Page 136 - White Lives The Interplay of 'Race', Class, and Gender in Everyday Life

In search of a ‘good mix’ 129
that there was a reasonable representation, ...I think. Interest-
ing what you confront ...I don’t think that’s unreasonable.
BB: So, but can I ask why, I’m not suggesting it’s unreasonable, but
why that’s important. What kind of?
Teresa: Um, I think it . . . starts to become a hurdle . . .
BB: To?
Teresa: To academic achievement purely and simply. That is a large part
of the schooling. I think if there is a real ...I think if there’s a
real problem with English as a second language, it could hold
back the general development within the class, frankly. Simple
as that. [. . .]
BB: Are there other beyond the kind of language impact ...are
there other cultural or . . .?
Teresa: Yes, and I think that’s a very positive thing. . . . Very much . . . cul-
tural awareness of different societies. And I think that’s wonder-
ful. Absolutely brilliant.
BB: But is there . . . when you said you wanted 50 per cent represen-
tation of white . . .
Teresa: [interrupting] Yeah, I don’t know whether I meant white. I
meant, I guess, Christian influence within the school, I think.
...I think I would want that. . . . Again, for an identity. Yes, I
think so. . . . I don’t think that’s unreasonable. Yeah, I think I
would want that.
(Interview 18)

It is clear, in the extract above, that there were two competing discourses
that collided in Teresa’s attitude to primary schools. She was strongly endors-
ing multiculturalist discourses in that she wanted her son to gain ‘cultural
awareness of different societies. And I think that’s wonderful. Absolutely
brilliant’. Yet, at the same time, she was very clear that the right ‘social’
and ‘ethnic’ ‘mix’ would entail having the appropriate (by which she means
majority) ‘white influence’. When these two discourses were brought into
direct contact, through my questioning, Teresa sought to reframe what she
said. What she had, somewhat nervously, asserted as a ‘reasonable’ concern
for ‘representation’, a vocabulary drawn from liberal democracy, suddenly
seemed less acceptable. Was it Christian, rather than white, influence that
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she was concerned about, or English as a mother tongue perhaps? These
three, whiteness, Christianity and English speaking, had very different im-
plications. While talking about whiteness directly raised the question of
‘race’ (and possibly class), Christianity suggested considerations of culture
and, in Teresa’s eyes, appeared to be more acceptable than talking of ‘race’.
She ignored the potential racialised interpretation of this position. In fact,
there were relatively few religious minorities in the Lambeth educational
system. Equally, concerns about English as a mother tongue seemed to have
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an unequivocal status of ‘reasonableness’ to Teresa. They could be stated