Can we talk about poor white boys in the UK?

I am a white, 35-year-old, male with a university education. I went to a private school. 

I have never had to deal with being patronised, belittled or ignored for my gender. I have never had the sensation of being looked down upon or seen as "inferior" because of my race. I am incredibly lucky. Even when I moved to Latin America and became "a gringo", it was clear that because of the biological accident of my ethnicity and gender I had a significant advantage. 

What is decolonizing the curriculum? 

During a discussion on "decolonizing" the curriculum I argued that in order to decolonize something, we need to think carefully about what "postcolonial" stories are told. In other words, how can we empower marginalized groups and give a balanced view of history rather than one of domination and white supremacy? What facts, narrative, perspectives and concepts should be considered in a truly international, post-colonial curriculum? How can we treat the horrors and heroes of British history in a way that doesn't read like propaganda for either the intersectional left or the jingoistic right? This balance is hard to get. All decisions on the curriculum are expressions of power but the solution is not to give up and say something vague about critical thinking. This will not allow for the critical deconstruction of any narrative. There is a contradiction at the heart of some arguments about the curriculum. You cannot deconstruct the past without knowing anything about it. Knowing the facts about the diseases and violence that accompanied Colombus will give you a more critical perspective on the "in 1892, Columbus sailed the Ocean blue" line. 

What about Alienation? 

Some non-white men and women experience “alienation" from the way colonialist narratives are taught; explicit teaching of the violence, domination and racism of many aspects of colonialism could help us deal with that. It’s helpful for everyone to “get” how murky that period was and how far society has moved. There are facts about slavery that should be known to everyone but on their own, they can't transmit the entirety of what needs to be understood. We showed “7 Years a Slave” to our 8th graders and it provoked controversy - why show such a violent film? We felt it was important that pupils saw the horror and visceral brutality to even come close to understanding this bleak period of human history.

Europeans of the past have acted horrendously and if we don’t learn from history we will repeat it. Despite this, there is a problem in the UK in 2019. According to the government's data, white British boys on free school meals are now the second lowest-achieving group, just above Romany and travelling families.  What is the significance of this? Well for a start, if white British boys are falling behind, and they are the “dominant” group, that's one hell of a big opportunity for the hateful narratives of the white supremacists. We need to be able to talk about the issue in an open, trusting and respectful way without resorting to the language of division. 

In 2007, black boys were performing worse than other groups. If you look at figures from the most recent government survey on ethnicity and achievement, you will see that these trends have been bucked. There is a lot of work to do, but according to this report when looking at the overall picture, white & black British male pupils are scoring below the national average whereas previously black British children were behind white children. When we look at the statistics for deprivation, the picture changes again. Considering only those who are on free school meals, the second lowest performing group are white British boys behind Romany and travelling families (who are significant outliers). Here is a good discussion of the phenomena.  

Deracialising the discussion on achievement is a good idea. Am I allowed to say that as a white person? When I pointed out that some stats in one blogger's posts were outdated and included some things from 1981 - a time in which UK society was definitely more racist - I was accused of "whitesplaining". According to Google, deliberately being condescending to marginalised groups because of their marginalised status and my position of priveledge. I accept completely that I am privileged and that as a white, western, middle-class male person I should be extremely careful talking about race. On the other hand, as a teacher, isn't it quite important that we talk about different groups - such as Irish traveller or Roma - who are underachieving and ask, why? If this is the case, we need to talk about the problem of poor white British boys underachievment in the UK. This is particularly important in the context of having to contend with vicious far-right narratives that exploit underachievement, a sense of isolation and give a sense of identity in ways similar to criminal gangs. Poverty, a lack of things to do and poor education are driving factors in gang involvement. Could they also be factors in people getting involved in white extremist groups? Is there a way of talking about this problem without perpetuating it?

Under the whitesplaining argument, no white person can talk to other (non)white people about changes in attitudes to race over time because they have not experienced it. Any white opinion about attitudes to race and how they have changed is, “whitesplaining”.

If I think someone accusing me of “whitesplaining” is being offensive, I am showing my white fragility. Why do these things have to come back to race? Isn't that the dynamic we are trying to overcome? This is dangerous. Just because Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab have power it doesn't mean that white British boys in segregated estates in Bridgewater and Portsmouth have power. Why does it matter that this change has taken place? Well for a start the stats on priveledge are traditionally about white vs everyone else. It was just assumed that the impact of social exclusion, racism, prejudice couldn't happen to whites because of their power. Now, this has been shown, quite clearly, not to be the case, we need to think about how to address issues of unequal outcomes in other ways. The biggest mistake we could make would be to continue to think about it in racial terms but substitute black boys for white boys. If we do that we will be playing into the hands of those who wish to exploit this narrative and "blame" some other group. Race isn't the defining factor in determining outcomes for poor children; poverty and lack of opportunity are. Note, I am talking about educational achievement in the UK specifically. We need to be able to talk about issues of power, privilege and achievement without accusing each other of whitesplaining or white fragility or indeed any other type of divisive language. 

If you want to look at what's driving the rise of far right Islamophobia and leftist Anti-semitism look no further than those who seek to divide and see the world through an intersectional lens. If we are to become internationalist and outward looking, the assumption needs to be that, at least in the most vulnerable communities, being white no longer means you always start with one foot in the door. We need to stop looking at education and social exclusion through the lens of race and think about the decolonialisation of the curriculum as presenting a broad, balanced and "unbiased" set of historical events.