“If she runs away, i’ll get to whip her”: anti-black humour and stereotyping in school

This paper theorises empirical findings from a school in the north of England in order to contribute to theoretical understandings of racial microaggressions, particularly micro-assaults. In so doing, the paper argues that during the teaching of Black History, micro-assaults were articulated as racist humour and stereotyping, to increase tolerance for disparaging Black people and for justifying their unequal treatment. White teachers and their students were complicit in engaging in anti-Black racist humour and stereotyping, but from a Critical Race perspective, the paper argues that Black students’ participation is best understood as a coping mechanism for reducing Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF) as a consequence of Mundane Extreme Environmental Stress (MEES).