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.
1. Introduction
Part I: The Current Race War
2. Critical Race Theory: Facts and Fictions
3. A Timeline of Racism, Misinformation and Violence
4. Racial Gaslighting and Intimidation:
Part II: Distraction and Divergence
5. The White Working Class as Race Victims?
6. Policy: Racism, white Ignorance and Cruelty as Spectacle
7. Conclusions: Racism, Power and Inhumanity
Biography
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.
“A very fine work. At the very top of the scholarship on white supremacy and nationalism. Everyone should read it."
Richard Delgado, Distinguished Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law, USA. Author of ‘Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror’ and ‘Critical Race Theory: An Introduction’."White Lies is a compelling and powerful book. Its creative use of critical race theory enables David Gillborn to document many of the specific ways in which racist assumptions, policies, and practices provide a foundation for all too much of education today."
Michael W. Apple, John Bascom Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA; Author of ‘Can Education Change Society?’
“In White Lies, David Gillborn forensically dissects the tragedy and hypocrisy of successive British governments that have for decades undermined efforts to end racism, particularly in education, and increasingly take their cues from the radical conservative right in the United States.”
Angela Saini, Award-winning Journalist; Author of ‘Superior: The Return of Race Science’
"Without fear of retribution, David Gillborn unapologetically tells the truth. Where many continue to cower to the threats of white supremacy, I am overjoyed to endorse a book that reminds us not to forget the fight. The days ahead may appear long, but they shorten as long as we continue to take racism head-on and without fear!"
David Stovall, Professor, Departments of Black Studies and Criminology, Law & Justice, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.
"In White Lies, Gillborn offers a brilliant analysis of contemporary racial politics and educational policy that is both well-documented and profoundly compelling. He clearly and insightfully outlines the strategic deployment of “white lies” across multiple spheres and actors in both the UK and the United States. In naming and detailing these strategies, Gillborn has provided us with an invaluable tool in the fight against racial inequity."
Celia Rousseau Anderson, Professor, Department of Instruction Curriculum Leadership, University of Memphis, USA.
"Gillborn’s White Lies: Racism, Education and Critical Race Theory is a book that connects the threads of white supremacy and institutional racism, to racial hierarchy actions and decisions which result in outright attacks against anything which is deemed as offensive to majority White interests. Gillborn does a brilliant policy tracing to connect the intersecting pathways of the anti-CRT movement between the UK and U.S. radical conservative forces and their use of news outlets and social media to tout and reinforce their message. This is a must read book to understand the web of white supremacy, radical conservative forces and the global spread of this anti-CRT movement."
Laurence J. Parker, Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy, University of Utah, USA."This book establishes David Gillborn as our leading theorist of the racial restructuring of the world globally, with particular reference to the UK and the USA. White lies and ignorance continue to sustain hate-filled and violent attempts to sustain white privilege and superiority. The book demonstrates that racist ideologies still shape our society with the predictable back-lash against anti-racist analyses and race equality. In the long term continued white supremacy will not work. In the short term, white racism is increasingly aggressive against an international anti-racist movement. Those in majority white societies identified as 'not white', of minority origin, foreign or migrant, are increasingly targeted as aliens and 'invaders'. Clear and scholarly analysis of what is happening is desperately needed."
Sally Tomlinson, Emeritus Professor at Goldsmiths, UK; Honorary Fellow in the Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK; Associate, Department of Sociology University of Warwick, UK; Author of ‘Ignorance: demolishing a Beveridge Giant and Education and Race from Empire to Brexit’.
"David Gillborn offers yet another essential body of work! In this timely and powerful book, Gillborn thoughtfully and systematically dismantles the pervasive ‘white lies’ and disinformation about anti-racism efforts and critical race theory in the UK and US. Gillborn provides evidence from empirical research, media, and historical and contemporary political discourse to help readers understand the origins of the lies and how whiteness remains steadfast, aggressive, and violent. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to make sense of the myths and lies that have long defined racial inequity on both sides of the Atlantic. Gillborn leaves us with a path forward to understand how anti-Blackness and white supremacy is structurally embedded within education so that we might fight against it and imagine the world anew."
Bianca J. Baldridge, Associate Professor of Education, Harvard University, USA.
"David Gillborn invites readers to reignite debate, discussion and passion for scholarship which interrogates racial dynamics in educational processes. Never has there been a more urgent need for more open minded and inquisitive responses to white lies that sustain and legitimize white racist oppression. Mobilising a strong theoretical and empirical base focus, in this book, David Gillborn encourages us all to look deeply—within oneself but also outwardly—into the much-talked-about but less interrogated and thus understood issue of race inequality."
Fida Sanjakdar, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia; Author of ‘Living West, Facing East: The (de)construction of Muslim Youth Sexual Identities’, ‘Re-searching Margins: Ethics, Social Justice and Education’; Co-editor of ‘Critical Pedagogy, Sexuality Education and Young People’.
