Former teacher Joan Lewis on a moving poem from a pupil 50 years ago, and Judy Cowgill on how the odds continue to be stacked against the have-nots
However moved I am by Aditya Chakrabortty’s article about Giovanni Rose, a prize-winning young black poet (The teenager’s poem that reveals the cruel reality of life in modern Britain, 23 December), I can only feel a limited sense of optimism for his future. I fear that he will continue to feel the effects of institutional racism throughout his life. If this were not so, then why have the injustices suffered by members of the Windrush generation still not been properly addressed?
Over 50 years ago, another young black teenager wrote a poem. She was spirited and rebellious. Little wonder. As a pupil in a school for “educationally subnormal” pupils, she was feeling the full weight of a racist judgment that had already blighted her life. I was her teacher whom she accused of treating her harshly “just because I’m black”.
