Falkirk fire chief PA speaks openly about her experience of 'horrific racial abuse' growing up

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A fire chief PA from Falkirk has spoken openly about her experience of "horrific racial abuse" growing up, as well as modern day racism.

Charmaine Jones, known as 'Char', opened up about her experience of growing up in Grangemouth. One of five children from a “very happy and very loving” home, her dad Matt was a paramedic her mum Audrey, a full-time mum.However, she explained: “We didn’t realise we were the only multi-racial family at the time but we stood out like a sore thumb."We were all picked on for the colour of our skin.

From the N-word to the ‘P***’ word."All those really, terrible, horrible names. I was called ‘P**’ at primary school and told that I was dirty." Charmaine, Executive PA for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service's Director of People and Organisation Development, said that things got so bad that she was even punched in the face by a racist boy.

She said: “"He broke my glasses and chipped a bone in my nose.“He had called me ‘P***’. The thing is, I wasn’t Pakistani. My heritage is Indian and I am Scottish."It was clearly an ignorance with his parents because kids are not brought up to be racist."As a teenager, Charmaine went on to achieve sporting triumph in athletics, training six nights a week with the Falkirk Victoria Harriers - and even training with the Scotland squad as a reserve.Her father was a coach and encouraged her into the sport aged eight.Char noted: “I just loved it and it was a comfortable environment.“There was the odd time you would hear someone say, ‘you can beat the P***’."I would tell my dad and he would say, ‘you run … you run harder and you run faster - and you beat them’."The 47-year-old says racism still exists and as a result she also takes step to protect herself such as