📚 SOURCES & RECEIPTS (as promised, go do your own digging)

GCSE RESULTS (69.4% vs 52.1%, national average 65.1%, and the girls 57% vs boys 46% gap)
DfE / GOV.UK Ethnicity Facts & Figures, GCSE English & maths 2022/23:
https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/11-to-16-years-old/a-to-c-in-english-and-maths-gcse-attainment-for-children-aged-14-to-16-key-stage-4/latest/

PROGRESS 8 (+0.37 vs -0.24) & UNIVERSITY NUMBERS (two thirds vs under half; Russell Group 12% vs 5%; girls 55% vs boys 35%)
House of Commons Library, "Educational Outcomes of Black Pupils and Students":
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9023/

AFRICAN PUPILS OVERTAKING THE WHITE BRITISH AVERAGE (2019 to 2023)
Education Policy Institute, Annual Report 2024, Ethnicity chapter:
https://epi.org.uk/annual-report-2024-ethnicity-2/

MARRIAGE & FAMILY STRUCTURE (26% vs 17% married; 20% vs 9.6% married with kids; the 51% lone parent figure)
GOV.UK / ONS, Families and Households by ethnicity (2011 Census):
https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/demographics/families-and-households/latest/
ONS, Families in England and Wales: Census 2021:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/articles/familiesinenglandandwales/census2021

THE COUNTER-ARGUMENT ON CARIBBEAN FAMILIES
Tracey Reynolds, "Caribbean Mothers: Identity and Experience in the UK" (Tufnell Press, 2005)

THE 1971 SCANDAL
Bernard Coard, "How the West Indian Child Is Made Educationally Sub-normal in the British School System" (New Beacon Books, 1971)
Steve McQueen, Small Axe: "Education" (BBC, 2020)
"Subnormal: A British Scandal" (BBC, 2021)

EXCLUSIONS (the 3x figure: 0.28% vs 0.10%)
GOV.UK, Black Caribbean ethnic group summary:
https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/summaries/black-caribbean-ethnic-group/
GOV.UK, Permanent exclusions by ethnicity:
https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/absence-and-exclusions/permanent-exclusions/latest/

"EVEN THE RICH BOYS" (class doesn't explain the Caribbean boys' gap; exam tiering)
Professor Steve Strand (University of Oxford), Report to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, 2021:
https://www.education.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Strand_2021_Report-to-CRED.pdf

PARENTAL ASPIRATION (over 90% vs 77% wanting kids to stay on past 16)
Burgess, Wilson et al., University of Bristol (CMPO), 2008:
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2008/6065.html

WHY AFRICAN KIDS DO WELL (aspiration, community, church)
Feyisa Demie, "Raising the Achievement of Black African Pupils: Good Practice in Schools" (Lambeth Research & Statistics Unit); see also his written evidence to Parliament:
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/47224/html/

WHO WE MARRY (the 43% inter-ethnic figure)
ONS, "What does the 2011 Census tell us about inter-ethnic relationships?":
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/marriagecohabitationandcivilpartnerships/articles/whatdoesthe2011censustellusaboutinterethnicrelationships/2014-07-03

MIXED WHITE & BLACK CARIBBEAN OUTCOMES (attainment + exclusions)
GOV.UK, GCSE Attainment 8 by ethnicity:
https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/11-to-16-years-old/gcse-results-attainment-8-for-children-aged-14-to-16-key-stage-4/latest/
GOV.UK, Suspensions by ethnicity:
https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/absence-and-exclusions/pupil-exclusions/latest/

THE DEGREE-AWARDING GAP (the university twist: 23.3 vs 19.2 points, 2018/19 figures)
Advance HE, Ethnicity Awarding Gaps in UK Higher Education:
https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/ethnicity-awarding-gaps-uk-higher-education-201920

PAY (the like-for-like 5.6% penalty)
ONS, Ethnicity Pay Gaps in Great Britain, 2012 to 2022:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/ethnicitypaygapsingreatbritain/2012to2022

HIRING (identical CVs, more applications needed for the same callbacks)
Heath & Di Stasio, "Racial discrimination in Britain, 1969 to 2017: a meta-analysis of field experiments" (British Journal of Sociology, 2019):
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-4446.12676

SATURDAY SCHOOLS
Akala, "Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire" (Two Roads, 2018)
Professor Kehinde Andrews, "Resisting Racism: Race, Inequality and the Black Supplementary School Movement" (2013)

None of this is me making it up. Read it yourself, argue with the data, not with me. 🙏

I'm African and I absolutely loath the adversarial framing of these debates. The question is why are African kids higher achieving compared to Caribbean kids, NOT why are they 'beating' them. Why are we pushing the narrative that Africans and Caribbean people are in competition with each other? We should be trying to uplift all black people globally, therefore semantics and the messages we internalise always matter. Who wins? With this approach, none of us.

5:12 A woman can't teach a boy how to be a man. Yes there will be exceptions to that. But you can't underestimate the importance of positive male role models on young british Carribean boys.

For example when we were kids, a boy asked my brother what i was doing. He told him I'd gone to uni.

His response was "what??! Black people can go to university? I'd better try harder".

If there is no positive male role model around you that looks like you, or before you, it is very difficult to break that cycle.

Seems like the descendants of slaves have the same issue in America, Canada and England.. interesting

Interesting video! My mum is a social worker and deals with a lot of traveller kids because the main issue is not going to school. But she said even though they don’t go to school, they typically have a trade they do incredibly well in inside their community. One of the mums asked her why send her sons to school when they earn more money than the parents at the school. My mum struggled for a come back to that one! 😂

From my perspective as an African, my parents from an early age made sure we understood the importance of education, it was drilled into us. They were willing to sacrifice whatever was needed to maintain high education standards.

Both my parents went to university in Nigeria and they worked menial jobs when they first came to the UK. My mum hung her and my dad’s graduation pictures so we had something to aspire to. Even when my parents divorced during my teenage years they still maintained high standards.

My grandparents came to the UK in the 1950s having seen adverts in Nigeria inviting them to the UK and Nigeria wasn’t independent yet. They both didn’t go university but made sure all their children did. I think it’s cultural mostly. If you look at Indian kids compared to Pakistani and Bangladeshi kids, you’ll see the difference in educational outcomes even though they’re culturally similar. Same with Chinese kids.

Am east African i love my Caribbean brothers keep up the good work

It's good to see a 3rd generation west indian/caribbean man talking sense keep up the good work.

A lack of family structure is a big issue. Two parents are always better than one

Im 52 now, I have an African Caribbean friendship group, all the Africans are doing well, but in  the  Caribbean ladies in our group only one made a successful career.  In one of my Caribbean’s friends’ lives there were hindrances including alcoholic parents which meant my friend had to focus on raising her siblings properly.  In the other Caribbean  households, there was just plain bad parenting and insufficient focus on academics.   Classical example.. ALL my African friends went to uni, but only one of my Caribbean friends did I think.  All I can say is, in my African family there was and still is is a HEAVY focus on education and career success.  There wasn’t that strong focus on education in my Caribbean friends lives.  I know that be cause i was at their houses a lot. With one of my Caribbean friends, she has been unemployed for decades and my longstanding attempts to pull her up has resulted in her cutting me out of her life! I think it’s very complex and 8 know my experiences don’t represent all Caribbean households … I see many Caribbean women doing superbly but I do think  there needs to be more of a hyper focus towards the parent being  a strong mentor and example towards their children . Through slavery and colonialism, that cultural focus on academics has been weakened.  I think there is s9me mentoring programs that we can set up to turn things around.  I want all black people to be economically powerful because we have a huge racial obstacles to face and we can only beat it together .

As a South African seeing Nigerians and Ghanaians in SA. I can agree they more ambitious

Not only are they acheiving more they are also less racist to other  minorities than carribeans.

Africans are smart and are enthusiastic about learning but they also have strict parents

I think a good term for the toxic mix of Caribbean and British culture (normally working class) resulting in young men being the way they are could be termed: “A culture of low expectation”

Race and class intersect, lower class Brits have long been kept in this culture, racism originally suggested that to be black meant belonging in the lower classes and systemically efforts were made to ensure this. It could be said that once settling into that space the working class brits were seen as allies. The interactions of the two groups has reinforced this outcome of low expectations, one podcast described the Caribbean and working class alliance as an example of bad integration.

Being a father who is in their childs' live one a week or every other week is still not good ( this a problem in the Caribbean community), compared to a father in the household day and night, that can discipline the child  on the spot and support the mother. Also a father in the household teach his son how to manage a household .

Caribbean boys, certain born/raised in the UK, as well in 1970-2020s have that rebellious, island spirit. Rambunctious, talking back, a lot of energy that needs restraining, challenging and focusing... English teachers and heads always used to push Black boys into Sport to burn it off...

African kids are usually 1st - 2nd generation immigrants so their mentality is to get a return on their investment (spending fortunes on visa fees etc) so they're highly motivated. Compare that to Caribbean kids whose families have been here for generations and they are now "conformable" in the UK, they don't have the same motivation to make it. This also applies to African kids whose families have been here for generations too, as they too become "comfortable" and complacent.

This is an intriguing topic. I'm a Caribbean woman still living in my homeland. You've discussed excellent factors, and I agree with most of what you've said.
Another factor is discipline. Caribbean families tend to expect more from their girls and often seem to have low expectations of boys. A lot of us don't even think we need to raise our boys. Girls are given many rules , and boys are given few rules. The girls are restricted,  but those same restrictions help them to succeed academically. Many Caribbean boys are doing whatever they want, and few boys WANT to study.  
African families expect much from their boys and girls, and they inspire discipline in both.
If I'm walking down the street, I can identify an African man (even if he's dressed in typically "western" clothing) before he even opens his mouth.  He moves like he respects himself.

Africans are from strict parenting- two parents household, stable home - a present father and a family ideology.

These straightens everything

You did absolutely well breaking it down smoothly

I am Jamaican descendant like yourself. Everything you said is true.  Keep up the good work👍🏿