Are teachers racist even if they don't know it?

BarcelonaWhat happens when everything you see and feel at home has nothing to do with what you later learn at school? You feel like you're at a disadvantage, like you're out of step. A feeling that children of foreign origin who study in our schools today know all too well. These are students whom the educational system has marginalized, which requires teachers to review and reflect on. We need to talk about racism in the classroom again, or at least that's the starting point of the book. When songs from home don't play at school (Eumo Editorial, 2025), by Marta Comas and Alfons Espinosa, presented this week at the Ona bookstore in Barcelona.

"Some students come with some songs from home and others with others, the problem is that some earn points and others don't," says Marta Comas, co-author of the book, a social educator, anthropologist, and doctor in sociology of education at the UAB. This situation leads disadvantaged students to end up thinking that what they know from home "is useless." "With racism, doing nothing doesn't mean doing nothing, but rather promoting the perpetuation of inequalities," she continues.

The book features many witnesses who have gone through the school system, feeling, at times, displaced because of their origins. "When we talk about racism, it's hard to think that one has been racist oneself, but that's how you begin the transformation to make the classroom a safe world," says Yousra El Gdari, one of the witnesses. When Yousra was little, her mother didn't want to let her go without perfume. "It wasn't because she was a girl, but because in Morocco, we have a very different concept of leisure," she clarifies. Faced with this situation, the teachers encouraged the family to take this step, and today it is one of the most beautiful things she remembers. But not all the memories are pleasant. Years later, during her adolescence, she wanted to wear the hijab. At home, they didn't force her to; in fact, they didn't even agree. "I did it more out of self-sufficiency and rebellion," she says. When the teacher asked her if they forced her to wear it, she got very angry. "That felt more powerful than if I had been forced to do it; it was as if I were being pitted against my parents," she laments.

Parallel lives

Caring for one another between families and teachers is one of the key aspects of the book. "School is a threshold that separates and unites; it's important to create a harmonious flow between both sides," emphasizes Alfons Espinosa, the book's other co-author. This teacher and director of the Escola Drassanes, a high-complexity center located in Barcelona's Gothic Quarter, insists that teachers have a power: an empowering perspective based on recognition.

"There are many situations that, unintentionally, can leave a wound in you as a child. I had a struggle with my name: they always made me say how to pronounce it in front of everyone, and those are things that put the spotlight on you and isolate you," explains Youssef Sultan, another of the book's witnesses. "At home, my father asked us to hide our identity out of fear. So I went to school trying to hide my roots. This, for the construction of my identity, was chaos," he recounts.

So, what can teachers do to prevent this often unintentional racism in the classroom? In the book, Comas and Espinosa emphasize that the problem is ignorance, insecurity, and fear. Three feelings that can be replaced by fragility, strength, and love. To achieve this, it is necessary to engage in introspection and remember our own vulnerability. "Think of an experience in which, due to class, language, sexual or gender orientation, religion, or for thinking differently, for living differently from others, you felt out of place, were questioned, or even violated," the book suggests. Connecting with that moment in which we felt certain emotions but were unable to manage them leads us to understand that we are all vulnerable and need to reach out.

Another tip is to remember a time when we were able to break thestatus quo and we have achieved transformative goals in our lives. "How did it feel?" they ask us to reflect. And finally, the authors encourage us to think about our friendships. "Remember a friend with whom you have a strong bond despite the differences in your backgrounds, whether of class or environment," they continue. It is precisely this love that is capable of dissolving generalizations and prejudices.

"This book helps us understand that school is not just a space for academic learning, but an essential part of lifelong learning, and that caring is also teaching," concluded Aina Tarabini, the event's presenter and a professor and researcher in the sociology of education. For Tarabini, this is a work that, in uncertain times, opens a horizon of hope and invites us to rethink educational commitment as both a personal and collective task.