Blog post 3 – Race

I’d like to reflect on and discuss race in the framework of inclusive (or non-inclusive practice) in employment strategies at the UAL, in light of topics discussed in the article ‘Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education’ by Rhianna Garrett (2024).

I’d like to start with a more personal practice anecdote centred around the problematics of inclusive employment in practice. The latest figures in the most recent UAL EDI report reveal the percentage of B.A.M.E staff is 25.5% (8% percent higher than the educational section benchmark), however my fractional team are predominantly white. Given the awareness of the how ethnically diverse my cohorts are, I have always strived to provide role models who would demonstrate a backbone of ‘ethnic solidarity’ to the classroom and an understanding of ‘marginalised, racialised experiences’ (Garrett, 2024). I aimed to resolve this issue by employing B.A.M.E Hourly Paid Lecturers (HPLs) who in sharing their creative practice and perspectives fulfil this mentorship role. This was also my solution to de-colonising the curriculum (UCT, 2015), providing space to non-Eurocentric perspectives, sources of inspiration and ‘story telling or counter-narratives to express… everyday lived experiences as knowledge’ (Doharty, Madriga & Joseph-Salisbury, 2020).

As A. Sadiq says in his Ted Talk: ‘How can I become something that I can’t see’.

(Sadiq, 2023)

However, I’ve gained awareness on how limited this approach may have been after reading Garrett’s article and realised that my solution/approach, may only be of surface level, well aligned with what she calls ‘optical diversity signalling’ (Garrett, 2024). Garrett maps out her research applying the theoretical framework of Critical Race Theory (CRT) centred around societal power structures and racialised experience and the theoretical tool of Intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1990) to ‘understand the nature of social inequalities’ and its complexities.

Garrett examines ‘whiteness as an invisible structure of the academic institution’ (Ahmed, 2014; Tate, 2014) through a range of semi-structured interviews with recent PHD graduates from racial minorities, focused on how racism has affected their career aspirations and future trajectories whilst studying.

What I found most useful in this text was perhaps the core of the research method itself being interviews, hence the varying responses and perhaps individual counter arguments that shape the overall narrative. Whilst some students found the ethnical identification process helpful in further understanding their professional futures, possibly understood as ‘critical moments’ or ‘turning points’ in their trajectories (Sampson and Laub 2005; Thompson, Bell, and Sharpe 2002), others sensed tokenism at play; an overlooking of their intersectional identities. Their own experiences in the academic space became foregrounded, where the unique intersection of their identities had been neglected (e.g. Black and Muslim; Korean American; Asian and neuro-diverse; mixed race and disabled; Half Ghanian, half British and a mother). In many cases their academic experience would involve the marginalising of their intersectionality, solely giving voice to the most apparent of visible characteristics, often race. Garrett further examines the phenomena:

‘…higher educational spaces need to address the racist cultural expectations based on whiteness they placed on racialised minority academics to be ‘model minorities’

(Walton & Truong, 2023)

What I have learned from this are the complexities of applying inclusive staffing structures. Have I made an error and made assumptions by trying to staff representatively? Of course I did, as all our identities are much more complex structures than solely our ethnicity, which is itself complex. I did so with the best intentions, but will apply this learned knowledge in the form of further application of intersectional practice in HPL staffing procedures.

Bibliography

Garrett, R. (2024) ‘Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education’. Globalisation, Societies and Education

UAL EDI annual report (2024)

Available in: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/public-information/equality-objectives-and-reports

UCT Rhodes Must Fall. (2015) Mission Statement. University of Cape Town

Sadiq, A. (2023) ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right’. Ted Talks x Croydon

Available in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw

Doharty, N., Madriga, M.& Joseph-Salisbury, R. (2020) “The University Went to ‘Decolonise’ and all They Brought Back was Lousy Diversity Double-Speak!’ Critical Race Counter – Stories from Faculty of Colour in ‘Decolonial’ Times.” Educational Philosophy and Theory 53 (3)

Crenshaw, K. (1990) ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.’ Stanford Law Review, Stanford Law School

Ahmed, S. (2014) ‘On Being Included: Racism in Institutional Life’. London: Duke University Press.

Tate, S. A.(2014) ‘Racial Affective Economies, Disalienation and ‘Race Made Ordinary’.’ Ethnic and Racial Studies 37 (13)

Sampson, R. & Laub, J. (Eds. 2005) ‘Developmental Criminology and its Discontents: Trajectories of Crime from Childhood to old age’. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Thompson, R., Bel, R.& Sharpe, S. (2002)‘Critical Moments: Choice, Chance and Opportunity in Young People’s Narratives of Transition.’ Sociology 36 (2)

Walton, J. & Truong, M. (2023) ‘A Review of the Model Minority Myth: Understanding the Social, Educational and Health Impacts.’ Ethnic and Racial Studies 46 (3)