ANOTHER week, another example of alleged discriminatory behaviour, this time against a two-year-old trying to make her way in the seemingly competitive world of nursery provision.

There was no space at a Broughty Ferry nursery for Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and his wife Nadia El-Nakla’s daughter, but apparently there was for a child with a white-sounding name. The nursery has strenuously denied any allegations of discrimination but Mr Yousaf said that, “we are fooling ourselves if we believe discrimination doesn’t exist in Scotland”.

I think most of us from Scotland’s Black and minority ethnic communities and no doubt other minority communities could tell a few good anecdotes to confirm this, but few of us have actually taken the time to collect data and evidence to back the suspicion up, and even fewer have the ability to do something about it.

It’s something that historically has just ‘come with the turf’. That Mr Yousaf and his wife have spoken out is important in that his high profile and platform allows a spotlight to be shone on practices that many feel may be the case, but can’t always substantiate.

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The Equality Act of 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in society across a variety of grounds: Age, sex, gender reassignment, race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and yes, applies to toddlers as well.

The fact that Mr Yousaf's claims appear to be based on the criteria of a name is noteworthy. I mean, what other criteria could a two-year-old have? Her CV is going to be a little scant, shall we say. What stereotypes were allegedly already being applied to this child at such a tender age?

Discriminating against a person because of their name is not uncommon. Studies have shown that job applicants with ethnic-sounding names have to send more applications before receiving call-backs. One study by Oxford University in 2018 found that ethnic minorities had to send out on average 60% more applications compared to white candidates to get a positive response. Many job applicants have been tempted to change ethnic-sounding first names to more British sounding names. I know so many brown-skinned Tonys and Bens who definitely didn’t have those names at nursery school.

And I must confess, so embarrassed and worried about my life chances was I with my own name, that at the age of 17, I unceremoniously dumped it for my British-sounding middle name, Sara. But six years later, as I began filling job applications in myself I rationalised that if a company didn’t want to work with someone with a foreign-sounding name, I probably wouldn’t be happy there anyway, so changed it back to my original name.

I wouldn’t say the job offers came flooding in, but at least I was at peace with my identity. My brother who worked in investment banking in London regularly regaled us with stories of colleagues who’d done exponentially well having changed their names – Mohammed had become Mark, and Rehman was now Ray. It’s done as a way to combat discrimination, and mask one’s identity because of the fear that the system structurally is weighted against that identity.

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Even as a parent of children with dual heritage it did cross my mind when they were born that if I wanted my boys to have the best chances I should give them more conventionally British or Scottish-sounding names, whilst that part of me that was proud of their Asian/Muslim heritage wanted a strong nod to that. In the end, they got a pick and mix selection of names so they could chose which ones they wanted to go with when they were of an age that identity became important to them.

Mr Yousaf is right to point out his concerns because his daughter will soon enter the Scottish education system where, it still takes my breath away to note that, amongst 52,000 teachers, less than a handful of head teachers are from Black or ethnic minority backgrounds – the exact figure impossible to ascertain because official government figures tell us it is so low as to be below 5. And we have to ask why that is, and why a mere 1.6% of Scottish teachers are from Black or minority ethnic backgrounds, despite a higher number than in the general population going into higher education. It is generally accepted that discrimination has played a part in the lack of promotion prospects for Black and minority ethnic teachers and in lower retention rates. We need to talk about this.

The nursery said any claim that it was not open to all was "demonstrably false" and that it had regularly welcomed children and staff from a range of backgrounds including Muslims.

However, if discrimination is proven to be the case in this instance, it will have been important that Mr Yousaf pointed it out. He should use his voice to speak for parents whose children may have suffered discrimination of varying types, but who have remained quiet, confused and bewildered: Children with additional needs who may have been locked out of mainstream schools, children who have been excluded or children who face discrimination because of the sexual orientation of their parents.

A high-profile case like this should encourage other private nursery providers (and others in the care sector) to review their systems and training to ensure they are taking a fair and non-discriminatory approach. We need to keep talking about discrimination until it becomes unacceptable and unconscionable.

Keeping schtum never changed anything, regardless of the type of discrimination allegedly at play.

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