Racism 101: 5 Texts for Universities
In this post, I will be discussing five texts about specifically racism, racial prejudice and racial hatred for academics — to get them thinking critically on this road to racial equity. The term ‘text’ is used to encompass poetry, essays and articles as well.
Having been a student, then a student union sabbatical officer, now going back to studying again for a masters, I think it was time I did this post — not that a number of people had asked me what texts on racism, racial prejudice and racial hatred they could use with their undergrad students (which is a separate topic from race as a social construct). In this post you will find five texts about one or more of the topics of racial prejudice, racism and racial hatred; that I believe are applicable for academics and university students — from undergrads to postdoctoral researchers and lecturers.
POETRY — A Love Song, A Death Rattle, A Battle Cry by Kyle “Guante” Tran Myhre (2016)
As his stage name, Guante is a hip-hop recording artist; however, my introduction to him was through his poetry. He was certainly one of the first poets I saw that showed me that poetry could be political. My lecturer on my degree always said “poetry is in the metaphors and similes”, and whilst I believe him to be in-part right, this poem here follows and detracts from this quite “traditional” (loosely speaking), quite academic train of thought.
Not all spoken word is political but there must be a reason why a good portion of spoken word poetry is. Spoken word is poetry and I do not care whether academics agree with me or not. To say “spoken word isn’t poetry” is narrow-minded, as the history of page poetry is far shorter than the history of oral poetry. Just like the Cornish, Welsh, Celtic traditions of storytellers and Awen (Bard). Oral storytelling. Look at at the Globe Theatre — from As You Like It to the monologues of Richard in Richard III, it is poetry; it is spoken words.
Guante follows in the footsteps of artists who wrote for performance, not just publication to only be read in the hallowed halls of academia on English and Creative Writing degrees. His work works as page and performance.
His poems ‘How to Explain White Supremacy to a White Supremacist’ and ‘Confessions of a White Rapper’ not only offer insight to academics on how they can decolonise poetry at universities, but also are a conduit into discussing racism within a classroom setting. In my degree’s narrow definition of poetry, it was consciously or unconsciously playing into classist and racist norms. In including spoken word on English Literature courses, from GCSE to degree-level, it would allow students to think wider, in addition to ask ‘who seeks to benefit from maintaining the status quo of what poetry is or isn’t?’
I admit not all spoken word is brilliant and there are some real duds, but there is argument here that the current institutional standards of Britain exclude certain art and elevate others — also, the inclusion of poets like Guante would push structures to investigate the means from which knowledge is made and which people have access to what spaces, and who does not have access. Both of these poems are fantastic for students and will certainly make both the learners and learned ask more questions about overt and institutional racism.
Availability: YouTube, Button Poetry (Print)
ESSAY — Rocking the Boat: Women of Colour as Diversity Workers… by Sara Ahmed (2019)
I first came across this entry after going to a meeting at the University of Birmingham where we discussed attainment, decolonisation and diversity in higher education. This was when I was a student union officer. Diversity is an empty term used by institutions, and to a certain degree, universities are included in this in their use of “decolonising the curriculum” as well.
This term diversity is a swindle, a trick, a lie — because it means nothing if we do not interrogate systemic inequality as well.So, when a person or people do not meet the required norms of society’s institutions, they are labelled as “troublemakers” when they try to challenge them. In this very same labeling, they are also tasked with forming diversity committees and staff networks. The symbol of diversity remains such, a symbol. In this chapter of Dismantling Race in Higher Education: Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy, Ahmed argues women of colour [WOC] university staff do diversity work and are themselves the diversity. WOC staff at the bare minimum in habit a “twoness” of race and gender. Before we get to think about other intersectionalities, this chapter explores the nature of diversity work and what it means to “rock the boat.” She also explores highlighting issues like structural racism and structural sexism puts a target on your back and by proxy “rocks the boat” of the dominant occupation culture, and in showing the emptiness of terms like diversity you are causing damage that is already present in said institutions, unsaid or not.
Much akin to the prime minister’s comments around Black Lives Matter, higher education is a nesting ground for symbolic gestures. Scholar Sara Ahmed unpicks the scabs of diversity work within higher education and it’s truly a must read, especially for men, that seemingly are not picking up the slack of equality, diversity and inclusion within our institutions. Verily.
Availability: Amazon (Print), Springer Link (PDF)
ARTICLE — Young, British and Black […] by Aamna Mohdin, The Guardian (2020)
This is one of many articles by The Guardian newspaper since the murder of George Floyd. “I can’t breathe” is the rallying cry at numerous protests, and the fifty testimonies by the Black Britons interviewed, myself included, furthered this thought, even if we do not say it outright explicitly. From the Forest of Dean to the Shetland Islands; from Glasgow to London; from Buckinghamshire to the Black Country; here we have fifty thoughts on race in Britain today. Not only is this a shocking indictment on Britain in 2020, it is a fantastic example (though indirectly) of qualitative data. Fifty testimonies showing what it means to be Black and British.
REPORT: Windrush Lessons Learned (2020) by Wendy Williams QC — on the Windrush Scandal
In 2018, MP David Lammy addressed the House of Commons on what became known as the Windrush Scandal; on how and why Black British people, members of this Windrush Generation were being detained and deported, denied their pensions, healthcare and sacked their jobs — many of whom had been in this country since they were young children. Wendy Williams’ Windrush Lessons Learned depicts issues that go way beyond the Scandal. The report stops short of calling the Home Office institutionally racist. Yet, the treatment of the Windrush Generation cannot be argued to be anything but. An inquiry needs to be led into why the British establishment have repeatedly discriminated against British communities from Black, Asian and other marginalised ethnic backgrounds. The review tells us that the Windrush Scandal was no accident. It’s just another example of how institutions get away with murder; in the tint of Grenfell and Hillsborough, victims still long for justice and these structures continue to give lip service. Whilst the publication of Windrush Lessons Learned is important, albeit in the middle of a pandemic (conveniently), this brings me to highlight the numerous race-related inquiries that came before.
In 2017, the Lammy Review detailed the outcomes of Black and brown prisoners in youth offenders. MP David Lammy found 41% came from Black, Asian and multiracial backgrounds. We have also had the Angiolini Review (2017) into deaths and serious incidents in police custody, If you know anything about stop and search on Black people in Britain, her findings reflect that. Damning, at the very least. Moreover, the McGregor-Smith review into Race in the workplace (2019) and The Scarman Report (1981) into the Brixton Riots. And the big fish of them all, The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (1999) into the flawed murder investigation by London Metropolitan Police, one could argue this was when the term “institutional racism” was popularised.
Availability: Online
The murder of Stephen Lawrence and then the eventual inquiry into the police investigation, changed Britain forever and Black trust in police has never recovered, not that it started then, with similar issues with race and policing happening decades earlier with the Brixton Riots (1981) and Notting Hill Riots (1958). The Black community will never recover from Grenfell or the Windrush Scandal either. This pattern of racism, racial prejudice and racial hatred is prevalent in the UK going back centuries. Here, I have given five (and a bit more) very different texts that academics can use to open these discussions of racism with their students, both the overt and the institutional.
