Black and middle class doesn't mean less prejudice

Joseph Harker writes over at The Guardian about the predjudice black students face from teachers who expect less from them than white students:

What happens when you take the poverty out of racism? Much of what is written on race focuses on how it impacts on those suffering the sharpest inequality: unemployment, criminalisation, underachievement in school, poor housing. This has fed the view – commonly held by those on the left – that race is just a subset of class, and that those with decent education and jobs will experience little, if any, lingering inequality. But how do those "successful" minorities feel?

That's what a team at the Institute of Education have been researching, and their findings are released on Monday. Looking at African Caribbean families in particular, they have confirmed that there is a black "middle class"; that they work very hard to get the best for their children; but they also discovered that social status and relative wealth do not protect black people. "Racism is a reality in the lives of black middle-class families," states the report, The Educational Strategies of the Black Middle Classes. And research team member Dr Nicola Rollock, says: "Being black and middle class is fundamentally different to being white and middle class."

I understand what she means. Like many of those surveyed I would never call myself middle class, despite having a degree and a professional career. For me, middle class is a racially exclusive term in Britain: because it's not about wealth, or educational achievement, but about certain values that one has to adhere to. About living in the "right" area; following the "right" sports; attending the "right" theatres; sending your children to the "right" schools. And in all of these, the "right" is white.

To be a black professional means every day having to assume you may be judged according to some negative stereotype; how can you prove to the next person you meet that you're not some street thug; or that your background is so broken and scarred that you'll never conform to the workplace culture?

Read the full article.