Blog Post #3: Race

Beginning with Sadiq and his views on diversity awareness training (TED, 2023), he says we are presented with a poster with someone who’s a “person of colour”, or who’s “a member of the LGBTQ+ community”, and asks “does one person in one image describe a whole community?” (4:48). I can see what he is expressing, and that is an inability to sub-classify groups of people, denying them the nuances that (using race as the example) ‘white’ people enjoy. Sadiq later adds “we give dominant culture perspectives” (7:02), and this idea coincides and expands on my earlier post No More ‘Black’ Artists where views towards those outside the dominant, default, group have their identity simplified and polarised.

Garrett (2024) provides such an example with ‘Maya’ who, as “a ‘Black’ researcher in areas of racial identity” was welcomely received when addressing issues of race, but upon issues of neurodiversity or ablism was told to allow others to represent them, thus being silenced on as aspect of her own identity (p. 8). It appear that you can only discuss race if you are non-white, but can only address other aspects of identity characteristics if you are white.

An interesting point raised by Garrett regarding the history of many UK universities is that they were founded by religious or private bodies (2024, p. 3, although the cited source ((Holmwood 2018)) speaks of US and UK universities, and I am unsure whether the UK had a significant number of private foundations), and adds that Russell Group universities have been “associated with elite social reproduction” (smells of eugenics to me, highly unwholesome), and “served to educate colonial administrators”. Perhaps more unsavoury is their direct connection with the slave trade, as exemplified in a BBC News article (2022). With such a heritage, maybe it is not surprising that in academia, whiteness “seeps into daily practices and norms” (Garrett 2024, p. 12), and whilst UAL may not have such a backstory, we are a UK HE institution with the belief that we have parity of status with such luminaries.

A further point raised by Garrett is in regard to mixed race people, where one interviewee says that he can “switch between Korean and American depending on the culture and society” (2024, p. 7). Ha-joon sees his mixed heritage as a positive, but there have been stories of people being expected to choose one side of their background over the other (you can’t be both!), or being accused of being ‘inauthentic’ (cf. Morris, 2022): this to me is preposterous, and it concerns me as a father of a ‘mixed’ child, who I’m happy to say seems very comfortable in his skin. Anyone of mixed heritage should be free to identify themselves as they wish too, and be able to fully claim all aspects of their ancestry.

Space forbids me to explore Bradbury at any length, but one point I wish to react to is the view of other languages as being ‘inferior’ to English (2020, p. 250). As a linguist I find this incredibly objectionable, and oppose any kind of linguistic superiority. Forgive the plug, but the Language Centre has some projects which recognise and celebrate our linguistic diversity, particularly the work which Karen Harris is involved in.

539 words

Resources

BBC (2022) ‘Study finds Cambridge University “benefited from slavery”‘. 23 Sept. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-62999844 (Accessed: 21 June 2024).

Bradbury, A. (2020) ‘A critical race theory framework for education policy analysis: The case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in England’. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(2), pp.241-260.

Garrett, R. (2024) ‘Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education’. Globalisation, Societies and Education, pp.1–15. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2024.2307886 (Accessed: 10 June 2024).

Holmwood, J. (2018) “Race and the Neoliberal University: Lessons from the Public University.” in Bhambra, G., Gebrial, D, and Nişancıoğlu, K. (eds.) Decolonise the University, pp. 37–52. London: Pluto Press.

Morris, N. (2022) ‘Mixed-race Britons – we are of multiple heritages. Claim them all’, The Guardian, 16 April [online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/16/mixed-race-britons-multiple-heritage-father-death (Accessed: 21 June 2024).

TED (2023) Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right, Asif Sadiq. 2 Mar. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw (Accessed: 21 May 2024).