Abstract
This chapter explores racism in university and its detrimental impact on students and staff of colour in the UK. The authors propose The Six Stages Framework as an effective assessment tool to assist individuals in their journey to understanding and challenging racism. With this, it is hoped that individuals can tackle cultures of racism perpetuated by implicit biases. A case study analysis explores the lived experience of racism within a UK university. This sheds light on the devastating impact of lack of diversity, cognitive dissonance, and racist cultures among university staff, systems, and students. This case study demonstrates the usefulness of The Six Stages Framework in framing the causes of racist behaviour and as a communication tool to explain why racial abuse may take place.
TopBackground
Colonialism and colonisation heavily contributed to racism within education. The British Empire was the largest empire in history, controlling 23% of the world population (412 million people) by 1913 and 24% of Earth’s land by 1920 (Angus, 2001; Ferguson, 2008; Taagepera, 1997). With this power, British ideology was implemented around the world (McCulloch, 2009). Educational systems fuelled by this ideology posited the idea that the ‘superior’ European white race should ‘civilise’ the ‘less developed’ people of colour. The education systems developed during these times still exist today and negatively impact students and teachers of colour throughout the world (Christian, 2002).
The consequences of colonisation have skewed HE around the world by race and class (Anderson et al., 1985; Lawrence, 2003). As a result, diversity in HE in particular has been limited due to its continued links to its colonial past. This embedded racist culture within universities has resulted in institutional racism, which is defined as:
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 that amount to discrimination through prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness, and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people. (Sir William MacPherson, 1999: para 6.34).
Currently in the UK, institutional racism is woven into the fabric of universities, and is disadvantageous to students of colour. The Runnymede Report found that students of colour are less likely to attend reputable universities, despite having the grades to attend and are half as likely to obtain first-class degrees as white students (Alexander, 2015; Mirza, 2018; Richards, 2008). Racial microaggressions are commonplace and result in lower academic engagement among students of colour (Bottiani et al., 2020; Pittman, 2012; Sian, 2017). Further evidence of institutional racism is found in the race disparities among academic staff, with 36 white male professors for every 1 British woman of colour (Alexander, 2018; Gabriel & Tate, 2017). While The Equality Act (2010) provides legislation to outlaw racial discrimination within HEIs across the UK, the persistent prevalence of racism in UK universities outlined above lead the authors to believe that there is major work to be done within universities.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Institutional Racism: Discrimination or unequal treatment on the basis of membership of a particular ethnic group arising from systems, structures or expectations that have become established within an institution or organisation.
Implicit Bias: Attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions and decisions in an unconscious manner.
Microaggression: A statement, action or incident regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalised group such as racial or ethnic minority.
Ethnocentric: Evaluating other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture.
Psychological Assessment Tool: Testing methods such as questionnaires or interviews which are used to gather information on a particular psychological phenomena.