PLESSY VS. FERGUSON RETRO

Call for separate classes for black boys (The Guardian, March 7th, 2005)

Black boys may have to be taught in separate classes from their white peers to help them do better at school, according to the race relations watchdog.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, said it was necessary to prepare for such an option because so many black boys are failing to get good GCSEs.

He also called for tougher action against black fathers, questioning whether they should be denied access to their sons if they refuse to attend school parents' evenings.

Figures published last month showed black teenagers continued to lag behind their white classmates at GCSE, although there were signs the gap was narrowing.

Last year, just 35.7% of black Caribbean pupils in England scored at least five C-grades at GCSE, compared with a national average of 51.9%.

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said progress was being made, with ethnic minorities "closing the gap", but there was "no room for complacency".

Mr Phillips told BBC1's Inside Out programme that many black boys were suffering from a culture where it was not cool to be clever, and they lacked self-esteem and good role models.

"If the only way to break through the wall of attitude that surrounds black boys is to teach them separately for some subjects, then we should be ready for that," he said. "A tough new strategy would compel black fathers to be responsible fathers.

Mr. Phillips is black and has a reputation for a no-nonsense “tell-it-like-it is” approach to race relations and minority education. One suspects he is floating this idea because he has a few frank things to say to students awash in hip, multi-cultural self-pity, and he wants to say them loudly and pointedly without worrying about the politically correct etiquette of inter-racial dialogue. Many blacks and whites will applaud his courage and welcome this like a cool wind that breaks a heavy summer humidity. How many will ponder how leftist cant so corrupted civil society and racial relations that integration and equal opportunity are now seen as impediments to black success?