'What's the colour of my face?'

Louisa was on the receiving end of her first racist remark 2 days back in school. We were having dinner when she told me one of her friends' having a birthday party and she couldn't go because she wasn't white, she hasn't got white face, white hands or white feet. To any child, not being invited to a party is upsetting enough, let alone not being invited due to racial discrimination. I could tell she was very upset and I was shocked to learn that such a thing has happened to her. Since coming to UK, we had not encountered any outright racism targetted at us. I was very disturbed over it. In fact, she told Adrian the same thing before bedtime. When I tried to get some information from her, just wanting to make sure it's not one of those playground antics, she got upset and frustrated. From this, I could tell it wasn't a matter which happens frequently in class like 'I don't want to be your friend'. I thought long and hard over it, even asked a couple of people, if I should speak to the head teacher about it. Everyone advised me to do so. I don't want her to think I'm building a mountain out of a molehill. On the other hand, Louisa had no problems with being different from most of her classmates and enjoys going to school. I don't want her to feel she's in any way more different than others other than her skin colour.

As I had been to the head teacher's office twice and on both occasions she was too busy to speak to me, I decided to speak to Louisa's teacher, who's the assistant head, instead. She was taken aback with what I told her and asked me for the name which I declined to give. I thought it wouldn't be good to give the name as I don't want them to approach the student or parents. She reassured me that she would speak to the class about respect for people, irregardless of race, size or shape. After our conversation, I went to the head teacher's office with the intention of telling her I'd spoken to Louisa's class teacher as she knew I had been looking for her. She was available then and gestured me into her office. Like the class teacher, she was very shocked by what had happened. She said she couldn't remember the last time such a thing had happened. As the school is near to Adrian's college, it gets many students from lots of countries but she hadn't had any complaints about racism for a long time. I am surprised when she told me such things had to be reported to the county. I went in not to make a complaint but I wanted to let her be aware of what has happened. I don't think a young child of 4/5 would understand what is racism. She certainly didn't know she was making racist remarks at Louisa. So where did she learn it from? I think it's most likely from the adults. If it carries on, other students in the class will pick it up and the bully will get worse. The head teacher managed to convince me to give her the name. She said it would aid in their effort to stop such things from happening, though I wonder how.

Louisa did not have problems with being so-called 'different' from most of the children here. She had not asked me why her skin or hair colour is different from the rest. Children are very resilient and I suppose she just accepted the difference and interacts well with them. Until today, that is. On our way home after school, she said she didn't colour a picture of her face she had drawn. She asked me what's the colour of her face. I asked the question back. She said it's white. I asked her why did she think her face colour is white and if she likes it. She replied yes and that everyone had said the colour of their face is white, except hers. Poor girl, I could sense some sadness in her tone and most of the time when she spoke, she was looking down.