“Eradicating Anti-Blackness in the UK Education System: Achieving Curriculum and Policy Reform Through Litigation”
Why does the UK education system still fail Black students?
Why do teachers lack racial literacy?
Why does colourism remain unchallenged in classrooms?
This report uncovers the systemic racism embedded in UK education and highlights the urgent need for change.
THE TRUTH ABOUT COLOURISM & RACISM IN EDUCATION
- Black students are over-disciplined, underrepresented, and erased from the curriculum.
- Teachers lack the training to challenge racial bias – and some reinforce it.
- School policies still police Blackness—from hair to language.
This report exposes the UK’s failure to uphold its obligations under international human rights law and offers solutions to demand an anti-racist education system.
KEY FINDINGS
- Teachers lack racial literacy – Many educators do not understand racism or how it manifests in the classroom. Their unconscious biases lead to lower expectations, harsher discipline, and exclusion of Black students.
- Curriculum whitewashing – The UK school curriculum still centres whiteness. Black history is either erased or taught solely through trauma narratives, reinforcing inferiority complexes in Black students and ignorance in white students.
- Colourism is ignored – Schools fail to address skin tone discrimination within Black communities and broader society, perpetuating harmful biases among students.
- Institutional racism in discipline – Black students, particularly Black Caribbean boys, face higher rates of school exclusions, police presence in schools, and excessive discipline for minor infractions.
- Banning Black identity – Schools police Afro-textured hair, ban Black British English, and stereotype Black culture as disruptive, reinforcing anti-Black policies.
WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE?
- End the curriculum whitewash – Black history must be fully integrated into the curriculum, not tokenized into Black History Month.
- Mandatory racial literacy training for teachers – White teachers cannot teach in a diverse society if they don’t understand racism.
- Accountability for racist school policies – Schools must stop criminalizing Black students’ hair, language, and identity.
- Deconstructing colourism – Schools must educate students on colourism and its harmful impact on Black communities.
READ THE FULL REPORT
Educate yourself. Challenge the system. Demand change.
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