‘White Privilege’ Rhetoric May Have Contributed to ‘Systemic Neglect’ of White Pupils, MPs

A Year 1 pupil colours a dolphin poetry worksheet while respecting social distancing rules in a classroom during a lesson at the College Francais Bilingue De Londres French-English bilingual school in north London on June 2, 2020. Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images

The use of terms such as “white privilege” may be one of the reasons white working-class pupils are persistently falling behind in the UK, a Parliament committee has said.

The Education Select Committee said that it agreed with the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities that discourse around the term ‘White Privilege’ can be divisive, and that disadvantage should be discussed without pitting different groups against each other.