Adil Ray has recalled suffering racist abuse as a young child.
The ‘Citizen Khan’ actor has opened up on his own experiences with racism as he revealed he was the "second Asian kid" at "a very white school" – his older brother was the first – and he explained how his mother taught her sons to deal with the issue after he was "called the p-word".
Speaking on ITV’s ‘Good Morning Britain’, which he returned to guest host today (16.07.20), he said: "I remember when I was called the p-word at school. Oh yeah – I went to a very white school.
"My brother was the first Asian kid at school, five years before me, and then I was the second Asian kid.
"I remember being called the p-word and I remember my mum, she said to me two things. ‘Well, they just called you the p-word. One, go back to them and call them Englings. It’s just short for what you are, and you are Pakistani’.
"So I did that. And she also said, ‘Don’t forget, it’s just one person. That’s just one person, it’s not all people. Look at our neighbours, they’re fantastic aren’t they? You go round to their house.’
"Straight away, she made sure I didn’t think it was all white people that felt that way. I just think education at school is so important and essentially, but it does happen at home."
Adil’s ‘GMB’ co-host Charlotte Hawkins also addressed the issue as she insisted parents need to take more responsibility for educating their children.
She added: "I think it’s about parents taking individual responsibility. You hear sometimes children say things and I know that’s come straight from the mouth of their parents.
"I think every parent needs to be challenging, needs to be talking to their child, needs to be explaining the context, and making sure that children understand the way that we should be with everybody."
Adil, 46, agreed and pointed out that while every family has someone who holds "bigoted views", more needs to be done to tackle the serious problem.
He explained: "Look, we all know in our families there is the uncle, there is the aunt, there is somebody that has got discriminatory, bigoted views – even in Asian families. And I think it’s up to us all to tackle that at home. The time has come."