The UK's women and equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, has stated that teaching white privilege as an uncontested fact is illegal under current laws. Speaking during a Commons debate on Black History Month, Badenoch emphasised that schools have a statutory duty to remain politically impartial and must present opposing views on such topics.
Badenoch criticised the promotion of 'political race theory' and 'partisan political views' such as defunding the police, arguing that schools breaking this law are failing to provide a balanced treatment. She also warned against openly supporting groups like Black Lives Matter, which she described as anti-capitalist.
The debate followed comments from Labour MP Dawn Butler, who called for the decolonisation of the history curriculum. Butler claimed that black children are made to feel inferior by current teaching and that history 'needs to be decolonised' to reflect the richness of Africa and the Caribbean. She noted that students could complete GCSEs without encountering any black authors.
Badenoch rejected these claims, insisting that British history education 'is not colonised'. She argued that it is natural for British children to primarily study the history of the British Isles, and criticised the 'recent fad' to decolonise subjects like maths and engineering as misguided and opposed to education's fundamental purpose.
Butler countered that acknowledging systemic racism and its lasting legacy is essential, particularly during Black History Month. The debate highlighted ongoing divisions over how race and colonialism should be addressed in UK schools and universities, with a Guardian investigation finding that only a fifth of universities have committed to curriculum reforms confronting colonialism's legacy.
