Parents and lawmakers are criticizing a classroom program in England that teaches concepts including “white privilege” and defines racism as prejudice combined with institutional power.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A race-focused educational initiative being taught in schools in Sheffield, England, is drawing mounting criticism after reports revealed that students are being instructed that black people cannot be racist toward white people because racism requires social and institutional power.
The curriculum, developed through a network of schools led by Notre Dame High School in Sheffield, was described as part of an “anti-racism” effort intended to challenge what organizers characterize as unequal social systems. According to a report from The Telegraph, the lessons introduce students to concepts including “white privilege” and structural power dynamics tied to race.
Notre Dame High School has also reportedly been selected by the British government to assist in training teachers and administrators from other schools.
Among the ideas presented to students is the argument that racism should be defined as “prejudice plus power,” meaning that ethnic minority groups lacking institutional dominance cannot be racist toward white people, though they may still hold prejudiced views.
The framework traces back to American academic Patricia Bidol-Padva, whose 1970 book Developing New Perspectives on Race advanced the theory that racism involves both racial prejudice and societal power structures.
The concept has since been promoted by numerous social justice activists and writers, including Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility, and Reni Eddo-Lodge, whose book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race became widely discussed in Britain and the United States.
Reports indicate that some lessons are being taught to children as young as seven years old. Students are reportedly told that white people benefit from societal advantages linked to skin color and that they bear a responsibility to help dismantle racism within British society.
The program has prompted criticism from politicians and education commentators who argue the material promotes divisive identity-based ideology inside classrooms.
Conservative MP and Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott condemned the curriculum, saying young students should not be exposed to ideological concepts presented as settled fact.
“It is deeply alarming that children as young as seven are being exposed to divisive identity politics in schools under the banner of ‘anti-racism education,’” Trott said.
“These materials teach children that black prejudice against white people cannot be described as racism, present contested concepts like ‘white privilege’ as unquestionable fact and encourage pupils to see themselves primarily through the lens of race,” she continued.
“It is hugely damaging and exactly the kind of left-wing ideological nonsense that should be nowhere near our classrooms. Labelling children by race and teaching them to focus on what divides them will only foster resentment and deepen division.”
The controversy has also renewed scrutiny over how race and identity issues have been handled across Britain’s education system in recent years.
Critics noted that during the Conservative Party’s 14 years leading the British government, little action was taken to push back against the expansion of race-conscious educational programming in schools. During that period, the National Education Union advocated introducing ideas such as white privilege to address racial prejudice among children under five years old.
The debate arrives amid broader concerns about educational inequality affecting working-class white students in Britain.
Several reports and academic analyses have found that white working-class children often perform among the lowest educational attainment groups in the country despite continued emphasis on race-based equity initiatives.
Some researchers and commentators argue that economic disadvantage among white students has frequently received less institutional attention because assumptions about racial privilege overshadow class-based disparities.
Oxford University Emeritus Professor Peter Edwards previously argued that challenges facing white working-class students had become politically “unfashionable” because they were widely assumed to possess “inherent advantage or privilege” despite measurable educational struggles.
The Sheffield curriculum controversy has intensified discussion across Britain over whether race-focused educational frameworks encourage social cohesion or deepen divisions by emphasizing racial identity and group-based power structures in classrooms.
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