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JLS Aston: 'I was racially bullied'


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Guest Tulse Hill

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/front_page/newsid_10000000/newsid_10002900/10002996.stmLast year racist bullying saw children in England excluded from primary and secondary schools almost 4,000 times. As part of Radio 1's bullyproof anti-bullying campaign, Aston Merrygold from JLS has been talking to BBC Switch presenter Anthony Baxter about his experience of being a victim of this type of abuse.At 14 Aston joined a football team that some of his friends were in. He was the only black member of the team but says he never thought that would be a problem."When you first start in a team, people start to get comfortable with you and you start to make friends," he said. "You have a laugh, and all mates take the mick out of each other, but it got to the point where they'd start making jokes about things that were irrelevant. Skin colour started coming into."Watch: Aston speaks to Switch about bullyingHe says what started off as typical changing room banter, soon became serious racist abuse."They would literally come out with stupid stuff. Obviously me being half black and half white, no Asian heritage at all, they'd come out with 'you look like a Paki'," Aston revealed."World wide we were going through all that stuff with Osama Bin Laden, and they would say 'he's your cousin'. Looking back, it doesn't make any sense, but at the time it was hurtful." Aston tried to stay stong but it wasn't easy. "I used to literally mask it, 'yeah whatever', but when I'd go home and I was on my own, I was really upset by it."Pupils excludedThe true level of racist bullying in schools in the UK isn't known. At the moment the only way to quantify the problem is by looking at the number of cases that result in a pupil being suspended or expelled.In England last year children were excluded from primary and secondary schools 3,970 times. In Wales, there were 580 cases, but some of those were for sexual harassment. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, officials have said they don't have specific figures for racial bullying.Continue reading the main story Worldwide we were going through all that stuff with Osama Bin Laden, and they would say 'he's your cousin'. It was hurtful.Aston Merrygold, JLSAston says he is shocked racism is still a problem in the playground.He said, "There are still some people who feel it's ok to say something about people's skin tone"."As hard as it is, it has to be one person at a time," he said, when asked what the solution is. "You can only change one person at a time. It will happen, it will change, but it's going to take a lot of time."Teachers speak outEarlier this year a survey of over 800 teachers showed that nearly half thought racist bullying was a problem in their school. The government says all schools should have a strong anti-bullying policy, which should also include measures to tackle racist bullying.The teaching union, the NUT says that anti-bullying policies in schools only work if all staff, parents and pupils are aware of the damage racial bullying can do. It wants all racist incidents in schools recorded.Jasmine, 14, goes to a school in south east London. She says while she's not been bullied racially herself, she has witnessed it.Aston Merrygold Aston meets some of their young fans"At my primary school there weren't very many black people there, and those that were there were bullied for it," she explained. "It was really racist. The majority of people were white. It was like, that's it, you're going to get hurt or called names. It wasn't nice."Omar, 16, was born in Exeter in Devon. His parents are both from Libya and he says he lives an Arabic lifestyle. He's been the victim of racism because of this, and thinks ignorance is at the root of the problem."I think that's just human nature. Who isn't racist? Everyone's been racist at least once," he said. "I don't think it's hatred I just think they're unaware. They don't hate Arabs, they just see newspapers and think 'there was a terrorist attack and he was an Arab, we might see Arabs as terrorists'. But we're not."

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lol @ what happened in a MW2 party last nightwe have an irish guy in our team, when he gets killed 1 time he says"ahhh fook sayyyke you fookin black barrsterd"so we are like "hey watch your tounge" etc and he says "im sorry guys im not racist i wouldnt say that in front of a black person"smhsome people just have backwords beleifs passed down to them. i had white friends that were from various schemes etc and they would say "aye that tam mctavish is a fcukin black bstard...no offence mate" lmao

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lol @ what happened in a MW2 party last nightwe have an irish guy in our team, when he gets killed 1 time he says"ahhh fook sayyyke you fookin black barrsterd"so we are like "hey watch your tounge" etc and he says "im sorry guys im not racist i wouldnt say that in front of a black person"smhsome people just have backwords beleifs passed down to them. i had white friends that were from various schemes etc and they would say "aye that tam mctavish is a fcukin black bstard...no offence mate" lmao
lol, i was laughing hard when i heard that through the head set. The way it went silent for a few seconds..... lol
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lol @ what happened in a MW2 party last nightwe have an irish guy in our team, when he gets killed 1 time he says"ahhh fook sayyyke you fookin black barrsterd"so we are like "hey watch your tounge" etc and he says "im sorry guys im not racist i wouldnt say that in front of a black person"smhsome people just have backwords beleifs passed down to them. i had white friends that were from various schemes etc and they would say "aye that tam mctavish is a fcukin black bstard...no offence mate" lmao
lol, i was laughing hard when i heard that through the head set. The way it went silent for a few seconds..... lol
:lol: yeah
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lol @ what happened in a MW2 party last nightwe have an irish guy in our team, when he gets killed 1 time he says"ahhh fook sayyyke you fookin black barrsterd"so we are like "hey watch your tounge" etc and he says "im sorry guys im not racist i wouldnt say that in front of a black person"smhsome people just have backwords beleifs passed down to them. i had white friends that were from various schemes etc and they would say "aye that tam mctavish is a fcukin black bstard...no offence mate" lmao
smh at this,The geeza back tracted his statement quick time when Gayle and I shouted out "oi! hol up.... watch ur tongue" I could sense him curling up into a ball of maximus cringe and shame.
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I'm not surprised tbh.A mixed race kid in a majority white school in the UK is going to face racism. Especially 10 years ago or whatever. The white guys got too comfortable with their new black friend and thought they could call him paki because there werent any asians around.
But on the flip side of this.This wouldn't happen if he was in a majority black and asian populated school.Or the same for a white boy in a majority black school, he is more likely to be genuinely accepted for who he without gettin that kinda abuse.Yeah everyone can have there moments of racism, but seem to be majorly an issue with white folk, esp when gathered in numbers they feel safe to say such things or behind there computer screens.but one 2 one, and face to face, NEVER. too shook, and just bare fake smiles and beg friend.
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lol @ what happened in a MW2 party last nightwe have an irish guy in our team, when he gets killed 1 time he says"ahhh fook sayyyke you fookin black barrsterd"so we are like "hey watch your tounge" etc and he says "im sorry guys im not racist i wouldnt say that in front of a black person"smh
lmfao at least he apologised and admitted he wouldn't say it in real life.I'd love to meet some of the guys who casually chat sh*t over XBL
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I'm not surprised tbh.A mixed race kid in a majority white school in the UK is going to face racism. Especially 10 years ago or whatever. The white guys got too comfortable with their new black friend and thought they could call him paki because there werent any asians around.
But on the flip side of this.This wouldn't happen if he was in a majority black and asian populated school.Or the same for a white boy in a majority black school, he is more likely to be genuinely accepted for who he without gettin that kinda abuse.Yeah everyone can have there moments of racism, but seem to be majorly an issue with white folk, esp when gathered in numbers they feel safe to say such things or behind there computer screens.but one 2 one, and face to face, NEVER. too shook, and just bare fake smiles and beg friend.
Agreed
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lol @ what happened in a MW2 party last nightwe have an irish guy in our team, when he gets killed 1 time he says"ahhh fook sayyyke you fookin black barrsterd"so we are like "hey watch your tounge" etc and he says "im sorry guys im not racist i wouldnt say that in front of a black person"smh
lmfao at least he apologised and admitted he wouldn't say it in real life.I'd love to meet some of the guys who casually chat sh*t over XBL
Funniest guy on XBL was some Manc c*nt. Started shouting out N word this and Paki that. I told him to "shut his scummy northern mouth". He then treatened to kill me and I laughed, he said "shut up I'm a gangster".
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What was actually nice was when I was playign a couple days agoThere were two Scots there (they didnt know eachother)I think I was talking and one of em called me a black c*nt or somethingn the other one came bursting in like 'No no I'm not having any of that'Protected B)Disclaimer: This same man headshotted me later.

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