What causes the academic failure of black children and why are they so prone to getting into trouble with the police?

In Britain and the United States, black children tend not to achieve as well at school as white children and those of Asian heritage. They are, on the other hand, more likely to end up in court.

It has long been observed that black teenagers are much less likely to gain the qualifications which will enable them to enter medical school or find a place at the best universities. Of course, to find the roots of later academic under-achievement, we must look further back than university admissions and ask ourselves why it is that black children in particular do not, on the whole, thrive academically at school. After all, the mechanism for failing to get into top universities is fairly plain. In both Britain and the United States, black people of African or Caribbean origin tend not to do as well at school as white pupils, while those of East Asian heritage tend to do better than both black and white students. This in turn means that black pupils are less likely to qualify in subjects such as medicine, architecture and law, and are more likely to leave formal education with an unimpressive record. A long-term consequence of this is that black doctors, architects, engineers, lawyers and so on are less common than those who are white or of Asian origin. Black pupils are also more likely to get into trouble at school and to be excluded. This in turn can lead to problems with the police. What causes this situation?