Oxford Don Says Universities Harbour ‘Stereotypical Attitudes Towards White Working Class Pupils’

GLASGOW, UNITED KINGDOM - SEPTEMBER 30: (Editor’s note – since these images were taken
Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

A University of Oxford professor has condemned academia for holding “stereotypical attitudes towards white working-class pupils” where even despite around one million being in poverty, they are alleged to still have so-called “white privilege”.

Professor of inorganic chemistry Peter Edwards made the remarks after a government committee concluded in a report published on Tuesday that terms like “white privilege” might have contributed to the “systemic neglect” of poor white pupils, who when compared to other ethnicities in receipt of free school lunches are nearly at the bottom of almost all academic scales.

Writing to The Times on Wednesday, Professor Edwards, who came from a deprived Liverpool neighbourhood and was in receipt of free school meals before becoming the first in his family to go to university and has since excelled in academia, called the report a “welcome exposé of a disturbing situation”. He said he had experienced problems raising this issue with professional bodies and higher education institutions, including encountering “snobbery” and “prejudice”.

“Stereotypical attitudes towards white working-class pupils are hard to counter: the belief is that there is inherent white privilege, even in this highly disadvantaged group of young people, and, as such, other groups ‘own’ all the arguments of disadvantage,” the Oxford academic wrote.

Unlike the prevailing notion that if ethnic minority children were failing, it was solely because of systemic racism, Edwards found that universities were ready to simply blame the poor white pupil for their own failures, continuing: “Any reference I make to this issue in higher education is seen as prejudice. I have even heard the shocking statement that under-achievement of this class of young people arises solely from their ‘sense of themselves’ — in other words, the lack of success of this group is a result of individual deficiencies.”

Writing in The Sun on Tuesday, Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee that published the report condemning the term “white privilege”, called white privilege a “myth” to the one million struggling, white, working-class children and said those who will not accept the mass of data on white children struggling at school are “in denial”.

Mr Halfon went on to outline some of the data presented in his report, including that just over half of white British children on free school meals hit their expected developmental targets by the time they are five — “one of the lowest figures for any ethnic group”.

Poor white children are also behind their similarly impoverished ethnic minority peers at GCSE (the exams taken at 16), with just 16 per cent going to university — the lowest amongst ethnic groups apart from Irish gipsy and traveller children.

Those on the left, however, rejected the report, claiming it was part of a “false culture war”. Far leftist Labour MP and long-term Jeremy Corbyn Ally Diane Abbott claimed that the “attack” on the term white privilege “is designed to cause division”.

Actor and conservative activist Laurence Fox hit back at Abbott, saying: “It’s not the attack on so called white privilege that causes division Diane, it’s the term itself. Labour used to care about social inequality and defending workers rights regardless of skin colour. The race hustling should stop before your party becomes extinct.”

In December 2019, the Labour Party suffered a series of devastating losses across the working-class heartlands of England to the Tories, with Labour losing another brick in the Red Wall — Hartlepool — to the Tories in the May by-election.

A recent poll by Survation predicts another Tory victory in Batley and Spen — which has been in Labour control since 1997 — in next month’s by-election. According to the pollster, the Conservatives hold 47 per cent of voters’ support, while Labour has 41 per cent.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.