In the book, Coard examines educational inequality and institutional racism in the United Kingdom through the lens of the country's "educationally subnormal" schools—previously called "schools for the mentally subnormal"—which disproportionately and wrongly enrolled Black children, especially those from the West Indies. These students rarely advanced out of ESN schools and suffered educationally and economically. Coard also intentionally made a "critical decision" to write specifically for an audience of Black parents.