White Privilege

I've been following the debate for a while, and I think that a real example of a specific instance might assist here.With reference to the discussion about the SATs, my mother ran a school several years ago over here in the UK. It was an inner city school, and as a result of the local demographics, approximately 95% of the pupils were of Asian ethnic origin (principally Pakistani, but other Asian origin communities too).Birmingham ran a school quiz competition each year. Not quite the same thing as the SATs, obviously, but in the ball park. Schools chose teams of 4 of their best and brightest, and entered them for heats and eventually a big finals day (if I recall the format correctly).My mother's school team consisted of 4 Asian origin children, and they did really well and reached the finals event. They were up against a number of other schools, where the majority of children were of white origin, which is understandable, reflecting the demographic mix of the city more widely.When they got knocked out, by a narrow margin, the quiz questions included a section based on nursery rhymes. ("What did the farmer's wife use to cut off the tails of the three blind mice ?" - that sort of thing). My mother's school children didn't score a single point in that round. Not because they were unintelligent, or lacked reasonable general knowledge - but because culturally they had been read different nursery rhymes and stories when they were little.Now there was clearly no intent to favour white children with the questions - when my mother raised it with the organisers, they were mortified. But this is a real example of how, when setting a test, which you are hoping will allow the kids to perform entirely according to their intelligence, the examiners can still introduce an element of cultural bias, however unconsciously.That section of questions favoured kids from a white background, regardless of their relative intelligence. Would you agree Jon ?

I'm at work at the moment, so I can't spend long, but I'm guessing there are some examples in the study genomicus referenced. I can't remember if they were linked to anything online though ?

Ok, let's start with the understanding that your use of "Englsih" and "British" are interchangeable in this context. (Fair enough, they are for these purposes).On the one hand, you acknowledge the identity of "British Asians", and on the other, you reference as "English culture" something which does not belong to them.So they're technically British, but not properly or fully so ?

But it is not the English language which is suffering a disadvantage - it is a number of minority ethnic groups which are.To congregate every ethnic group under one umbrella culture, in order to oppose the thesis that any ethnic culture within that umbrella is disadvantaged, is to try to weave a carpet big enough to sweep the issue under.

Let me clarify. The example I gave was a series of questions which a child familiar with traditional white British culture stood a good chance of answering. A child of Asian ethnic origin stood no chance, because Asian origin parents don't generally read their kids traditional white British nursery rhymes.You responded by saying: and then clarified that you meant the culture of the English language.English is spoken by many different cultures the world over, and if it's possible to claim that a language itself has a culture (I do not believe it has, in and of itself), then your claim is that questions about nursery rhymes known by white British people, should also be known by anyone who speaks English - regardless of whether they are read to them as children in the culture they are born into. That is patently not the case.

The ones relevant to their cultural background. English is not a homogeneous cultural background - that should be obvious to anyone who has interacted with a fellow English speaker from a different cultural background. For example, if it hadn't been for the utterly random popularity (in the 70s) of Rolf Harris, I would have no idea about the significance of six white boomers. Without looking it up, do you ?

I agree - but I believe we should do so in a way which is fair to all of the children being tested.In the example I gave, it was not fair to ask the children of Asian ethnic origin about Anglo Saxon nursery rhymes - they weren't sung to them by their parents and aren't on any school's required curriculum. It is not fair they be expected to know them.Similarly, in the studies cited of SAT'S, unfair weighting has been identified, which is to the disadvantage of children from a particular ethnic background.By all means, test culture. Teach it, learn it, embrace it. But if we are testing it in a way which is unfair to an ethnic grouping, then we aren't doing it well.