Race
Race itself is a divisive term. Some chose to believe they ignore it, others, like myself have no choice but to face it, it affects our lives daily based on the society or geographical location we find ourselves in.
In this clip, we see the ‘race walk’ a concept introduced earlier on in this very unit, highlighted amongst young children. The most interesting part of this clip is not the outcome but the comments. Statements such as “What I see in the video: Kids who use to get along and not care about race, have now been divided and started to resent each other. Great Job teachers!” garnering over 16 thousand likes, not only highlights the issue, but underlines the perception that racism isn’t there, inherent in society , but only is evident when used as a tool to oppose racism itself.
Orr, J. (2022) Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke. The Telegraph [Online]
In contrast to The Channel Four video, James Orr’s piece (Orr, J. (2022) Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke. The Telegraph) focuses on the alleged influence Advance HE has on promoting inclusivity and the need to address the existence of systematic racism in academic institutions. Orr’s tone and vernacular suggests Advance HE is pushing a WOKE agenda through its Athena Swan and the Race Equality Charter programmes.
Orr argues that these charters along with decolonising the curriculum will stifle debate, restrict syllabuses, and ultimately restrict freedom of speech.
As a journalism lecturer, the inequality, staged persona, and unbalanced structure of the piece sets out to only highlight his view without any reference or comment from Advance HE. Even the use of ethnic interviewees seemed contrived. The appearance of balance from the 2 young black ladies who supported the work, and the gentleman that corrected Orr on the true meaning of ‘Woke’ felt overshadowed and shoehorned in.
In my own personal experience, being Black and having lived through a government containing Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman, Priti Patel, Kemi Banedoch and Kwazi Kwaten, the Zora Neale Hurston’s famous quote, “All skinfolk ain’t kinfolk” very much comes to mind.
From my point of view, this very video is almost an argument for the very existence of Advance HE. Orr’s argument is akin to the academic equivalent to the far right rioting to ‘Protect our Statues’ whilst urinating on them.
This recognition of resistance to change is also highlighted in Rhianna Garret’s paper ‘Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of minority PHDs in UK Higher Education’.
Garrett states that most UK universities began as religious or private foundations, with some Russell Group universities associated with elite social reproduction and served to educate colonial administrators (Holmwood 2018).
She counters Orr’s standpoint in this quote ‘Jones and Okun (2001) highlight the damaging norms whiteness creates, such as defensiveness to quell new ideas, conflating open conflict with being impolite, desire for individual competitive credit, and believing that those in power have a right to emotional and psychological comfort. These are all elements of what is considered to be a professional work environment, which is also a constructed identity that works to code and maintain the illusion of inclusion, but in reality, serves to preserve white, middle-class models of knowledge, expertise and value (Mukherjee 2022).’
In my conclusion, this is not so much of a reflection, but the very path I have to navigate every day. This post is supposed to be academic, but became personal because, as a black HE lecturer, this is my life. The classism-led racism that is shaping modern British society has to be fought by HE establishments any way it can. UAL’s approach to diversity and inclusion is not without its flaws, but it is something I want to wholeheartedly support.
References
Orr, J. (2022) Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke. The Telegraph [Online]. Youtube. 5 August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRM6vOPTjuU
Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of minority PHDs in UK Higher Education’. – Rhianna Garret
Channel 4. (2020) The School That Tried to End Racism. [Online}. Youtube. 30 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3wJ7pJUjg