“Whiteness” as institutionalized racism as conspiracy: understanding the paradigm

The notion of a conspiracy creating and maintaining the educational performance gap between Black and White students may seem to most to be far‐fetched. However, experience of schools and of the workings of local education authorities points to a continuation if not a deepening of educational inequalities. How can this be understood? Gillborn believes that this situation is no less than the outcome of a conspiracy of “whiteness”. This paper endorses this view, arguing that the normality of “whiteness” creates a culture of colour blindness which undermines attempts to recognize the different educational experiences of minoritized groups thereby re‐enforcing existing inequalities.