Cllr Vanessa Brown was at the Children,Young People & Skills Committee where the council's anti racist strategy was being discussed.
Vanessa read on behalf of Bola Anike:
"I feel the need to write this as a British Nigerian resident of Brighton, as a parent, and - not least - as someone who cares deeply about the UK's liberal education system (a system which, I believe, is the hallmark of any democratic society), I'd like to make the following points to this committee.
You may recall that, on November 4th last year, I wrote to the CYPS committee about a powerful and unifying primary school KS2 video resource which I feel very strongly about. I sent you a link and I hope you had time to watch the video. Naturally, I understand how hard working you all are but, as yet, I have not heard back from any of you. Perhaps today will be the day! It is my hope that the committee will agree to endorse this resource and formally recommend it to the city's primary schools.
Colourblindness is the approach to anti-racist education that informs the content of this KS2 video.
This is a universalist approach rooted in the classic liberal tradition of equality before the law. It is an approach that promotes and emphasizes the content of a person’s character over and above the colour of their skin (or any other immutable trait). A commitment to colourblindness is not a denial that racism exists or that there remains important work to be done to reduce and combat discrimination.
I believe that the 'one race, the human race' message of this video resource chimes with our vibrant city today. It is fitting that voices of children from this city and of experts from our university contributed to the production of this video. Colour blindness is my creed and the creed of many parents not just in our city but across the UK and the world. It unites people across racial religious and ethnic divides.
The tendency to propagate so called 'anti-racist' beliefs that centre racial difference over anti-racist beliefs emphasising common humanity is at odds with the values of many black and minority ethnic parents.
Teaching our children that they must focus on things they cannot control over and above things they can is in my view, a recipe for despair. If our schools propagate what many of us regard as an unbalanced and harmful approach to identity and race, then at the very least in the interest of fairness and equality they must ensure the promotion of liberal alternative approaches as well.
I am aware of other black parents who desperately want this unifying approach to how race and anti-racism are taught by this council.
I will email members with full direct quotes but, respecting confidentiality and the public nature of this Deputation I will paraphrase what one mother of an 8-year-old said:
"the best way forward is educating our children about how we are all one. Skin colour is not a detriment! We should respect and love one another the same. Let's celebrate the diversity of our one human race!". This was from a mother whose child had been called cruel names by a classmate at school - names that picked on the colour of that child's skin. But this mother does NOT believe her child's experience to be an indictment on daily life in our amazing city nor on the country as a whole.
I believe as do many other parents I know that an undue partisan and biased focus on skin colour doesn't help us. Let the message be one of unity - we are all humans together, there is so much we have in common. So together let's make a future defined by what unites us rather than what divides us. Thank you."