The Blackwash
Making cultural & historical commentary on social issues. Laundry is the only thing that should be separated by colour!
The Blackwash
Dissecting Educational Disparities: The Alleged Impact of Single-Parent Homes Shaping Black British Student Success
When Tony Sewell controversially attributed the educational disparities between African and Caribbean students to single-parent households, he ignited an age old ‘why are Afro-Caribbean boys failing in schools’ debate, which I refer to as ‘racial gaslighting within the UK education system’. I tackle these claims head-on, peeling back the layers of his argument to examine the real culprit!
This episode cuts through the noise, challenging statistics and questions whether leaders like Sewell (chair of the contentious Race and Ethnic Disparities Report) are advancing progress or advancing personal gain. This episode promises a no-holds-barred look at the complexities surrounding educational outcomes and the pervasive influence of systemic bias.
This episode also sails through the shifting cultural currents of Black British identity, especially among those hailing from Caribbean backgrounds. We share heartfelt stories, like the awe-inspiring journey of a student who leapt from our classrooms onto the Olympic stage, symbolizing the power of nurturing extracurricular passions and ‘leading leisure’. Listen as we weave the narrative of the haunting legacy of "Subnormal, a British Scandal," which chronicles the mislabeling of Black Caribbean children (now adults) as "educationally subnormal." From personal triumphs to systemic failures, join me, for an in-depth exploration into how these experiences shape the educational landscape and why we must remain vigilant in the fight against racial gaslighting!
What's going on, people, and welcome to the second episode of the Black Wash. I want to start with a thank you. I want to thank those who checked out my first episode, as it currently sits on over 500 downloads. I am forever grateful. In this episode, the topic of conversation is racial gaslighting in the UK education system. Historically, this conversation goes around in cycles. You know that good old rinse and repeat. And today we are here discussing it again because of Tony Sewell, who appeared on an LBC interview on the 24th of March to discuss and promote and sell his book Black Success the Surprising Truth. So before I dig any deeper, for those of you that are unaware of what he said, I'm going to start with point one, which is what did he say? To do this, I am on the YouTube video. You can find it online for the full context.
Speaker 1:The whole interview is just over an hour. If you type in tony sewell lbc, I'm using the transcript from that youtube video and reading from around 10 minutes or so for context. He's discussing the disparities between gcse outcomes when you compare african groups compared to caribbean groups. He says, and I quote the group that I'm from the caribbean group still performs poorly, but in the african group they're doing well in the same school. He says, and I quote In the Caribbean context we're running numbers like 60 to 70 percent of single parent households, whereas the African group is running below 30. I mean, that's a massive difference in terms of outcome and it's probably the reason why. So we can no longer go down the route of let's blame the racist white teacher in the classroom. We can't run that anymore. End quote. If you have time, you can go to the full youtube video and check it out.
Speaker 1:However, for point two, what I'm going to do is summarize the rest of the interview and give you background information in regards to tony sewell, because context is key. Once we've covered point two, which is context, I'm going to be divulging what I know to be true and why this is an example of racial gaslighting in the UK education system. So point two, which is context he was born in Brixton, southeast London, to Jamaican parents. In the late 50s he was brought up in the area of Penge and went to school in the 70s, slash 80s. Occupation wise he's been a teacher. He has a PhD. He's worked for the voice newspaper, choice fm, he is a tory peer and he holds a cbe.
Speaker 1:His name was thrusted into the limelight recently for being the commissioner chairman of the race and the ethnic disparities report 2021, which was a response to BLM. The 250 page plus report received a lot of backlash and a lot of commentary Within the LBC interview. Tony Sewell says that a lot of this is unwarranted because people didn't read the report. To that I say I've read the report a number of times and I also watched the entirety of the LBC interview. To summarise the report, it does say that racism and racial injustices do exist. However, it says that geography, social, economic background, culture and religion all have a greater impact on life chances. It says that racism exists in the UK, but the UK is not institutionally racist" and in the LBC interview he does acknowledge once again that racism does exist. Lastly, for point 2, which is context, the 250 page plus report did come with some recommendations. One was to teach an inclusive curriculum. Next was to put a stop to the use of the term BAME, and it pushes for more of a move and a focus away from institutions and more of a focus on the extent that an individual and the community can help themselves through their own agency, rather than focusing on a quote-unquote invisible external force.
Speaker 1:Moving on to part three, where I get to share what I know to be true, both statistically but also as an educator who was once a secondary school teacher. Part three is called get your facts right. To paraphrase, he said 60 to 70 percent of caribbeans in the uk come from a lone parent household and the africans are below 30. According to the office of national statistics, caribbean lone parent households are at 63%. So he was right there. However, when looking at the African group, it's listed at 43%, according to the Office of National Statistics. Now, 30% compared to 43% is a big disparity, 13% in fact. And if you're not within a 5% margin, I get to say get your facts right. You cannot come on big big LBC, have written a book called black success the surprising truth and be misquoting, misleading and then misteaching about surprising truth. I'm surprised that you lied. This is why it's important.
Speaker 1:As African descendant people, we use our giftings. Some people call it discernment, some people call it their gut, some people call it the holy spirit, some people call it their intuition. Regardless of what you call it, there's a scripture, biblically, in mark 11, 28, and it says by what authority are you doing these things and who gave you the authority to do these things? Now, from this interview I ascertain his authority or his agenda is money to sell books, whereas my authority or agenda for doing this podcast is to enlighten. I have no financial gain. My reward comes from the progression of the village.
Speaker 1:Taking that notion, it takes a village to raise a child. One of the roles in the village is a teacher and because of this interview, tony, as a teacher you are doing the village a disservice and I implore you to ask yourself is this for progress or is this for profit? Now hear me, this is not the oppression olympics. Both statistics are far too high and we have to take agency for that family planning safe, etc. However, to have a one hour interview and be a commissioner, chairman of a 250 plus page report and to only mention one reason for the disparities in education outcomes is racial gaslighting. Within one hour you should be able to share a myriad of reasons for these outcomes, some of which I'm going to explain in point four and point five, for example, immigrant optimism or the history of the educationally subnormal.
Speaker 1:To dig a bit deeper and dispel this whole notion, if family structure was the sole or even the biggest contributing factor. Then why do white boys not outperform African boys? African boys, as I said, are statistically from 43% lone parent households and yet their passable attainment outcomes are 50.9%. White boys, on the other hand, 22% of them come from lone parent households when looking at the Office of National Statistics so almost half and yet they don't perform as well as African boys in regards to passable attainment outcomes in education. Their attainment level is 47.7%. So let me repeat those statistics in case you missed it African boys lone parent household statistic 43%. Passable attainment outcomes 50.9%. White boys lone parent households 22% and their passable attainment rate is 47 percent. So clearly it's not just about family structure and that's why I say get your facts right. To end this point, I will say a disclaimer. Tony sewell has credentials. He has done well for himself. No one can take that away from him. Respect for what he has achieved academically and career-wise. However, it is clear to me that your intentions here is to sell books by racial gaslighting.
Speaker 1:Moving on to point four, so why do african boys outperform white boys and caribbean boys? It's a theory that I actually got from the 250 page plus document and it's called immigrant optimism. Conveniently, tony Sewell missed this out of his LBC one hour interview. However, immigrant optimism is where recent immigrants devote themselves more to education than the native population because they lack financial capital and see education as a way out of poverty. Capital and see education as a way out of poverty.
Speaker 1:As a millennial growing up in southeast London, peckham, which held at the time the highest concentration of Nigerians outside of Nigeria, I saw this firsthand. Often my friends would repeat the mantra that their parents instilled in them, which was lawyer, doctor, engineer. This mantra, married with the idea of I will send you back if you are dossing or messing about, clearly benefited my West African counterparts in regards to their educational work ethic. Now, you guys know I'm not just someone to take someone else's material. So, digging a little bit deeper, I've taken their theory and I've added to it, so this part could be called part 4b, if you will. So, yes, I covered the theory of immigrant optimism.
Speaker 1:To add to that, I'm going to talk about assimilated pessimism, which is my own theory that I've tacked on the end. So this is where our black Caribbean boys are at the moment and for my West Africans. I want you to take note also because we are the prelude, we are the before Buck, the trend pre the signs of what can happen when your boy child assimilates into a culture, or more specifically, a school, that does not value education, does not see education as a way out of their situation, does not see education as a way out of poverty. The white working class boy will often say I don't need school. School doesn't lead to nowhere. It doesn't lead to where I want to go. I'll pick a trade and work with my dad at his business, which is reflected statistically. These are examples of assimilated pessimism and this is where our boys are at and statistically the majority don't have dad's trade business to fall back on. They cannot afford to have assimilated pessimism. Let's be honest, chances are these Black Caribbean boys are culturally more likely Black British now, which leads me to another thought-provoking question At what point do we acknowledge the generational shift statistically from Black Caribbean to Black British?
Speaker 1:I often say it takes two to three generations to potentially change the entire race of your family. So with that notion, culturally two to three generations to change from immigrant to a simulant or third culture kid. And when will this generational shift be acknowledged in the statistics? Because we're probably at the point where these young people are no longer connected to the Caribbean. They may have not ever visited. Therefore they no longer have that immigrant optimism. Speaking personally, for me this was manifested in my grandmother being so proud when I was the first to graduate from a large family. She has my picture on her mantle. This was clearly a part of her wind rush dream social mobility through education.
Speaker 1:But as the West Indian generations pass and the ethnic minority decreases in the UK, our young black British boys will display more assimilated pessimism, unless we keep them connected to where they came from for a larger picture of life or until we create a black British dream for education. I mean, what is our equivalent of lawyer, doctor, engineer? I have an idea which I'm going to discuss in point five. Before that, a quick point for C. In these conversations in regards to Black Caribbean, why is Caribbean diversity always ignored? I mean Barbados, for example, has a higher literacy rate than both the US and the UK, which furthers my point. Are these failing grades a symptom of being here and being disconnected from the culture? Also, why aren't other intra-racial groups compared? For example, I have never seen, never heard or been a part of any conversations as to why white British boys don't perform as well as white Irish boys. And do you know why? Because of racial gaslighting in education. Point five, moving away from Tony Sewell now and giving you all some practical tips. And the tip is to lead their leisure.
Speaker 1:Nowadays, school is not the be all and end all. There is school success and success in life. I'll give you an example. When I was a secondary school teacher in South East London, peckham, I had a student in my tutor class called Kai White, and at the time he was getting quite a few bad behavior reports but overall he was a nice kid. I remember having a sit down with him in tutor class and saying, can you just please behave? And showing him all the different behavior reports. And I remember having a sit down with him in tutor class and saying can you just please behave? And showing him all the different behavior reports. And I remember him replying something along the lines of I don't need school, I'm going to be a BMX bike rider.
Speaker 1:And at the time that concept was so foreign to me. I was this close to being a stereotypical teacher. And saying something along the lines of that's not going to amount to nothing. You need your education X, y, education, xyz. But you know what? Something caught me and instead, what I simply said was just get through it, just get to the age of 16, finish school, finish GCSEs, get your GCSEs and just get through it. Shortly after I left that school and then, years later this was many, many years later I saw that he won silver for BMX riding at the Olympics. So I use that story to say nowadays you might not need school, but you will need education, you will need a skill, you will need something that you excel at.
Speaker 1:Now I don't advocate leaving school. Of course, get your GCSEs, but equally, it's important to notice that there is school success and there's also success in life, and schools, with its many limitations, can sometimes not prepare you for the latter. In this example, preparing him to be a silver medalist at BMX riding at the Olympics. So I say all of that to lead us back to the title of point five, which is lead their leisure. Now, the word school traces back to a Greek word which actually means leisure. To the Greeks, leisure allowed a man to spend time thinking and finding out about things. Hence the connection between leisure and the pursuit of knowledge.
Speaker 1:Now, as a teacher, one thing that you'll realize about the school system is that it doesn't give you the leisure to think. And often what teachers are victims of is, in order to get through the lesson super quick, they will ask a question, then point to a student that they know knows the answer. Or if a student does not know the answer, they do not give them the leisure or the time to think and formulate an answer. Because we're trying so hard to get through it systematically and make sure that our lessons are planned and are on time. So often teachers are doing their best to lead the leisure. However, often we fall short. But you know who also falls short in regards to the concept of school Parents, because what parents are sometimes the victims of doing is that they say to their kids oh, you're just taking it for a social club, or oh, you're just going there to see your friends. And that's why it's so important to lead their leisure, to be involved in their schooling, because if you leave them to their own devices, they will lead their own leisure and it will just become a social club.
Speaker 1:However, if you lead their leisure remember that leisure, the root word in Greek, means school then they will be getting an education. So there's a difference there you lead the leisure, it leads to education. If they lead the leisure, it stays just as leisure. Let's go a bit deeper. Let's go a bit deeper. So the word education comes from the Latin word educare, which means to lead, to guide, to orient. Can you see where I'm going here?
Speaker 1:Lead, lead their leisure, educate their leisure, educate their school, education, school. They go hand in hand. Your young person can't just go to school and not engage in their education. You need to lead their leisure, like what Kai White's parents did. They invested in his passion and his passion became his profession. Leading leisure is how we take agency of our young black boys. Education, and it doesn't just stop with school. You can lead their leisure in private tuition. You can lead their leisure in after school clubs. You can lead their leisure in extracurricular activities. You can lead their leisure in church groups. You can lead their leisure in extracurricular activities. You can lead their leisure in church groups. You can lead their leisure in adventure playgrounds. You can lead their leisure in trips around England.
Speaker 1:Using myself as an example, I came from a lone parent household and yet I excelled academically. Therefore, debunking Tony Sewell, and I started thinking about the reasons as to why that may be, and it's because my leisure was led. I participated in rugby, I participated in singing lessons, I participated in karate lessons. That married with the fact that, as I mentioned, I had immigrant optimism around me. I came from Peckham, south East London. The school had a high percentage of Nigerian kids and their ethos was lawyer, doctor, engineer. I need to get my head down. As well as that, I had good teachers. As well as that, I also knew my purpose and I knew I wanted to become a school teacher and what I needed to do to get there. And as well as that, I also had a good village Ie. Even though my father was not in the picture sometimes, my grandmother would pick me up. My mum used to drop me off to school, go to work and she had a job where she could finish on time and pick me up from school. So when I consider all of those factors and remember, like I said, it's a myriad of reasons as to why and how our children can succeed in school. It's a myriad of reasons and I'm a personal testimony that is not solely based on family structure and lone parent households. So let that be an encouragement to you If your child is from a lone parent household or yourself is from a lone parent household.
Speaker 1:The last point of the podcast is point six, and I think it's important to acknowledge the educationally subnormal groups. Now, what's interesting about Tony Silva? Like I said, he was there for an hour and he came up in the era where this was prominent, and yet he decided not to mention it, which I think is doing a disservice to the conversation and racially gaslighting us in regards to our educational outcomes, because, let's be honest, some of the generations that we're seeing now are coming from parents who experience educationally subnormal groups. If you're not aware of what it is, it was occurring around the 60s and 70s, where a large number, a disproportionate number, of young black men and women were placing groups that were backwards or slow and dunce. They had no curriculum, no exams and left with no qualifications, and the consequences have lasted a lifetime. It's affected their confidence, their self-esteem and their life chances their self-esteem and their life chances, if you want more on this.
Speaker 1:It was highlighted in a 2021 BBC TV documentary called Subnormal, a British Scandal, and since then, more victims have come forward to share their experiences and they're working with lawyers to try and secure compensation for negligence and post-traumatic stress. I would advise checking the documentary out but to kind of summarize, it describes how, from 1945, children were thought to have a limited intellectual ability and were described by a new term, and that term was educationally subnormal or esn. A report was leaked by the inner london education authority and it revealed that it was applied disproportionately to black children, often based on iq tests that were biased. So we need to remember that when we see statistics in regards to black Caribbean boys failing, they come or potentially come from a line that have been informed by trauma.
Speaker 1:In regards to the racial gaslighting that occurs in the UK education system and Tony Sewell failed to acknowledge that I first became aware of these groups and what was happening through the rapper Akala, where he speaks of his experiences being placed into one of these schools. Bear in mind Akala just turned 40, so although I said this happened in the 60s and 70s, you can see how it was still occurring fairly recently with a person who today is considered a black intellectual scholar. He was actually placed in an educationally subnormal group because of him being combative with a teacher. This concludes the topic of racial gaslighting in education. If you liked it, make sure you provide me with some feedback, like comment, review, share. You guys know the usual stuff. As always, I'm Ken Kawasaki and thank you for listening to the Black Wash.