I enjoy a good whinge as much as the next man, but I have to say the relentless carping about whiteness is getting a little tiresome. The grievance industry has now progressed to the stage where even the royal family has no business being white; white victims of serious crime are essentially ignored; and those who make the effort not to be white consider themselves somehow deserving of reparations. In their wisdom, the identitarian Left have distilled all society’s ills into a single phenomenon: white men, or the ‘patriarchy’ as the euphemism goes.
The opinion is not unpopular. “Lazy, drunken, promiscuous, rude … why the UK loves to hate young white men” says The Guardian. YouGov concurs, declaring young white men “the most derided ethnic group in Britain.” Meanwhile, a stroll around our cultural institutions reveals little more than a history of empire, slavery, and sin.
But what to do about the problem? Expert opinion varies. While liberal Hollywood luminaries like Jane Fonda favour the mere arrest and incarceration of all white men, professors and diversity officers are less patient; often advocating the more direct blitzkrieg “kill all white men.” Regrettably, such a policy has yet to be taken up by any mainstream political party, which leaves the less radical solution of exclusion.
The removal of white people from positions of prominence in society is a growth industry. In employment terms, diversity targets are the usual modus operandi for the exclusion of white men, even though positive discrimination is illegal in the UK. ‘Useless white males’ are now being routinely banned from industries as wide ranging as the Royal Air Force, the BBC, and the police, who are so keen to meet their quotas that they’re ironically willing to break the law to do so.
Teaching ‘white privilege’
And yet, there is the lingering sentiment that we are not doing enough to get to the root of the problem. Attention therefore has switched to schools, where the virus of critical race theory has long been used as a means to inculcate division and further disadvantage white pupils under the pretext of their ‘white privilege.’
The extent to which CRT has infiltrated our society is shocking: a YouGov survey of more than 1,500 18-20 year olds revealed that exposure to CRT (terms such as ‘white privilege’, ‘unconscious bias’ or ‘patriarchy’) is on the rise—confirmed by 68% of 20-year-olds, 74% of 19-year-olds, and 78% of 18-year-olds. Furthermore, comparative data suggests that British schoolchildren are being force fed up to three-quarters as much CRT as American pupils, and that crucially these ideas are being taught without any counter argument whatsoever.
The fruits of these labours are now manifesting themselves within the British education system. White pupils are being openly excluded from classes on the basis of their skin colour alone. The story was broken last weekend by The Telegraph, which reveals that white pupils from North London primary schools are being excluded from extra literacy classes. The classes are run by the Nia Academy, advertised as “a Saturday school for children of African Caribbean descent, starting with Year 4 and Year 7,” with the expressed aim of “accelerating progress in reading and writing whilst also developing the children’s knowledge of black history and culture.” No comparable class is available for white pupils, despite many parent protests.
Exclusion is already a contentious issue within British education. When black pupils are excluded on the legitimate grounds of poor behaviour, the Left is up in arms decrying ‘systemic racism.’ They point out the disparity in exclusion rates which can be five times higher for black pupils—a convincing argument, were it true that behaviour was identical. However, the exclusion of white pupils on race alone apparently raises no concerns for any of those involved. This is compounded by the fact that white Britian is the worst performing educational demographic and has been known to be so for quite some time.
Even the government acknowledges the plight of the “forgotten white working-class.” Not only are white British pupils the worst performers at both GCSE and A-level, but in terms of access to higher education, they are shockingly underrepresented,most especially in the case of boys. In terms of those on free school meals, while a majority of Chinese, Bangladeshi, and black African boys make it to university, just 14% of white working-class boys do.
Oxford University’s Professor Peter Edwards commented on this disgrace:
White working-class young males are now the truly disadvantaged group in Britain. In this age of levelling up, how can this be allowed to happen? What we are seeing is a terrible waste of talent on an enormous scale. This appalling situation also sows the seeds of social unrest.
He’s right. While decade-long investment in ethnic minority education, and universities desperate to up their quotas has clearly reaped rewards, the white working-class has been seen as little more than collateral damage. And while killing off the patriarchy at its source obviously has its advocates, one can’t help harbouring the suspicion that this is a betrayal for which there will undoubtedly be a reckoning.
Such exclusion not only bodes ill for white pupils, but it hardly reflects well on the beneficiaries of such discrimination either. What exactly is the take-home message here? Black pupils deserve unabashed preferential treatment? Black pupils cannot compete without extra help? Or that Britain and its history does not apply to them, when one considers a core aim is to lend “particular focus on the black experience”? Choose your poison.
Grifting and groveling
Granted, there are those within government who are at least raising concerns about the issue. Former equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, has previously warned that “teaching white privilege as uncontested fact is illegal,” and former home secretary, Priti Patel, has voiced her concerns over the classes in question:
Doesn’t this amount to taxpayer funded educational discrimination? Many studies have shown that white working class boys have been academically disadvantaged for many years. Literacy lessons must be available for all pupils. https://t.co/pMbHIE1Oh5
— Priti Patel MP (@pritipatel) July 8, 2023
But these two ladies are at the heart of government, which demands the rather negative conclusion that they are either inept or being ignored.
The worst feature of the war on whiteness however, are the cheerleaders themselves. I’m not talking about the likes of Kehinde ‘The psychosis of whiteness’ Andrews here. While repugnant, at least that particular grift can be understood. No, I’m talking about the white men and women in authority who pay lip service to the nonsense of ‘white privilege,’ and cling to power by their betrayal of the next generation. Those such as Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, who assuage their own whiteness by claiming the corporation is ‘hideously white’; or Liberal Democrat head, Nick Clegg, who lamented the male whiteness of his own party (but clearly not its leader); we can’t forget those sports panellists who routinely berate England’s women’s football team for being ‘all white,’ without sufficient reference to a mirror.
And yet, none of these professed diversity champions will ever take their views to the logical conclusion of resigning, retiring, donating their salaries, or withdrawing their children from the cream of the grammar and private schools which one can guarantee they attend.
The overt betrayal of the white working-class on the grounds of innate privilege is a contemptible policy, especially in terms of education. It’s high-time that those in authority put a stop to it. We need to play a new game—how about equality?
This piece first appeared in The European Conservative, and is reproduced by kind permission.
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