Is social class a better indicator of inequality in British society than race?

 

Despite all the brouhaha about alleged antisemitism in Britain, the Jewish Anti-Zionist activist Tony Greenstein, maintains that British Jews are the most privileged white minority group in British society. He has asserted a number of times on his blog that compared to other white people in British society, British Jews are predominately middle-class and have higher incomes, better education, better jobs and homes. He has pointed out that as many British Jews have risen up from the working-class and into the middle-class, they ceased to be Labour voters or supporters of the left, and voted for the Conservative Party. Indeed, they couldn't even be persuaded to vote Labour when Ed Miliband was the leader of the Labour Party.

Almost all minority ethnic groups with perhaps the exception of black Afro-Caribbean male youths, do better in the British state education system than white working-class male youths. They are more likely to go into further education and enter university.

Britain is now a very inegalitarian country. Only around 7 percent of the British population go to public schools yet they are disproportionately represented in many of the top jobs in government, politics, the media, the law and academia. How many editors of the Guardian newspaper went to a comprehensive or secondary school?

These kinds of structural inequalities that we see in British society pose a bit of a conundrum. If the market is supposed to operate in a neutral and impartial way that isn't supposed to favour one group over another, then why does there appear to be so much inequality between socio-economic groups in British society? We're told that a rising tide lifts all boats. Moreover, we're led to believe that Britain is a meritocratic society where people get on because of their abilities. Yet it seems that the social bank of mum and dad opens as many doors as the financial bank of mum and dad.