No one really knows what the critical race theory bogeyman looks or sounds like or what he wants, yet everyone is being told how dangerous he is. He is responsible for every wrong-think we may have about race, racism and racial discourse. CRT has become shorthand for every bad, inconvenient or unacceptable cultural thought invading us from the US, even if the thoughts don’t permeate from the US, or if they are mostly relevant to Britain. Be afraid of the bogeyman: be very afraid.
Last week I went on TalkTV to discuss the decision by some Church of England schools to teach about white privilege. Asked what white privilege is, I explained that it is the lack of societal obstacles associated with being white. I further elaborated that it doesn’t mean you will not face obstacles in life: it means that any difficulty, challenge or hardship you face is unlikely to be a result of your skin colour if you are white. By comparison, I as a man, for example, face many pressing issues in society, yet none of them are related to or rooted in me being a man. Simple, uncontroversial, unradical and entirely factual stuff.
My fellow panellist, Peter Whittle, a former Ukip deputy leader, saw it very differently. He described his “friend” (ie me) as “disingenuous”, before rattling on about how white privilege is “based or comes out of something called critical race theory which is being pushed in our schools now”. He then cited a report from an organisation called Don’t Divide Us – which, ironically for an organisation so called, seems hell bent on drumming up hysteria over the “Americanisation” of British racial discourse.
Thanks to its handy work, critical race theory has been cited in a range of race hysteria-driven news stories: the latest being exposes of schools teaching about the “pyramid of white supremacy”. What is this hateful pyramid? It is a learning device that offers practical lessons in how dehumanisation works in practice. How it escalates from indifference and minimisation right the way up to violence and mass murder. One objection is that in its graduations, the pyramid refers to extreme American racial themes such as the Ku Klux Klan, cross burnings and lynchings. Too much information. Way too much. The truth: who can handle the truth? The self-appointed rightwing school inspectors have indeed been busy, and one focus of their attention has been the Nia Academy, a Black-targeted supplementary school in north London (which currently has four children in attendance and costs schools a measly £400 a child for 33 weeks of classes).
It says: “The Nia Academy is targeted at black and black mixed students who are not currently making expected rates of progress. The aim is to provide literacy support as well as teaching them about black history, from a positive perspective other than slavery, but also celebrates positive black contributions to society. Although this provision specifically targets black children, if a white child really wanted to join we wouldn’t say no.”
Cue not just a report in the Sunday Telegraph but an intervention by Nick Timothy, Daily Telegraph columnist and the super-genius behind Teresa May’s fantastically successful premiership. “This is racist, compounds the difficulties of the white working class, and must be stopped,” chuntered Timothy. “And those who made the decision to do this should be investigated and sacked.” Such a grasp of due process. Children, watch and learn.
There is much to learn for it occurs that the ruling class racialisation of, and affection for, “white working-class people” becomes most strident whenever efforts are made to ease or better understand the plight of Black people. Many once dubbed them “chavs”, but that was then. Now, ideologically, a weaponised concept of the white working class is useful.
It has been a tough time for the Church of England schools linked to the pyramid of white privilege and Haringey council, but shouldn’t they actually be commended for doing what all of us should be doing: working to make Britain a more understanding, compassionate and harmonious society? As to their irascible, illogical opponents, what are they doing if not bathing in the bucket of identity politics they claim to abhor: whipping up, as best they can, a swirl of white resentment.
They are toxic to Black Britain. Every initiative maligned, all moves towards equality lambasted. And what do they really do for the white working classes other than send tweets, deliver outraged reports and make foaming-mouthed TV lamentations?
Woke is dead: critical race theory lives as long as the fevered right finds it useful. Then they’ll find another bogeyman. The most important thing is to see their opportunism for what it is.
Nels Abbey is a writer, broadcaster and former banker, and the author of Think Like a White Man
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