‘White Privilege’? Working-Class White Kids Most Disadvantaged in UK Schools as System Prioritises Minorities

OLDHAM, ENGLAND - JUNE 15: School children walk along Wales Street in Oldham which local r
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Kurt Zindulka

White working-class children have been systematically disadvantaged in the United Kingdom as educational institutions prioritise children from minority backgrounds, a report submitted to the House of Commons Education Select Committee found.

The research revealed that working-class white students are 50 per cent less likely than their minority counterparts to score strong passes in the eight General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exams used by colleges and universities to determine an individual’s academic level.

In 2019, the progress score in the GCSEs for white pupils fell, while almost every minority group improved.

A don at Oxford University, Professor Peter Edwards, told the Mail on Sunday that the reason for the discrepancy was that issues facing white working-class students are seen as “unfashionable” and “not worthy”. He went on to suggest that amongst academics, just discussing the issues is seen as “taboo” because educators link it with “hard-Right political thinking”.

He went on to say that “the plight of white young disadvantaged children is being largely ignored” and that the mere fact of them having white skin leads many to think they have “inherent advantage or privilege” and as a result are often not seen as a priority in education.

Professor Edwards said that there will be “grave socio-economic and socio-political consequences if this large cohort of young people in the United Kingdom see that they are not afforded the sort of ‘positive actions’ and obvious advantages that other groups have in the name of inclusion, diversity and equality.”

“This will lead to a disturbing narrative and a vicious spiral downwards. I believe this is an utterly critical point; not only to utilise the huge untapped potential there surely must be, but also the real threat of the destabilisation of the very fabric of the country,” he warned.

The research found that working-class white students are more likely to attend a failing school, and often live in economically deprived communities in the North and Midlands.

In the United Kingdom, Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) youngsters are much more likely to receive paid “internships” from which white applicants, or sometimes just straight white males, banned from applying, in order to boost diversity in business and public institutions.

Under Britain’s equality legislation, whites can also be rejected for jobs if a minority candidate is seen as having equal merit, which has been abused by at least one police force to reject highly-qualified white applicants.

Researchers at Plymouth University said that the government’s tuition scheme that targets large cities with large populations of ethnic minorities, and charity rules that require a percentage of the money be directed to minority communities, may be a contributing factor in the discrepancy.

They argued that the programmes directed money away from white communities, particularly poorer coastal towns.

The parliamentary committee was set up earlier this year by Conservative MP Robert Halfon to look into the “worrying trend of white pupils from poorer backgrounds underperforming compared with their peers.”

Following the announcement of the committee, Halfon reported that he was accused of being racist by people on the left, for endeavouring to research the reasons why working-class white boys are falling behind other groups.

“I have been accused of racism, which I find really hard to fathom. Other ethnic groups are outperforming white, so I can’t see why this is racist,” he said in April.

In an interview with Breitbart London, mixed race educator and political and social commentator Calvin Robinson said: “I saw first hand that black children of African descent excel throughout their time in school, and are far more likely to go to university.”

“On the flip side of that coin, working-class white boys are the most disadvantaged and very few people seem brave enough to address the problem. The evidence suggests that if the UK is racist, it’s not in the way the hard-left would accept,” he added.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here: @KurtZindulka

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