Thread by @hour_womans

Don’t forget to tune into #subnormal tonight on BBC1 at 9pm. It’s an absolute scandal that so many Black British children were labelled as ‘educationally subnormal’ and farmed out to special schools. It affected them for life. It’s exec produced by Steve Mc Queen.

For the first time some people are speaking to #RoganProductions about what they lived through. They still carry feelings of shame. It was down to Black parents to have to fight against this and ask why their kids were being treated like this #subnormal

Noel Gordon whose parents came from Jamaica speaks for the first time on camera and is entirely self taught. He even has a post graduate degree from Brunel and has self published children’s book. These days he runs workshops for kids #subnormal

Professor @Gus_John speaks about how important it was for Caribbean parents for their kids to have an education but the establishment disrupted this #subnormal

White parents complained that there were too many immigrant children in the schools and they were scared that their kids would suffer. So they decided to ‘disperse’ the Black and Brown kids. Note this is terminology used in the prison system #subnormal

Also because of this the children were ‘bused’ to school. Many people don’t realise that happened here. Caribbean kids were represented in the system at twice the rate of other kids. They were in for all reasons including having sickle cell anaemia #subnormal

Due to cultural differences many Caribbean parents didn’t realise what these ‘special schools’ actually were. They assumed it was a good thing. They didn’t know ESN meant educationally subnormal. They only heard the word special. Eric Huntley was one such parent #subnormal

Bernard Coard is a teacher who is originally from Grenada. He got a job as a youth worker in a deprived area. He immediately realised that many of the Black kids had been put in these schools due to racism and he was absolutely horrified #subnormal

Caribbean parents started to notice that these schools were not preparing their kids for life. With such a basic level of education the only option for them would be low paid menial jobs #subnormal

In 1968 a report by a headteacher in Haringey known as ‘The Doulton Report’ fell into the hands of some Caribbean parents. The report stated that it was ‘recognised that the IQ’s of West Indians fell below that of their English contemporaries.’ #subnormal

Professor @Gus_John said this just sat alongside many other racisms that we were subjected to. This is eugenics pure and simple. This was discussed on mainstream TV as though it was a fact and it was steeped in racism #subnormal

How did these ideas find their way into post war Britain? Mainly due to an obsession with intelligence testing. It’s long since been recognised how these tests are steeped in cultural bias. It is no exaggeration to say that this was a war on Caribbean children #subnormal

Waveney Bushell was one of the UK’s first Black educational psychologists and worked as one for 40 years. She administered some of these tests and realised they some didn’t even need special knowledge but other questions needed cultural knowledge #subnormal

Black kids were asked about distances from Edinburgh to London. There were also different ways of defining things. For instance in the UK we say ‘tap’ but in the Caribbean we’d call it a ‘pipe.’ South Asian kids were treated differently as many had ESOL #subnormal

South Asians had their languages recognised. Caribbean patois was not recognised as such. We were seen as speaking a form of ‘inferior English.’ #subnormal

Maisie Barrett tells her story of being labelled incorrectly. She was not only a Caribbean child but she was also dyslexic. She was placed in an ESN school at the age of 5 #subnormal

She was asked to do things that other kids weren’t such as help wash the other children. Another example of the ‘adultification’ of Black children. She also grew up to educate herself and is a published author but it has had a long term effect on her confidence #subnormal

Black kids were described as ‘aggressive, troublesome, boisterous, poorly disciplined, bad behaviour’ etc etc on many official reports and these were used as excuses to place Black kids in ESN schools #subnormal

Anne Marie Simpson came to the UK at the age of 9. She couldn’t bond with her mother and ended up being labelled as a trouble maker because she was frustrated. She is still emotional about the treatment she received. She is now a successful social worker #subnormal

Black parents/teachers/activists decided to fight back. They held a conference and Bernard Coard did some extensive research into the images projected on to Black kids. The Education System were aware what was going on. It was an absolute scandal #subnormal

‘How the West Indian Child is made educationally subnormal’ was the book born out of Coard’s research. He proved that those in authority were deliberately targeting Black kids for ESN schools #subnormal

The only two Black publishers were the driving force behind making it into print. They raised the money needed from the Caribbean communities and told them what was being done to their children. It became a best seller #subnormal

The Black Doll Experiment from the US was performed in the UK with similar results. This is exactly why diversity matters. If you have only white people held up as heroes it’ll have a detrimental effect on the self confidence of Black children #subnormal

Michael La Rose’s father and several others set up Caribbean Saturday schools which were funded by the parents. They made sure that positive representations of our culture were front and centre #subnormal #HEROES

When we had @kehinde_andrews on the show he emphasised the importance of bringing these schools back. And @lizpemtbnm spoke about the ‘adultification’ that not only still exists today but just how young it starts #subnormal

Professor @Gus_John says that we have come full circle. Black kids are still disproportionately excluded and labelled a ‘discipline problem.’ Institutionally racism results in differential treatment. Black parents step and pay attention! #subnormal