White Privilege and White Working Class Boys
The government is blaming the poor educational outcomes of white working class students on the popularisation of “white privilege” - the government is missing the big picture.
The results of the government’s inquiry entitled The Forgotten, set up during the first lockdown, was released at the end of June. Its purpose was to highlight the continued educational disadvantage of White working class boys. It discusses how disadvantage is determined, defines White (distinguishing between White British and White Traveller and Gypsy/Roma groups) and it reflects the impact of ‘White Privilege’, stating the following:
Schools should consider whether the promotion of politically controversial terminology, including White Privilege, is consistent with their duties under the Equality Act 2010.
The use of the word promotion, it put me in mind of Section 28, introduced in 1988 to ‘prohibit the promotion of homosexuality’. Section 28 forbade local authorities from informing children about same-sex relationships and from funding literature and other material that pertained to being gay. By the government’s definition, a school could promote homosexuality just by talking about it. Section 28 caused misery for thousands of young people, stigmatising as it did their reality, and whipped up media sensationalism which was coming hot on the heels of the AIDs crisis of the early to mid-80s.
By tethering the persistent underperformance of White working class boys to White privilege, certain sections of the media can conveniently ignore the disadvantage caused by seismic political events, such as the closure of the mines by the Conservative government in the 1980s and the general decline of manufacturing industries in the UK and the catastrophic over emphasis on university as the only worthwhile destination for our youth.
The inquiry devotes some eight paragraphs to the post-George Floyd rise of the term ‘White Privilege’ and its use in literature and statements put out by local authorities. I’m not even going to dignify the press frenzy with statements expressing indignation. This is par for the course. There will always be politicians and editors who accuse anyone attempting to have a serious discussion about racism of stoking division, but those same people will never acknowledge the class divide that perpetuates an economic status quo in which poor White boys are destined to remain at the bottom of the heap.
Semantics and poor White boys
One of the criticisms of the Inquiry is that the authors suggest disadvantaged children and White Working-Class children are a homogenous group when this is not the case.
It’s disingenuous to use term White working-class and disadvantaged White pupils interchangeably when there’s possibly as much difference between the two groups as there is between working-class and middle-class pupils. David Gillborn, emeritus professor of critical race studies at the University of Birmingham, states in his article that 60% of adults see themselves as working class. By conflating the two terms, the suggestion is that a greater proportion of White people are disadvantaged when in fact, fourteen percent of White children are in receipt of free school meals. When you look at it like that, you see that fewer White children are falling behind academically. But there’s nothing to gain politically when you separate out working class boys and free school meals boys.
The problem of a service driven economy
The 1980s saw the decimation of traditional working class careers. Along with the discrediting of trades unions, the Conservative government transformed Britain into a white collar, service-driven economy. Men born to generations of miners, shipbuilders and manual labourers suddenly found themselves unemployed and struggled to adapt to a new way of working. The heart was torn out of close-knit communities who were sentenced to generations of unemployment and a gradual erosion of pride in their working class identity.
The problem of socialising (or not)
People have long lamented the closure youth clubs, that sanctuary for bored boys and girls. According to the Unison report, The Damage, between 2012 and 2014, youth services lost at least £60 million in financial support. Youth workers play a crucial role in lives of young people, in particular those considered to be disadvantaged. Budget cuts introduced as part of the government’s austerity measures rang the death knell for many interventions that, in some quarters, actually supported young people to stay in school.
The problem of role models
As a teenager, I attended a supplementary school for African and Caribbean children in my hometown. Saturday Schools been springing up since the 1970s in response to Bernard Coard’s book entitled ‘How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Subnormal in the British School System’. Caribbean parents took matters into their own hands, filling gaps in their children’s knowledge created by (some) White teachers who did not care for their Black charges. Youngsters at risk were scooped up by village of Black men and women and rejected the low expectations of their schools. My uncles were graduates who’d returned to their community to ‘give back’, and I met a few local West Indian graduates who acted as role models for me and other Black children.
The problem of schooling
The media and politicians need to be honest: it’s not discussions about White Privilege that are responsible for the consistent underachievement of disadvantaged White boys. The British education system just isn’t fit for purpose. Instead of sending out of touch politicians on fact-finding missions to Singapore schools (bear in mind, when it comes to education, Singaporeans don’t take prisoners), we should take a leaf out of Germany’s book and set up schools that prepare students for vocational careers and apprenticeships. Imagine how the self-esteem of so many of our young people would be positively impacted if at fourteen, they could drop subjects like History and Geography and focus on practical subjects that will lead to jobs that are essential if our economy is to run efficiently. As a teenager, I had a German pen pal who, when I met her at sixteen, had been training to be a care assistant. It’s hard to imagine that a country values its vulnerable citizens enough to insist that those who look after them receive a thorough education in this area.
If you ask me, what’s going on in these dog-whistle headlines is the same thing that’s gone on for years: poor White people have been used to score political points against the latest enemy of the conservative right. They are collateral damage, low-hanging fruit invoked by their truly privileged ‘superiors’, elites who think nothing of playing one disadvantaged or discriminated group off against another.
In her Times Educational Supplement article responding to the report, Tabitha McIntosh encapsulated beautifully what is really going on: The Conservative government has had at least five opportunities to address the plight of poor White children. It could have done something after the publication of the 2014 report on educational outcomes of White working-class children, or the Ofsted reports of 2008 and 2013. They could have done something when the universities minister suggested White working-class boys be recruited as if they were from ethnic minority communities, but they didn’t. And they missed and opportunity to do something in response to the Conservative party’s State of the Nation – Educational Failings report of 2006.
I love Tabitha’s succinct analysis of the latest Government Inquiry. In her opinion, and I have to say I agree with her,
‘The word they’re looking for isn’t “forgotten”. It’s ignored’
Written by Laurie O'Garro
Laurie has recently come out as a writer of poetry, flash fiction, including her hilarious 'God Monologues', and articles. She has lived in London for twenty-seven years, having moved to the capital to take up her first teaching job.
Laurie's hobby is string art which she discovered off the back of a childhood art from the 70s. The craft is best compared to embroidery, except it's done on card. And it's funkier. Her plan is to go global with string art and turn her creations into clothing and other accessories that people will fall in love with.
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