To Challenge or not to Challege a Racist View -That is the Question

The only instruction was that they have to write a personal point of view - fictitious or real - in the form of a column for a national newspaper. And, a little foolishly perhaps, I also stated that the more contentious the subject, the better - thinking they might do a piece on homosexuality, creationism, abortion, or a range of other suitably appropriate topics for AS students.

What I hadn't quite envisaged was that they might also want to say something politically dubious about topics like immigration or Enoch Powell.

A girl from a certain socially and economically deprived and thus politically volatile area - Tipton - wrote a right wing rant of which even Enoch Powell would have been proud.

Now, the piece wasn't badly written - one of my colleagues vouched for that - but it was just the lingering scent of racism that bothered me.

The question for me - and I suppose many other English subject teachers - is: to what extent we should merely mark the written English and not fuss about the political view? Do we have a real, unwritten obligation to confront racist attitudes even when those attitudes/point of views are expressed correctly, fluently and coherently?

I suspect that students with such views are almost expecting me to confront them - and thereby reinforcing the idea that working class people haven't got a say without the liberal, political correctness intervening - so I decided it would not be at all productive for my challenging her. Perhaps correction - if that's the right word - of political views should come later, in a structured and considered way (as part of a debate perhaps). And yet I can't help feeling a little uneasy at my failure to challenge her directly on the spot...