Definition
In the Equality Act, race can mean your skin colour, your nationality (including your citizenship) as well as your ethnic or national origins, which may not be the same as your current nationality. For example, you may have Chinese national origins and be living in Britain with a British passport.
A racial group can be made up of two or more distinct racial groups, for example black Britons, British Asians, British Sikhs, British Jews, Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers.
Source: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/race-discrimination
How this pertains to Higher Education
Common issues
Analysis of UCL data shows that there is a small but statistically significant discrepancy in the rate of good degrees achieved by Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students compared with white students, despite entering UCL with the same high entry qualifications (known as the Awarding Gap).
When other possibilities are factored in statistically, this still leaves an ‘unexplained’ gap that is almost certainly due in large part to accumulated ‘small’ acts of hostility (microaggressions) or ‘unhelpfulness’ that wear students down as well as overtly racist acts. An Equality and Human Rights Commission report in 2019 noted that:
- 1 in 20 students said they left their studies due to racial harassment
- 3 in 20 staff said racial harassment caused them to leave their jobs
Stereotypes
- Any assumptions that different ethnic groups have inherently different abilities grounded in biology are false.
- Assumptions that because someone belongs to a particular group, they will behave a certain way or have certain values is equally unreliable.
- Racial or ethnic groups are extremely heterogeneous but stereotypes and discriminatory tropes are very widespread and persistent; we recommend you make an active effort to see the distinctiveness of each and every student.
Case study
For each case study , consider the following four questions:
- What are the issues?
- How would you approach the conversation?
- Should the student be referred? If so, to which service?
- What support can you offer the student?
Case Study 1
Ola is an international student from Kenya. She has just entered her first year at university and is studying on an undergraduate programme in Classics. Upon joining the programme, she notices that she is the only BAME student on her programme of study and struggles to make friends. A few months into the programme, the students are taken on a field trip and are split into groups to carry out a number of activities over the course of the weekend. Ola finds it difficult to work with her group. Sometimes they overlook her suggestions or make fun of her ideas. They also tend to exclude her from group conversations and social activities. Ola feels very disheartened at the way she has been treated. Her experience on the programme so far has not been very positive. As Ola’s personal tutor and a member of the programme team, you are also in attendance at the field trip and witness first hand, how Ola is treated by her fellow students. Ola has also in conversation with you as her personal tutor, shared her concerns around not fitting in and feeling isolated on the programme. What do you do?
Thanks to Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL and UCL ChangeMakers
Further resources
Race in higher education (birmingham.ac.uk)
Dismantling Race in Higher Education | SpringerLink
Let’s talk about Race – Report + Support – University College London (ucl.ac.uk)
HEPI report: Gypsies, Roma and Travellers: The ethnic minorities most excluded from UK education
The Race Equality Charter
This a national scheme aimed at improving the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff and students within higher education.
UCL is committed to the aims and principles of the Race Equality Charter and was one of the first institutions in the UK to be formally awarded for its efforts to understand, and take steps to address, racialised inequalities in the academy.
UCL received a Bronze award in 2015 and this was renewed in 2020
Guiding Principles of the Race Equality Charter
The Race Equality Charter is underpinned by five fundamental guiding principles.
- Racial inequalities are a significant issue within higher education. Racial inequalities are not necessarily overt, isolated incidents. Racism is an everyday facet of UK society and racial inequalities manifest themselves in everyday situations, processes and behaviours.
- UK higher education cannot reach its full potential unless it can benefit from the talents of the whole population and until individuals from all ethnic backgrounds can benefit equally from the opportunities it affords.
- In developing solutions to racial inequalities, it is important that they are aimed at achieving long-term institutional culture change, avoiding a deficit model where solutions are aimed at changing the individual.
- Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and students are not a homogenous group. People from different ethnic backgrounds have different experiences of and outcomes from/within higher education, and that complexity needs to be considered in analysing data and developing actions.
- All individuals have multiple identities, and the intersection of those different identities should be considered wherever possible.
UCL received a Bronze award in 2015 and this was renewed in 2020.
Source: Race Equality Charter | Advance HE (advance-he.ac.uk)
Books
Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (2019) – You Must be Layla
Bhopal, Kalwant (2018) – White Privilege, The Myth of a Post-Racial Society
Cousins, Susan (2019) – Overcoming Everyday Racism: Building Resilience and Wellbeing in the Face of Discrimination and Microaggressions
DiAngelo, Robin (2019) – White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
Eddo-Lodge, Reni (2017) – Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race
Hall, Stuart (1980) – The Fateful Triangle
Oluo, Ijeoma (2019) – So You Want to Talk About Race
Showunmi, Victoria and Tomlin, Carol (2022) – Understanding and Managing Sophisticated and Everyday Racism
Shukla, Nikesh (2016) – The Good Immigrant
Trepagnier, Barbara (2017) – Silent Racism: How Well-Meaning White People Perpetuate the Racial Divide
TED talks & Documentaries
The danger of the single story – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discusses how she found her authentic culture voice, and warns that is we hear on a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
How to deconstruct racism one headline at a time – Baratunde Thurston
Baratunde Thurston explores ‘living while black’ narratives through news headlines. In this through-provoking and often hilarious talk, he reveals the power of language to change stories of trauma into store of healing.
How to overcome our biases, walk boldly towards them – Verna Myers
Our biases can be dangerous, even deadly — as we’ve seen in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, in Staten Island, New York. Diversity advocate Vernā Myers looks closely at some of the subconscious attitudes we hold toward out-groups. She makes a plea to all people: Acknowledge your biases. Then move toward, not away from, the groups that make you uncomfortable. In a funny, impassioned, important talk, she shows us how.
To be colour blind, or colour brave – Mellody Hobson
The subject of race can be very touchy. As finance executive Mellody Hobson says, it’s a “conversational third rail.” But, she says, that’s exactly why we need to start talking about it.
I Am Not Your Negro – Raoul Peck (2017)
Based on the writings of James Baldwin and touches on the work, and the assassinations, of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers
13th – Ava DuVernay (2016)
Documentary about the 13th amendment, which ended involuntary servitude in 1865, except as a punishment for conviction of a crime. Analyses racial injustice and hypocrisy in the American prison system since.
16 Shots – Richard Rowley (2019)
Discusses the 2014 Chicago shooting of 17-year old Black American Laquan MacDonald by police officers, and the subsequent cover-up by the authorities
Films & series
Belle (2013) tells the true story of the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of British naval officer Sir John Lindsay, and her struggle for equality in late 18th-century England
Brick Lane – Sarah Gavron (2007)
Dear White People – Justin Simien (2014) focuses on escalating racial tensions at a fictitious, prestigious Ivy League college from the perspective of several black students. It led to a Netflix series drama on the same premise: the lives and challenges of a group of Black American students at a predominantly white Ivy League college
Just Mercy (2020) tells the true story of a lawyer who defends those wrongly condemned or those not afforded proper representation. His first case is that of Walter McMillan, sentenced to death for the murder of an 18 year old girl, despite evidence proving his innocence.
Small Axe – Steve McQueen, A series of five distinct stories about the lives of West Indian immigrants in London from the 1960s to the 1980s. Includes the story of Leroy Logan MBE, one of the first black police officers in the Met, in the 1980s.
When They See Us (2019) is a Netflix drama based on a true story about 5 boys who were falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park.