'U For Ugly' In Alphabet Book; Are Racial Images Enforced In the Minds Of Primary School Children?

The West Bengal government on Thursday suspended two women teachers for teaching U for Ugly with an illustration of a dark-skinned boy beside it.

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New Delhi: The world is witnessing a massive uproar against racism, Celebrities, Sportsperson, and renowned figures have come out to show solidarity for the fight against racism. Twitter exploded after Darren Sammy shared a video saying he faced racism in India and alleged that people called him 'Kalu' during the IPL; the racial remarks offended him. While everyone is busy fighting for racial equality to bring a change in the society, people often forget that the real change can be brought by teaching our younger generation that beauty is not based on color, beauty lies within. The foundation stone to become a good person is generally laid while we are in school, but in a recent incident in West Bengal, a school has been giving lessons to discriminate black as ugly and white as beautiful. Parents of a primary school in Burdwan district of West Bengal staged a protest against an illustration calling a dark-skinned person ugly. While presenting the alphabets with corresponding words and images, the book says U is for "Ugly". The illustration printed beside the letter is that of a boy with a dark complexion. While the West Bengal government on Thursday suspended the two women teachers on the charge of teaching pre-primary students from an English alphabet book consisting of a portion derogatory to the people with a dark complexion but the question arises why was a such a book included as a part of the school curriculum? "The book is not part of the textbooks referred by the education department. It was introduced by the school itself. We have zero-tolerance for acts which instill prejudices into the minds of students," Education Minister Partha Chatterjee informed the PTI. The education minister clarified that the book was not suggested by their department, therefore, strict actions will be taken against the suspended teachers after further investigation. The matter came into light when the father of a student of the school was teaching him with the help of that book. Though the education department took cognizance of the situation, we can wonder what would have been the future of students if the school continued to impart lessons of discrimination and there are chances we could have seen another George Floyd in India suffering the racial slur or to be fair, the dark-skinned people are already suffering it in their day to day lives. Also watch|Raipur: Indoor stadium converted into a hospital for Corona patients