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.