Romesh Ranganathan has opened up about his sons being subjected to racist abuse at school.
The comedian and presenter shares three children with his wife Leesa. Their sons are Alex, 16, Theo, 14, and Charlie, 11.
The family live in Romesh’s hometown in West Sussex. Their £3million home is around five miles from the terrace house where he grew up.
Romesh Ranganathan reveals his sons are being bullied at school
Romesh, 48, said his children have experienced racism in the same area where he grew up. However, he believes things were even worse during his own childhood.
“The boys have had racist abuse. Not loads, not as much as I did, but they have had comments,” Romesh told his Wolf and Owl podcast co-host Tom Davis.
He then recalled an incident involving one of his sons and another pupil at school.
“We had a bit of an incident. One of the kids was chatting to a girl, just some friend at school, and one of the other kids said, ‘I don’t know why you’re bothering to chat to her. You’re going to end up marrying your cousin.'”
Romesh also revealed that his eldest son Alex has been targeted with a racial slur at school.
“Alex has had the P-word said to him, when he’s been walking around school,” he said.
The TV star believes parents have a responsibility for the attitudes their children display.
He said: “at a certain point you’ve got to go ‘they’re obviously hearing that at home.’ So whenever I see that or I hear that a kid’s done it, the next time I see their parents I’m thinking ‘you’re racist,’ right? And that’s a horrible thing.”
‘I’m not saying you shouldn’t react to racism’
Romesh also discussed how he wants his sons to respond when they encounter racism.
While he described racism as “horrible and abhorrent”, he warned against allowing it to provoke an extreme reaction. He said: “It’s a mistake to supercharge it.”
He explained: “What I mean by that is if somebody calls you a racial slur and it immediately ignites you, it gives that person power over you. I’m not saying you shouldn’t react to racism, but I’m saying that immediately leading you to be violent is not something I want my kids to do.”
Romesh has personal experience of being targeted because of his race. He recalled several incidents from his own youth.
“I got slurs thrown at me a fair bit,” he said. “I remember once I was walking out of school and like there was this kid that was sort of known for being racist just spat on me.”
‘It was a struggle’
Romesh also recalled a violent incident during his university years.
‘Then at uni, it’s happened a few times, I got jumped by skinheads when I was coming out of a club.’
Romesh’s mother Shanthi was born in Sri Lanka. She moved to Crawley when she was 19 with Romesh’s father Ranga.
Shanthi now appears alongside her son on his game show Romesh Ranganathan’s Parents’ Evening.
Romesh has previously been candid about his difficult childhood. His family faced significant financial problems while he was growing up.
His father, an accountant, was jailed for two years for fraud. The family home was also repossessed.
The family were later forced to live in bed-and-breakfast accommodation while waiting for the council to find them somewhere to live.
“This all happened very, very quickly. It was a struggle. My mum found out my dad had been messing around. He fell into financial difficulty so we ended up getting our house taken away.
“We were supposed to go into a council flat, but they didn’t have enough so we were in a bed-and-breakfast for a year-and-a-half. And my dad was in prison. It was insane.”
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