Journal of Social Science for Policy Implications June 2014, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 37-58 ISSN: 2334-2900 (Print), 2334-2919 (Online) Copyright © The Author(s). 2014. All Rights Reserved. Published by American Research Institute for Policy Development A Structural Approach to Understanding Black British Caribbean Academic Underachievement in the United Kingdom Carol Tomlin 1 , Cecile Wright 2 and Paul C. Mocombe 3 Abstract The contemporary underachievement of black British Caribbean youth in the United K ingdom is an epiphenomenon of their historical racial-class experiences within the global capitalist social structure of class inequality under American hegemony. Against identity politics and John Ogbu’s burden of acting white hypothesis, in this article, we posit Paul C. Mocombe’s (2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) mismatch of linguistic structure and social class function hypothesis as a hermeneutical framework for understanding and explaining the underachievement of black British Caribbean youth vis-à-vis their white and Asian counterparts in the United K ingdom. Keywords: Ideological domination, Linguistic Structure, black British Caribbeans, Capitalism, Underclass, Underachievement, Social Structure, mismatch of linguistic structure and social class function, African Americans, blacks, students, achievement Introduction The education of black British Caribbean students in the UK remains a significant cause for concern ever since their arrival in significant numbers in the 1950s. The inability or unwillingness of the British school system to help young black people fulfill their academic potential has been extensively discussed for the past 40 years (Coard 1971; Rampton 1981; Swann 1985; Sewell 1997; Gillborn & Gipps 1996; Gillborn & Mirza; Majors 2001; Archer & Francis 2007; Tomlinson 2008). This discussion has taken place under the guise of the proverbial black-white academic achievement gap. 1 Oxford University. 2 Nottingham University. 3 West Virginia State University/ The Mocombeian Foundation, Inc.