Displaying items by tag: Prejudice

Lockdown, confinement, violence, and isolation is the daily reality for hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities around the world. Many are locked in sheds, cages, or tethered to trees and are forced to eat, sleep, urinate, and defecate in the same tiny area, sometimes for years at a time. Why? Simply because they have a psychosocial disability (mental health condition). This inhumane practice called ‘shackling’ occurs because of the widespread stigma surrounding mental health, and a lack of access to adequate support services, both for those with disabilities and for their families. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children - some as young as ten - have been shackled at least once in their lives in over sixty countries. In 2020 #BreakTheChains published a ground-breaking report exposing the global scale of chaining, and in Kenya, achieved a ruling which found that this practice was inhumane and held the people responsible to account.

America’s founding statement that ‘all are created equal’ is forgotten as racism grows there. It grows wherever cultures clash. In the UK teachers spend considerable amounts of learning time dealing with bullying, hate crime, and non-attendance arising from prejudice. One teacher said, ‘I’ve spent countless hours dealing with verbal and physical conflict rooted in fear of difference. In some cases this was triggered by children repeating the views of parents harbouring prejudices of their own.’ She added that there had been an upswing in racism incidents since the 2015 election, when UKIP anti-foreigner rhetoric cascaded from parent to child to playground. Prejudiced views left unchallenged within the education system could ultimately lead to involvement in hate groups and hate crimes by young people who deserve better.