%0 Journal Article
%@ 0007-1005
%A Gillborn, David
%D 2010
%F discovery:10022120
%J British Journal of Educational Studies
%K Class , Ethnicity , Race , Gender , Poverty & social exclusion , Media , Sociology
%N 1
%P 3-25
%T The white working class, racism and respectability: victims, degenerates and interest-convergence
%U https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10022120/
%V 58
%Z Chosen as the lead article in the re-launch issue of one of the country's most prestigious education journals: BJES publishes around 5% of submitted articles. In addition, this was the single most downloaded article in the journal for 2010. The article is highly original in using critical race theory (CRT) to examine the intersectional relationship of race and class inequalities in the discursive construction of the 'White working class'. CRT is frequently accused of giving class insufficient weight but this analysis shows how race and class combine in ways that reinforce existing inequalities despite superficially seeming to defend working class interests. The paper’s significance lies in its contribution to international debates about the relation between race and class inequity in education policy and practice. The rigour of the piece is demonstrated in several ways including, for example, an analysis of official achievement data that exposes the deeply misleading nature of claims (in policy and the media) that white ‘working class’ boys are the lowest achieving group.