Blog 03: Race

The Channel 4 (2020) video depicting school children participating in a Privilege Walk, based on McIntosh’s (1988) concept, is confronting and (if I’m honest) uncomfortable. The practice of the Privilege Walk sharply reveals to peers the privileges some people inherently embody due to our intersecting positionalities. The Privilege Walk (as shown in the difficult-to-read YouTube comments) often divides opinions as it exposes systemic inequalities that many would prefer to simply ignore. This exercise does however embody the necessity of “getting comfortable with being uncomfortable” (Sadiq, 2023), a principle essential for engaging with meaningful anti-racism practices. Discomfort is something I personally have felt and worked with and on, throughout this unit.

James Orr’s heavily opinionated view of AdvanceHE, where he labels it as “a democratically unaccountable quango” and a “diversity bureaucracy” (Orr, 2022), highlights the contentious nature of discussions and actions taken surrounding institutionalised approaches to diversity and inclusion. Namely in this instance, he critiques the appropriateness and applicability of AdvanceHE’s charters of race and gender. I can appreciate the perspective that AdvanceHE could be slightly more prescriptive in their direction of ways to go about being awarded the charter, but the incendiary rhetoric put forth by Orr in this video seem almost to defend the potentiality of racism under the guise of “free and open inquiry” (Orr, 2022).

In the realm of UK education policy, Angela Bradbury (2020) employs a Critical Race Theory framework to analyse policies affecting bilingual primary school pupils (note, not students). Bradbury argues that assessment policies are not neutral and often reinforce racial inequalities, disadvantaging minority students and perpetuating disparities particularly in attainment of bilingual learners (Bradbury, 2020). This highlights the necessity of reflection throughout each iteration of development and progress. But this isn’t easy — the complexity of the situation is vast, and opinions broad within, but also outside the higher education bubble. This is acutely highlighted in the already mentioned obnoxious YouTube comments under the videos of Sadiq (2023), Channel 4 (2020), and Orr (2022) — although unfounded, and (to be polite) anecdotal they prove how much work is to be done. This point is substantiated by Robin DiAngelo (2020) who counters the vague argument that ‘racism is conscious bias held by mean people’ is fundamentally flawed and over-simplistic.

So here we are, working between the sheer magnitude and complexity of systemic racism on one side; and over-simplification, denial, and attacks on organisations trying to dismantle some of the problems on the other.

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References 

Amanpour and Company (2020) Robin DiAngelo on “White Fragility” – EXTENDED CONVERSATION | amanpour and company. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx-gUfQx4-Q (Accessed: July 14, 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.

Channel 4. (2020) Heartbreaking moment when kids learn about white privilege | the school that tried to end racism. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3wJ7pJUjg (Accessed: July 14, 2024).

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.

McIntosh, P., 2001. White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies (1988). Race, class, and gender: An anthology, pp.95-105.

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 (Accessed: July 14, 2024).

Sadiq, A. (2023) Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right. TEDx [Online}. Youtube. 2 March. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw (Accessed: July 14, 2024).