first ever freedom of information survey of all hate incident recording by every local authority in England and Wales. The report also gained front page headlines. His latest book, published last November, is titled That’s Racist! How the regulation of speech and thought divides us all. In this book Hart argues that modern day official anti-racism treats us all like children in the playground and rests on the myth that racism remains a large scale social problem. The fantasy racism conjured by the modern anti-racist mindset is, argues Hart, the racism of the past. Adrian blogs at www.adrianhart.net |
Judgement by our peers: is the jury out?
"Five debates a day sounds a bit daunting beforehand, but I really loved it. The speakers are so knowledgeable and passionate about their chosen topic, and the amount of time dedicated to questions from the audience was great as it really brought in alternative views."
Exeter University student