Political correctness gets more crazy in the UK with a suggestion by London based organisation, The National Children’s Bureau that young children who say ‘yuck’ when given food from another culture may be displaying racist behaviour.

The NCB is a well established and respected organisation, which last month published a guide titled Young Children and Racial Justice. It is supposed to be an advisory reference for adults on how to help avoid moments of different food tastes and textures inadvertantly turning little boys and girls into racists.

‘This book is brim full of important issues that professional early years workers need to be aware of and seek to address constructively’ says Sally Whitaker, Deputy Chief Executive of the NCB. ‘It is an excellent resource, which has been specially designed to help teachers and nursery leaders put racial equality into practice across their provision.’

Imagine the scenario - your child is invited over to their friend’s house across the road, a family who come from another country. Their food is simply, different. It could be red-hot with chillies, or feremented cabbage, or even delicious and juicy worms (like the African mopani worms in the picture). A fork of food goes into mouth, and the tast or texture is so different that ‘yuck’ comes quite easily! Presto, your child is now a potential racist.

The guide, titled Young Children and Racial Justice, warns adults that babies must also be included in the effort to eliminate racism because they have the ability to “recognize different people in their lives.”

The NCB warns us to be aware of children who “react negatively to a culinary tradition other than their own by saying ‘yuck’.”
So we have to remove ‘yuck’ from our vocabulary - replace it with ‘now that is interestingly different’, or perhaps ‘I say, my esteemed and socially equal friends, this tastes rather unusual’.

“Racist incidents among children in early years settings tend to be around name-calling, casual thoughtless comments and peer group relationships,” the guide says. Which is understandable, and needs to be dealt with decisively and lovingly in those early years.

Banning ‘yuck’ however, and associating it with racist behaviour is another sad example of wasted money poured into research and publications that common sense tells us anyway. I have no idea how much this self-published book has cost the NCB, but maybe it could have been better spent on a kids television programme that just taught children why different is not always yucky.