21 May – Inclusive Teaching and Learning: Race (pre-task)
Deconstructing White Privilege with Dr. Robin DiAngelo
She was socialised to see she didn’t have a race — didn’t see herself connected to race initially.
White experience of the world, we rarely acknowledge this. Racism is a system that the country was founded on and institutions were created out of and enforce the system (and men control all institutions).
Individual prejudice (an individual act) and a system of inequality (men not allowing women to have the vote). Racism is group prejudice backed by institutional power, it’s bigger than individuals. Even if you believe yourself to be saying something objective such as ‘my best friend is a person of colour’, this can be part of a system of shared linguistics that enable people to ignore race issues.
Post civil right movements it became bad to be racist. This seems like a good thing, but what it actually did was make it impossible for white people to look at racism. It became a moral issue and not a racial issue.
There are predictable patterns that come up in conversation such as statements like ‘I’m not racist, I’m a good person’, statements that make us feel like we are not part of the problem.
‘My parents taught me to see everyone as the same’ — it is impossible to do this. When people say things like this you are indicating that you don’t know how socialisation works. These cliche words and phrases allows us to avoid the problem rather than look directly at it. The most difficult forms of racism to address are the ones we have been socialised to ignore, or, they are subconscious. They could also be small acts, like rain drops that gradually build up to drench someone — without the perpetrator being aware.
We might say that we have relationships with people of colour, as evidence that we are not racist, evidence that we are not biased against people of colour. By doing we are revealing that we believe racism to be a conscious act. Most bias is unconscious and implicit.
Just because you are friends with a person of colour, doesn’t mean racism won’t arise in that friendship.
The spiritual realm would have us believe that everyone is equal and that we all ‘bleed under the skin’ so we are the same. This operates to take race and power off the table, to deny that people have fundamentally different experiences of the world. Suggesting that we are ‘all one’ militates conversation and confrontation.
Robin gives examples of obvious racism, but explains that racism is in the very fabric of life — hidden under the surface. Good school and bad school discourse is new racism, coded language so you can say one thing and mean another which then enforces segregation in communities — while also allowing us to believe we are innocent. White people define a ‘good area’ as one which doesn’t have people of colour.
Robin: I can live my whole in segregation without having relationships with people of colour, and not one person who guided me ever conveyed that this signalled a loss. Without those perspectives you are at a loss.
Hard to get white people to admit their race helps them in life. We are responsible for deconstructing white privilege, if we don’t, simply by ignoring it, we will perpetuate white privilege. Inaction does not make you not culpable, inaction is a form of action.
Binary between racist and not racist perpetuates racism, and stops it being spoken about by using simplistic notions such as ‘I’m not racist’ — everybody is.
If people of colour could comment on the behaviour of white people, it would be revolutionary. People of colour don’t feel they can do this because of the binary opposition between racist and not racist. ‘I’m not racist’ is just being on the defensive and shuts down conversation and development.
How does the content make you feel?
The content made me feel uncomfortable at times because it make me realise there are instances where I could potentially be racist without even realising it, and that one needs to be constantly educated in order to avoid such occurrences.
What does the content mean to you?
The major revelation in the film was that inaction is in some cases the same as racist action. It’s simply not enough to consider yourself not racist and that everyone is equal, we all have to be activists and not just once but for our whole lives.
Intention vs impact?
I think the impact was primarily educational. But unlike other forms of training in the work place, Robin showed that these issues go really deep and can extend into our very early childhood (maybe a tricky thing to do in discussion groups), and perhaps those parts of socialisation we don’t remember. The intention was professional, but it has a massive impact on life in a wider sense. It was destabilising for me, but in a good way.
When addressing these issues in the workplace the intention may be to help but the impact may be that it blocks out conversation on the topic. People should decentralise their own experience and open towards other people’s perspective. Robin doesn’t acknowledge her own neoliberal context. She is one person telling us what to think, maybe the presentation could have been split between lots of different people.
What if anything makes you feel comforted or uncomfortable? What is the purpose of the content?
The video comforted me because it highlighted that there are people in the world that understand these issues, and that I can learn from them. It made me feel uncomfortable because it challenged my common assumptions about race and my upbringing. Another source of discomfort was that it showed how deeply engrained systematic racism is, how invisible it is, and, therefore, how problematic it will be to eradicate completely.
Does the content remind you of anything?
The content reminded me most of media reporting on racism. Newspaper and other media often like a clear story that people can understand easily, such as ‘something is racist’ and this enforces and perpetuates the damaging racist/not racist dichotomy that militates any real discussion around the topics.
Examples of racially biased reporting include stories on Meghan Markle and in particular the stories around the death of Stephen Lawrence which expressed and supported the institutional racism in the police force. The media stance on O. J. Simpson, before the murder trial, was also extremely problematic and seems to have compounded the issues he had around his own place in the world.
The media reporting during the time of the Yorkshire Ripper case could arguably be to blame for the case going unsolved for seven years. The detective in charge of the investigation presumed the killer was a black male because it suited his own biased opinions and also those of public through media reporting. This meant the actual killer, Peter Sutcliffe, was interviewed on numerous occasions and still went unsuspected because he didn’t fit the media profile.
Do you feel bad, good, indifferent?
Although I try to be aware of issues around race, the video made me realise it is an ongoing and developing consideration. It also made me feel bad because, much like Robin, nobody in my life, no guide or family member, ever made me consider that by not having friendships with people of colour in my youth that I was missing out on that perspective, a loss to my childhood and development. And this very fact highlighted that even though I don’t consider my parents to be racist, I was still socialised with racial bias that has filtered down from wider systems of racism beyond their control.
Why do you think our team selected this material as a learning opportunity?
I think the team may have selected this film so that when we are teaching we can continue to be aware of the small things we can do to abolish institutionalised and systematic racism and to question unhelpful dichotomies. And perhaps, even make students aware of these issues not only when interacting with each other but also with the history of art and design.
Introduction of Critical Race Theory
Key Quotes:
‘considers many of the same issues that conventional civil rights and ethnic studies discourses take up, but places them in a broader perspective’
‘Unlike traditional civil rights, which embraces incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order,’
‘Realizing that new theories and strategies were needed to combat the subtler forms of racism that were gaining ground,’
‘the idea that not every legal case has one correct outcome.’
‘the unseen, largely invisible collection of patterns and habits that make up patriarchy and other types of domination.’
‘as well as the unseen, largely invisible collection of patterns and habits that make up patriarchy and other types of domination’
‘First, that racism is ordinary, not aberrational‘
‘Second, most would agree that our system of white-over-color ascendancy serves important purposes, ‘
‘A third theme of critical race theory, the “social construction” thesis, holds that race and races are products of social thought and relations.’
‘races are categories that society invents,’
‘society racializes different minority groups at different times, in response to shifting needs such as the labor market.’
‘No person has a single, easily stated, unitary identity.’
‘Everyone has potentially conflicting, overlapping identities, loyalties, and allegiances.’
‘Does American racial thought contain an implicit black- white binary, an unstated dichotomy in which society comes divided into two groups, whites and blacks,’
Interview with Past Student – Staff moving on…
What do you take from the piece?
The academic witnessed racist behaviour towards Aisha and felt guilty for not acting on this at the time. It’s strange that he seemed to presume she wouldn’t know it was racist, and also that he seems to be asking for forgiveness to make himself feel better. He already did the wrong thing so perhaps shouldn’t be forgiven.
Sticking up for someone seems argumentative (enforcing the split dichotomy) and maybe wrong here, it suggests Aisha can’t do this herself and that the academic is in a more powerful position to do so (also not right, as it still exhibits traits of white privilege, despite looking like a ‘noble’ act) — maybe there is a different way? He could have asked what she wished would have happened in that situation?
From group discussion: Why is it Aisha’s job to tell him how he should have acted? I was following the advice given by DiAngelo in the video.
Where in the student/academics response is white fragility?
The academic has admitted that what happened was racist, but still seems to be uncomfortable defining it as such. He has obviously thought a lot about the events, but still doesn’t consider himself to be racist – inaction is the same as action in this instance. He takes the moral high ground of being ‘not racist’ (us and them) and this militates any further discussion.
What advice would you provide the academic?
He could ask the best way to act next time something similar happens, rather than trying to feel better about what happened (Robin: If people of colour could comment on the behaviour of white people, it would be revolutionary). He claims to have learnt and grown as a person, yet seems unwilling to listen properly to what Aisha is saying (preferring to protect his own feelings), and STILL doesn’t know what he would do differently in that situation.
Additional Notes from Discussion
He personalises the racism and doesn’t realise its an institutionalised thing. However this can be seen as a collective of actions and ways of acting.
Is it easier to have the conversation if we take the personal out of the conversation? If you take the personal out, how does the institution change? Needs to be shown on a personal and institutional level – to know it felt, a personal narrative.
He obsessed by saying sorry so seems to have missed lots of other things
Still uncomfortable for people to consider? It’s not an issue that we are all racist
Sometimes it’s really hard to say something depending on the personalities in the room. What would give people the confidence to defend people? We have to be braver? How can he do this when the institution is rotten? What is a tool? He should be given the tools?
Stop centralising your own experience – over apologising and making themselves feel better. What comes next? Asking for the tools? Action from the institution NOT the individual. Should be a dialogue between the individual and the system.
We have all witnessed racist behaviour and done nothing, this is as bad as acting. It is still very hard for us to use the word racism.
General Session Notes
Race and Ethnicity: Privilege, power and sociology of dominance
All virtual sessions are dialogic spaces
They will display trigger warnings before any potentially problematic
Session aims – understanding race and ethnicity, critically evaluate, engage with theory, problem based learning
Trigging warning definition: a warning of distressing material (like in an art gallery)
Whiteness is a location of structural advantage and a standpoint to look at ourselves
White supremacy does not refer to a particular group but large systems of control – a vaster definition
Deconstructing White Privilege with Dr. Robin DiAngelo More Notes
White Fragility: White people can confront racism – we often end discussions with platitudes
Racism in language and syntax?
The clarity of the information was refreshing.
The video is a very polite way of touching the surface. What is a good tactic for calling this out? Using theory rather than personal experience.
Media need to broaden the images of who is on the front line — COVID. Newspapers too much reflect the images of the people that make/write them. More obvious modern day examples are needed in the video?
Critical Race Theory
Critical race theory, the counter story telling is very positive
Guardian stats – institutional racism – Stephen Lawrence inquiry
Intersectionality – take a cross section through all life/ different to civil rights movement
Small percentage of people are BAME professors – particularly shocking to see it as a figure/percentage. Seeing statics often cement people’s thoughts more so than personal stories.
Understanding Data about UAL students
Think about your context of being a teacher and your students. The data is split into categories
In enicitiy all you have in white and BAME (problematic title) – religion is very simplistic too
Data is always biased and the mode of presentation always fits the systematic aims. We often think data can be objective but really it isn’t
The split between different types of students – doesn’t actually reveal much about the students. There are not enough gradients of ethnicity in the data, there are other cultural things to consider as well. How are these categories created and how decides on them?
5% ‘other’ potentially means that this section looks bigger than it is – this should be split into more groups and consider sexual identity. There is a tendency for things to be grouped into easy sections.
Is data the wrong way to present these ideas? Data can tell us some things but not everything – this should be stated on the page.
Ethnic Diversity
Data is not objective and the technology used to gather data can be racially biased – along with other bias
Sometimes students have very low language level so does this impact their ability to reply to questions
Student Identity and Experience of the Attainment
Frequent and meaningful conversations – they will be more successful
Equal link to industry
An inclusive curriculum and environment
It’s about the relationship students have with their tutors
The nature of interactions the student has with tutor
Tools introduced to make change
Formative assessment – blueprint interventions (give example)
Questions for debate among tutors
It’s unthinkable that I would treat my black students differently – this enforces a negative dichotomy
Staff must find ways of communicating meaningfully with all students
feedback processes and literacy of it – how do get the students to understand this better
Tutors are not a figure of authority but a more advanced practitioner – comments on work rather than dictate
‘I don’t get it’ does it mean the work comes from a different cultural frame of reference?
The university has highlighted that black students have the highest difference in attainment levels
How can all the blogging tasks contribute to this final reflection?