why are so many black people underachieving

It should be emphasised that 'black people' is ambiguous; there are black africans and black caribbeans. Black africans perform better than black caribbeans. Moreover, Bangladeshi students also perform poorly, alongside Pakistani students. However, educational achievement should not be taken in isolation to other factors, such as gender and social class; white working class boys achieve the lowest out of every social group in the UK at GCSE level.

There are several schools of thought on why ethnic minorities achieve poorly, and they can be divided into internal factors and external factors; that is, factors within the education system, and factors in wider society.

Internal factors: - Marketing and selection policies - since 1988, schools are marketised, and they draw on stereotypical images to sell themselves to consumers. For example, a public school that sends a load of kids to Oxbridge or gets loads of A/A*s is highly unlikely to have a group of black boys in hoodies on the front, just because it would create an unfavourable image for the school. The stereotypes get perpetuated within the system, and this ostracises and alienates minorities, also discouraging them from high academic achievement.

- Labelling. Numerous studies conducted by sociologists like Kituse and Cicourel found that teachers label students, who go onto the 'self-fulfilling prophecy', where they actualise their labels. Studies found that teachers label black students as 'aggressive' and asian students as 'slow, and unable to grasp the language', although statistics show that Indian and Chinese students are the highest achieving ethnic group in the UK at GCSE level, which somewhat dispels this.

- The ethnocentric curriculum. Some suggest that the curriculum is geared exclusively towards white british culture and language, thereby alienating minorities.

- Institutional racism. Various studies found that schools do not provide adequate measures for students whose parents speak another language, making communication between parents and teachers difficult. Also, cases of racist bullying and abuse are giving low priority in terms of punishment and resolving.

External factors: - Material deprivation. 15% of ethnic minorities live in overcrowded and inadequate housing, compared to 2% of white people. This leads to respiratory illnesses associated with damp, an inability to work in a quiet space, lack of exercise and a lack of privacy. Ethnic minorities also tend to be from more deprived areas and lack the funds for a sufficient diet for students. Marylin Howard linked a lack of vitamins and nutrients to underachievement due to in inability to concentrate. Additionally, lack of funds means that students are discouraged from university, cannot afford text books, calculators, stationary, school trips and can be subject to bullying.

- Racism in wider society. A study was conducted by John Rex into racism in the workplace. He sent in two identical CVs to a job, with only the name being different - one was Mr. Smith, one was Mr. Singh. This was repeated with several employers and Mr. Smith was employed ~70% of the time. Other studies have linked racism to social exclusion and bullying.

- Cultural deprivation. There is a suggestion that the attitudes & values and language of ethnic minorities is inadequate for success. Some argue that black students are socialised into fatalistic subcultures. Black families are more likely to be single-mother headed, which Charles Murray argued to cause delinquency because of a lack of male role model, and David Moynihan argued led to material deprivation because single mothers could not earn enough to sustain their children. Some criticise black language, as being responsible for underachievement, although most black students can speak english well, and indian and chinese students achieve very well despite english not necessarily being their first language. The major critic of cultural deprivation theorists is Nell Keddie, who argued that one cannot be deprived of one's own culture; ethnic minorities are culturally different but not deprived - the system should accommodate and integrate them as best they can.

So, those are the arguments. Let's have less "black people don't try hard enough" or "it's genetic"; assertions which are largely unsubstantiated, arguably racist and frankly moronic.

so, in short, you are saying that white people are responsible for black underachievement??

sounds like crude anti white racism to me.

do black people bear no responsibility for their underachievement?

if white people are so evil and racist then why are certain asian groups doing so well in britain?

The ethnocentric curriculum. Some suggest that the curriculum is geared exclusively towards white british culture and language, thereby alienating minorities.

Institutional racism. Various studies found that schools do not provide adequate measures for students whose parents speak another language, making communication between parents and teachers difficult.

Also, cases of racist bullying and abuse are giving low priority in terms of punishment and resolving.

Racism in wider society. A study was conducted by John Rex into racism in the workplace. He sent in two identical CVs to a job, with only the name being different - one was Mr. Smith, one was Mr. Singh. This was repeated with several employers and Mr. Smith was employed ~70% of the time.

At which point did I say that white people were responsible? I went to the trouble of a long post and you didn't even read it.

Racism is present in modern society unfortunately. Racism is not a crime exclusively perpetrated by white people though.

Part of my post blamed the education system. If you are narrow minded enough to believe that 'the system' is synonymous for 'white people', then YES, white people are to blame for ethnic minority underachievement, gold star for you.

I just wished to address a few things:


We are essentially a white British society, so I don't see a problem with this. It's not like we're an inherently multiracial/multicultural society like the Russian Federation.
Not that I think race should be a factor, but saying that it's wrong for the British curriculum to focus on Britain seems kind of ridiculous.

How is that racist? It's not only non-whites who don't speak English.

At my school, they couldn't stop talking about it. Most racism I saw (as low-level as it was) was mostly perpetuated by minorities, against other minorities, rather than white kids.

Things to consider:
- When was this study done?
- What areas did they go to to gain data?
- Not necessarily racist. For example, many Afro-Carribean people have typically British surnames.
- This is a heavily unrealistic scenario. Different individuals will have different qualifications, and they will do interviews. It is not that black and white.

I believe that Black people have a tendency to dismiss the importance of education, because the majority of black families do not have a successful role model to look up to. It is not a cultural norm, as there are high achieving black students, as rare as they may be.

You are generalising black people. Do you know every black person in the UK. How do you know that they dismiss the importance of education? Are you just basing this on what you see on Eastenders?

i read it very carefully. and i've heard all of the arguments before....racism in wider society, institutional racism, ethnocentric curriculum blah blah blah.

in other words. white people are responsible.

again, why are indian and chinese students overachieving? -- they live in the same 'oppressive and institutionally white culture' as black people do.

Yet we are becoming increasingly multiethnic. I would agree that this is not the strongest argument, I was merely listing it. However, I think due consideration to the ethnic makeup of a class should be in order to prevent alienation. That said, a suitable criticism of this could be the multicultural education schemes in place.

The first line of my post established that the discussion of black underachievement was facile, and that I would discuss underachievement in terms of ethnic minorities as a whole.

I take your point, but you must accept that your evidence is anecdotal.

The Rex study was carried out in the late 80s and, I believe (but I could be wrong) spread applications above major industrial cities, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, etc. Certainly, there are criticisms of this study, as there are criticisms of all studies, but one cannot ignore the appearance of Mr. Singh being actively discriminated against by employers. It is unclear whether this is a pro-white bias, or an anti-sikh bias, but there is certainly clear and unjustified discrimination.

i read it very carefully. and i've heard all of the arguments before....racism in wider society, institutional racism, ethnocentric curriculum blah blah blah.

in other words. white people are responsible.

again, why are indian and chinese students overachieving? -- they live in the same 'oppressive and institutionally white culture' as black people do.

First of all, I am Black.
I am not saying that ALL black people dismiss the importance of education, but from what I've seen in my old Secondary School, and the attitudes of some of my friends, quite a lot don't care.
FYI there are few black people in Eastenders, therefore no judgement on black peoples attitudes towards education can be made.

why is it that there very few black people in higher education in london, ive been to quite a few open days to universitys and was surprised to see a few or even no black people in these institutions even in the jobs market you wont see many black people working in shops either, while if you were to go to the likes of brixton and lougborough you'll see pockets of the black community where they would stick together.
im not a racist as i am a black man myself, also unemployed.

discuss.......

I don't care if you're black. Just because you're black, doesn't mean your point is any more valid or less valid. What you said was wrong.
From your old secondary school, then please say, that the people in your secondary school thought this way. They do not represent the majority of black people.
Read the rest of my post.
Just because you share a skin colour doesn't mean you share the same outlook on life. Not all black people believe the same thing.
I hate the phrase "black peoples attitudes", forgoodness sake. Not all black people think the same, is there evidence to support this ideal?.
It's like saying, "white people attitudes", there are too many white, black, asian people to say that they share the same attitude. That suggests that they don't think for themselves, which clearly a lot of people do.

In my opinion, multiculturalism is sending us all to an Indian 'Hindus vs. Muslims' style hell. I support individualism, but multiculturalism is kind of the opposite of that. It makes a country's culture so bland that many cultures can operate under its banner.


Even so, that isn't racist. Why should we spend our time accommodating people when it's not necessary? We have imposed our obligation to be so accommodating on ourselves, and many other countries do not see the need to act like we do.


True, but it's one of many similar anecdotes by others. Ethnic minorities are well-known for being fairly racist.


So you're referring to a study that's nearly 30 years out of date...?

Also, you can't really draw any particular bias from this, because the study is not really based on reality. Also, 70% of the time isn't that much. That means that Mr Smith only got chosen over Mr Singh by an extra 20%.

It's a genetic thing. Blacks underachieve in every developed country in the world, so it's definitely not only environmental. It's clear intelligence is massively inherited. So there is no reason why blacks as a group would not inherit lower intelligence due to the already established lower intelligences of their parents.