White Lies: Racism, Education and Critical Race Theory

Unpacking Critical Race Theory (CRT) and exploring why it has become a focus in politics across the US and the UK, White Lies uses CRT to expose the systemic racism that shapes education. It charts the coordinated campaigns - involving think tanks, mainstream media and politicians - that have tried to silence antiracism in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and ’Black Lives Matter’.

Each chapter is devoted to exposing a key ’white lie’ by examining the evidence that shows how the interests of white people continue to occupy centre stage and block movement towards a more equitable education for all. Gillborn establishes how the public debates, shaped by misinformation and ’white lies’, sustain race inequity and portray antiracism as a threat to freedom and justice. Key controversies are dissected and debunked, including:

• the extensive and coordinated anti-CRT campaigns in the US and the UK;
• the use of racial gaslighting to undermine claims to social justice;
• how multiple forms of intimidation are used to silence antiracist teaching and protest;
• the inaccurate portrayal of the white working class as race victims; and
• how cruelty, in policy, aims to unify whites and demonize minorities.

By avoiding unnecessary jargon to make complex debates accessible to a wide audience, this book is ideal reading for anyone studying CRT or interested in the topic of contemporary educational equality.

David Gillborn is Emeritus Professor of Critical Race Studies and Founding Director of the Centre for Research in Race and Education (CRRE) at the University of Birmingham, UK.