SIR — The reported behaviour of teacher Stephen Parnell in telling racist jokes to pupils is, I trust, not only completely unacceptable to the General Teaching Council but to the vast majority of us. Is this a matter of interest other than to the children, their parents and the governors of the school at which Mr Parnell taught? Actually, yes. Teachers are trained and at state schools are paid from our taxes. They have many tasks but their essential role involves educating and preparing young people to participate in the society we have created, which we all share and which we all continue to shape. I wonder how many for whom racist jokes are 'a little harmless fun' have been the butt of such so- called humour. At their heart is suggesting that people because of their colour or creed are 'not like us'. That approach of creating a sense of 'other' of course prevailed during the 1930s in Germany where Jews were publicly described as 'vermin'. During the Holocaust, on average, 3,000 people - mainly Jews, but also gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally handicapped and others - were murdered every day, 365 days a year, for five and a half years. In Rwanda for many years people had been taught that the Tutsis were 'cockroaches'. In the spring of 1994 nearly a million Tutsis were murdered. This week has seen the tenth anniversary of the massacre of 8,000 men and boys in Srebreniza. Why? Simply because they were born into the wrong religion. To some, these things always occur 'somewhere else'. Let's look closer to home then. In Somerset in 2004-05, more than five racial incidents a week were recorded by the police - a rise of 42 per cent on the previous year. These were mainly verbal abuse or physical assaults but also included three incidents of arson. I am sure Mr Parnell does not consider himself a racist, and he has undoubtedly paid a heavy price for his misjudgement. The sorts of jokes he apparently told were very common when I was a boy, quite possibly based on attitudes inherited from the colonial era. But those days are long gone. Thankfully most people are aware that cultural differences are just that - not worse than or better than others - just different. Jokes based on belittling others have no place in a society with tolerance and respect at its core. We live in difficult times. Incidents such as the appalling atrocities in London last week will severely test our ability not to be seduced by 'stereotypes'. Let's hope that more and more we judge and will be judged on the basis of actions and attitude, not ethnicity, religion or anything else that helps to create the wonderful diversity in our society. Jamie Robertson, Co-ordinator, Under One Sun.
