a critical view of racism and higher education

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a critical view of racism and higher
education David Gillborn Professor of Critical
Race Studies in Education Institute of Education,
London
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(No Transcript)
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Stephen Lawrence Timeline 2002 (May) The Race
Relations (Amendment) Act becomes active 2003
(January) Home Secretary says that
institutional racism missed the point

the slogan created a year or two ago about
institutional racism missed the point () it
isnt institutions, its patterns of work and
processes that have grown up. Its people that
make the difference. David Blunkett MP, Home
Secretary Interview in The Guardian newspaper
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Stephen Lawrence Timeline 2002 (May) The Race
Relations (Amendment) Act becomes active 2003
(January) Home Secretary says that
institutional racism missed the point

The collective failure of an organisation to
provide an appropriate and professional service
to people because of their colour, culture, or
ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in
processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount
to discrimination through unwitting prejudice,
ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist
stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic
people. The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (1999, p.
28)
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Stephen Lawrence Timeline 2002 (May) The Race
Relations (Amendment) Act becomes active 2003
(January) Home Secretary says that
institutional racism missed the point
2003 (February) One in three universities not
complying with legal duties 2003 (July) Two
thirds of schools have not set any specific
targets for change
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Stephen Lawrence Timeline 2002 (May) The Race
Relations (Amendment) Act becomes active 2003
(January) Home Secretary says that
institutional racism missed the point
The publication of today's report on the killing
of Stephen Lawrence is a very important moment in
the life of our country. It is a moment to
reflect, to learn and to change. It will
certainly lead to new laws but, more than that,
it must lead to new attitudes, to a new era in
race relations, and to a new more tolerant and
more inclusive Britain. The test of our
sincerity as law makers in this House is not how
well we can express sympathy with the Lawrence
family, but how well we implement the
recommendations Tony Blair, Prime Minister,
February 1999
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Contradiction-closing cases a shield against
excesses in the exercise of white power, yet they
bring about no real changes in the status of
blacks (Derrick Bell 1986 32) They are a
little like the thermostat in your home or
office. They assure that there is just the right
amount of racism. Too much would be destabilizing
the victims would rebel. Too little would
forfeit important pecuniary and psychic
advantages for those in power (Richard Delgado
1995 80)
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Contradiction-closing cases allow business as
usual to go on even more smoothly than before,
because now we can point to the exceptional case
and say, See, our system is really fair and
just. See what we just did for minorities or the
poor. Richard Delgado (1999 445)
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after the celebration dies down, the great
victory is quietly cut back by narrow
interpretation, administrative obstruction, or
delay. In the end, the minority group is left
little better than it was before, if not worse.
Its friends, the liberals, believing the problem
has been solved, go on to something else while
its adversaries, the conservatives, furious that
the Supreme Court has given way once again to
undeserving minorities, step up their
resistance. Delgado Stefancic (2001) p. 24
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Critical Race Theory
Derrick Bell
Richard Delgado
Kimberlé Crenshaw
Gloria Ladson-Billings
William Tate IV
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CRT begins with a number of basic insights. One
is that racism is normal, not aberrant, in
American society. Because racism is an ingrained
feature of our landscape, it looks ordinary and
natural to persons in the culture. Formal equal
opportunity rules and laws that insist on
treating blacks and whites (for example) alike
can thus remedy only the more extreme and
shocking forms of injustice, the ones that do
stand out. It can do little about the
business-as-usual forms of racism that people of
color confront every day Richard Delgado
Jean Stefancic (2000, p. xvi)
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Conceptions of racism in education

• Traditional Perspective
• racism is an exceptional occurrence
• willingly enacted
• and driven by race hatred.

• Critical Perspective
• racism is extensive and taken-for-granted
• enacted through colour blind policy and
  rhetoric
• sustained by actions that are assumed to apply
  fairly to all.

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• The Colour of Ability
• the experiences of Black students
• Under-estimate academic ability
• Over-estimate challenge threat
• Discipline Black students more severely
• Disproportionately place Black students in
  lower ranked teaching groups
• View Black families as disrupted
  unsupportive

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The gifted and talented scheme will identify
children by looking at ability, rather than
attainment, to capitalise on the talents of the
individual child, regardless of ethnic
background Departmental rebuttal on BBC News
On-Line (2002)
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Gifted Talented
White
Black Caribbean
Black African
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• Racism business as usual
• Access
• Assessment formal informal
• Marking of known students (formative
  summative)
• Tutorial guidance
• Promotion
• Peer review (for publication, for jobs)
• Personal mentoring
• Co-authorship opportunities?
• Inside advice (jobs, publishing)
• Honorary positions (board memberships)
• Co-applications for funding?

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middle managers, heads of school or departments
to whom key human resource functions are often
devolved, sometimes have a (perhaps complacent)
view, despite some evidence to the contrary, that
EO issues have no place in a meritocracy. Hefce
(2005) quoted in A. Pilkington (2009) The impact
of government initiatives in promoting racial
equality in higher education, Ethnicity and Race
in a Changing World, 1(2) 15-26 (p. 19)
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Relative to their share in the populationethnic
minorities overall are now better represented in
HE than whites Coffield Vignoles (1997, para
1.1) Many ethnic groups continue to be
over-represented in higher education compared to
their population share Universities UK (2005,
quoted in Aimhigher (2006) 2) Those from
non-white ethnic groups are better represented
than white people National Audit Office (2008
para 5)
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• Minoritized students in HE tend to
• Attend less prestigious institutions
• Study lower status subjects
• Are more likely to drop out
• And less likely to attain the highest
  qualifications

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Universities with the largest number of Black
Students 2007/08
Source Raw data from Higher Education
Information Database for Institutions (HEIDI)
Number of first year students identified as Black
or Black British Caribbean, Black or Black
British African and Other Black background
England (excluding Open University).
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Black and White Students as Proportion of First
Years Russell Group Universities, 2007/08
Source Raw data from Higher Education
Information Database for Institutions (HEIDI)
Proportion of first year UK students of known
ethnicity identified as White and Black (Black or
Black British Caribbean, Black or Black British
African and Other Black background).
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Professors in UK HEIs by Ethnic Origin, 2007/08
Chinese 1.2
Pakistani/Bangladeshi 0.1
Other Asian 0.7
Indian 1.3
Other 1.5
Black 0.2
White 95
Source Raw data from Higher Education
Information Database for Institutions (HEIDI).
Professors where ethnicity known in 167 HEIs
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Professors in Top Ten Universities 2007/08
gt Not a single Black, Pakistani or Bangladeshi
professor gt In 3 of the top 10 universities,
EVERY professor is White.
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Russell Group Professors 2007/08
No university lists any Bangladeshi
professors Only 1 university lists any
Black professors Only 1 (different)
university lists any Pakistani professors
Source Raw data from Higher Education
Information Database for Institutions (HEIDI)
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further reading
Racism and Education coincidence or
conspiracy? David Gillborn (2008)
Book of the Year
published by Routledge