Understanding Critical Whiteness Studies: Harmful or Helpful in the Struggle for Racial Equity in the Academy?

Congratulations to Society Member and Senior Sports Therapy Lecturer at the University of East London, Michael Cole, on his chapter contribution to the publication, ‘Doing Equity and Diversity for Success in Higher Education -Redressing Structural Inequalities in the Academy’.

Michael was invited by the two editors Dr Jason Arday* and Dave Thomas* to be a contributor to this series of articles on new developments in the study of race, social justice and education. Both editors are experts on racial equity in Higher Education in the UK and are undertaking ground breaking work in this field.  Michael’s chapter is related to his PhD looking at critical whiteness studies in healthcare education.

Michael, who is a National Teaching Fellow, was surprised to receive the invitation and very modest about his achievement. He said: ‘It feels a bit strange being listed among the authors in this book as the other chapters are by some phenomenal experts and scholars in the field of racial equity.’ He continued:

‘The book has a large focus on educating lecturers, policy makers and managers about what systemic racism is and what it is not and how we might go about trying to eradicate it in academia.’

Michael feels the timing of the book is particularly pertinent now. He said:

‘Recently, there has been a kind of demonising of critical race theory, for example with the Sewell report, saying racism was a problem but it doesn’t exist now. And if we talk about white privilege for example, it’s seen as antagonistic and divisive.

‘My chapter addresses that straw-man fallacy because some people know that’s not what racial equity is all about and others have never learned about it. We don’t, for example, learn about racism and colonialism and white supremacy at school. We grow up, becoming adults and practitioners, as clinicians or educators or both and we don’t have the vocabulary to have the difficult conversations, because we don’t have that racial literacy. If the media want to write something inflammatory a lot of clinicians and educators are seeing that’s how it is.

‘My writing is about correcting the notion that whiteness means white people, it absolutely doesn’t. It is descriptive of a structure of power rather than someone’s skin colour. It’s things like that, that I focus on, in the hope that we can better understand why there might be division’

Notes:

*Dr Jason Arday is Assistant Professor in Sociology at Durham University, a Visiting Research Fellow at The Ohio State University in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and a Trustee of the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading Race Equality Thinktank.

*Dave Thomas is an Occupational Therapist (remit in Occupational Science and social justice) and Public Health Specialist  He is also a Diversity and Inclusion Manager at the University of Kent and a consultant to Advance HE on race and equality.

‘Doing Equity and Diversity for Success in Higher Education -Redressing Structural Inequalities in the Academy’ is a  palgrave.macmillan publication

Part of the Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education book series (PSRISJE)

Michael’s chapter: Understanding Critical Whiteness Studies: Harmful or Helpful in the Struggle for Racial Equity in the Academy?  Michael Cole    Part IV Page 277

 

 

 

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