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A practitioner's guide to understanding online racism

Racism is a problem encountered by people in many countries across the world – and frequently online. It is an act of discrimination, for example hateful behaviour, committed against someone owing to their ethnicity or origin in another country. Sometimes the colour of their skin, accent or way of life may be a factor.

Race is a ‘protected characteristic’ – an aspect of a person’s identity protected under law alongside age, religion/belief, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation and disability. Depending on the context, racist behaviour (both online and offline) may be considered a hate crime.

What is a hate crime?

A hate crime is any criminal behaviour that appears to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice, or includes words or behaviour that show hostility, based on a person’s perceived:

  • race
  • religion
  • sexual orientation
  • transgender identity
  • disability

A hate crime can include verbal abuse, intimidation, threats, harassment, assault and bullying, as well as damage to property. The perpetrator could be someone unknown, or they could be a friend.

This guide will help you understand how online racism can affect your learners. It will also explain how you can educate and empower them to respond effectively to online racism and other forms of online hate.

According to the Show Us You Care research report from Race Alliance Wales, around 12% of school children in Wales are from minority ethnic backgrounds and are more vulnerable to racism and racist bullying both online and offline.

How and where does racism occur online?

Racist behaviour can take place anywhere online – from social media platforms and online gaming chat to YouTube channels, message boards and comment sections. Racist content is often public, created and posted with the aim of affecting as many people as possible. High-profile individuals such as sportspeople, celebrities and politicians are often targeted because of their race or skin colour.

Extremist groups may use the internet as a tool to recruit individuals to their organisations, or to discuss a shared hatred for those who are different to them. They often use private message boards or messaging apps to do this. Racist content online may not always be overtly hateful; it can also be implicit or subtle.

What are the risks around online racism?

Racist abuse uses dehumanising words or images to make a person or group sound inferior to others in society. Being the target or victim of this behaviour can be highly traumatising, may have an impact on physical or mental health (increasing worries or anxiousness), confidence and self-worth. It can also lead to feelings of helplessness. Depending on the context, online racist abuse can be considered a hate crime.

Racist behaviour that incites violence offline can also put people’s safety at risk. Racist incidents involving learners (either as victims or perpetrators) are serious safeguarding issues and should always be reported to the school’s designated safeguarding person (DSP) in line with school procedures. Don’t forget that content posted online has the potential to impact on the individual who posted it in the future, even if it was posted by mistake, or without understanding.

What role does the media (and online media) play in portraying and perpetuating stereotypes?

Online news sites and social media platforms have made it easy for people to connect with each other to share current events and opinions. While this can be a positive thing, some people use them to create and share content that misinforms the public or reinforces existing stereotypes associated with ethnic minorities. It is important to discuss these issues with learners and provide opportunities for them to develop media literacy skills, including how to correctly identify racist content online. The SELMA: Hacking Hate project (English only) provides activities and resources to help learners develop their social and emotional education, media literacy and citizenship skills in relation to online hate speech issues.

What can my school do to promote positive strategies to challenge online racism?

Racism and other forms of discrimination are not new issues, but they can only be tackled successfully if everyone in your school community is involved and works together.

Here are some key ways to help learners respond effectively to racism (online and offline).

  • Education

Creating opportunities for the whole school community to become aware of and understand racism is vital to challenging racist viewpoints and stereotypes, and to equip learners with the lifelong skills needed to play a positive role in this area. Awareness campaigns such as Show Racism the Red Card can help the whole community better understand the issues. Victim Support in Wales are able to deliver sessions on hate crime, mate crime and other related issues.

  • Safety first

Educating learners about how to safely challenge online racism is crucial to ensure that they do not put themselves (or others) at risk, or take action that makes a difficult online situation worse. It is important to discuss different ways in which racism can occur and how to consider the context before choosing to challenge racist behaviour. Above all else, it is essential that learners have strategies for seeking help and support (for themselves and others).

  • Championing human rights and equality

Your school can model and champion the values and ideals you wish your learners and community to adopt. Find out more about how to become a Rights Respecting School on the UNICEF website.

  • Become an anti-racist school

Taking steps to develop your own race equality action plans, improving community cohesion and considering your teacher recruitment and training can help develop an anti-racist culture across the school community. This may reduce racist incidents (online and offline) and can also strengthen a positive community response to any racist incidents that arise. Consider signing up to the Victim Support Hate Crime Charter.

  • Report harmful content

Online racist content may be offensive or harmful to an individual or group of people in your setting. Provide information and opportunities for your school community to understand the reporting tools for the services they use. The Report Harmful Content site contains advice and up-to-date information on community standards, as well as direct links to the correct reporting facilities for different websites and platforms.

  • Offer support

Take steps to ensure that all members of your school community know who they can speak to or where they can go for help and support if anything online leaves them feeling confused, worried, upset or afraid. Organisations such as Ethnic Minorities & Youth Support Team Wales (EYST) can also offer support and advice.

How can I support learners to engage with a range of social influences that affect their lives?

Settings and schools should identify opportunities for learners to engage with positive social influences as well as carefully consider how to reduce the impact of negative social influences. Settings and schools should take account of the role that social influences can play on learner behaviour and the influences that can promote and encourage healthy prosocial behaviours as well as those that lead to issues such as discrimination, racism or prejudice.

Settings and schools should think about how to provide support for learners when negative social influences create difficulties for individuals and groups, and celebrate those social influences that contribute to health and wellbeing. These may be more general influences that affect large numbers of learners, but could also include things that affect smaller groups of learners. Through a whole-school approach to health and wellbeing together with curriculum design, practitioners should provide opportunities for learners to explore and critically evaluate how and why they choose to engage with particular social influences and how these can affect behaviour.

Further advice and guidance can be found on the Curriculum for Wales pages on Hwb.

Where can I get help and support?

There’s lots of support and guidance available to help all members of your school community deal with online racism.

You can report hate crimes via True Vision to the police, or to Victim Support. Victim Support provide independent, confidential help, advice and support to victims and witnesses of hate crimes in Wales. Call 0300 3031 982 or visit the Victim Support website. The service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Remind learners that they can also call Meic, which offers free information, advocacy and advice for children and young people in Wales up to the age of 25. Call Meic for free on 080880 23456, text on 84001 or send instant messages at www.meic.cymru. The service is open from 8am to midnight, 7 days a week.

Educational practitioners requiring support with online safety issues such as racism or hate speech can contact the Professionals Online Safety Helpline for more advice about how to manage online incidents involving members of your school community.

For further information and advice on developing anti-racist approaches in your school, please see the research and publications from Race Alliance Wales.