Should our kids learn about white privilege?

Education chiefs have drawn up a blueprint to tackle racism which includes teaching children about white privilege.

Pilot projects have been launched in four areas as part of a wide-ranging antiracism strategy in education including Taika Waititi fronting a campaign aimed at teachers.

Advocates say the plans are to unpick systemic racism that hampers non-Pākehā children.

But critics say it is ‘racialising’ our children’s classrooms.

Education consultant Dr Ann Milne said white privilege was less about race and skin colour, and more about cultural and societal norms benefiting some groups over others.

“It is not about white people per se but whiteness as a system.”

Milne, who is Pa¯ keha¯ , has been in the education sector for decades, first as a teacher, then principal and now a consultant, and has taught about the impacts of white privilege.

She first became aware of it when her children, of Ma¯ ori heritage, were at secondary school and began encountering everyday racism, and seeing how it held them back.

“It was things like mispronouncing names to being underestimated by their teachers.”

She started to incorporate teaching about the topic in her work, and said she had never encountered pushback from students or teachers.

“We shouldn’t underestimate the ability of children to understand and learn about these things either, they see these things simply as fair and not fair.

“By not teaching it we do Pa¯ keha¯ children a disservice and Ma¯ ori children will continue growing up thinking their position at the bottom of the heap is their fault rather than the systems that keep them there.

“It is not separatist, it is not racist, it is just acknowledging the system does not work for everybody, and this is a big part of it.”