New from Bookmarks Publications & Trentham Books
Tell It Like It Is – How Our Schools Fail Black Children
Edited by Brian Richardson with a foreword by Doreen Lawrence
The seminal pamphlet How The West Indian Child Is Made Educationally Subnormal
in the British School System by Bernard Coard caused a social and political
storm when it first appeared in 1971. A re-print of this classic text is at
the heart of this new book. It appears with new comment by Bernard Coard himself
and by educators, politicians, trade unionists, writers – and young
Black people – all confirming that Black pupils are still disadvantaged
by the British education system today.
The Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips has warned
that Britain is in danger of “Sleepwalking into a nightmare of New Orleans
style racial ghettoes”. And at the 2005 British Educational Research
Association conference, concern about the persistence of racism in education
was high on the agenda.
So why has so little changed? And what can be done to prevent another three
decades of racism in schools?
Tell It Like It Is tackles these questions and pays tribute to Coard’s
writing. It is a hard-hitting new publication that addresses Phillips’s
concerns that our children are “marching into educational ghettoes”.
The book has a foreword by Doreen Lawrence and critical contributions from:
• Writers and broadcasters Benjamin Zephaniah, Linton Kwesi Johnson,
Kwame Kwei-Armah, Alex Pascall, Hassan Mahamadalie, Hugh Muir, Gary McFarlane,
Lola Young
• Politicians Diane Abbott, Ken Livingstone, Herman Ouseley
• Educationalists Wally Brown, Gus John, David Gillborn, Heidi Safia
Mirza, Sally Tomlinson, Chris Searle, David Simon, Stella Dadzie, Gillian
Klein
• Trade Union Leaders Steve Sinnott, Paul Mackney
• Young people, teachers, parents and community activists
Book Launch: Tell It Like It Is will be launched at a special Black History
Month reception at City Hall London on October 26th (see below)..
Publication date: October 10th 2005, ISBN 1905192061.
For more information or to request a review copy of the book please
contact:
Brian Richardson on 020 7467 1385 or 07946 508506 or
Hannah Dee at Bookmarks on 020 7637 1848 or 07951 737 003
Bookmarks Publications, Trentham Books, Mayor of London, South East Region
TUC
Reception to mark the publication of
Tell it Like It Is – How Our Schools Fail Black
Children
Edited by Brian Richardson
With a foreword by Doreen Lawrence and incorporating a reprint of the
seminal 1970s pamphlet How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally
Subnormal in the British School System by Bernard Coard, plus contributions
from educators, politicians, trade unionists, writers and young Black people
Wednesday 26th October
6:30-9pm, City Hall, London
If you would like to attend, RSVP:
Brian Richardson
E. blackpanther1967@ntlworld.com
Tel: 07946 508 506
For further information about the book email enquiries@bookmarks.uk.com or call 020 7637 3416