PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
DRAFT
WITH THANKS TO. Contributors:
Illustrations & Photography:
Phase 4 & 5 Shades of Noir Team
Jay Lee
Terry Finnigan Linda Stupart
Cover image by Othello De’Souza-Hartley.
Aisha Richards Andrew Illman Dan Holliday Daniela Rodrigues Ellen Jones Gitan Djeli Heather Scholl Jade Monstserrat Julie Wright M Lima Patricia Tuitt Rayvenn Shaleigha D’Clark Robin Diangelo Roger Peet Samia Malik Suzette Dorrielan Tiffany Webster INFO: W: shadesofnoir.org.uk E: info@shadesofnoir.org.uk Tw: @shadesofnoir Fb: shadesofnoir
OUR SUPPORTER:
CONTENTS. 06.
Welcome
08.
A Note From The Lead
10.
Key Questions
11.
Peer Review
22.
Key Data
Terry Finigan, Linda Stupart
26 . 130.
Expanding The Conversation
Further Resources Key terms, Further Reading, Digital Resources
WELCOME. ‘Whiteness is as elusive as it is pervasive; we know it is everywhere yet it seems to lie ‘elsewhere’’. Moreton-Robinson, A. (Ed.). (2004) Social justice may not be able to have a real impact unless the construct of whiteness is able to be discussed, explored and considered. ‘Racism is based on the concept of whiteness- a powerful fiction enforced by power and violence. Whiteness is a constantly shifting boundary separating those who are entitled to have certain privileges from those whose exploitation and vulnerability to violence is justified by their not being white’ (Kivel, 1996, p. 19) This Terms of Reference (ToR) aims to explore concepts of whiteness, this includes but is not exclusive to ‘white supremacy’ (Twine, 1998) ‘white fragility’ (DiAngelo, 2011) ‘white feminism’ (Mirza,1997) and ‘white privilege’ (McIntosh, 1988). This is with particular framing within arts education and industries. Whilst Shades of Noir has always promoted the voice, experience and expertise of intersectional (Crenshaw, 1991) marginalised communities, within our primary sector the arts, we cannot ignore that this sector is starkly white (Richards, Finnigan 2015). The data from Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in the article by Nona Buckley-Irvine titled ‘Universities’ shame – unpicking the black attainment gap’ http://wonkhe.com/blogs/ analysis-universities-shame-black-attainment-gap/ verifies this. Whilst in the article they did not put a magnifying glass on arts education, this is what we found from the data: Within UK Higher Education the number of specialist Arts institutions are less than 25. The data within the article includes 18, Courtauld Institute of Art, Glasgow School of Art, Leeds College of Art, Norwich University of the Arts, Plymouth College of Art, The Arts University Bournemouth, The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, University for the Creative Arts, University of the Arts, London, Goldsmiths College, Ravensbourne, Conservatoire for Dance and Drama, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama 00, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Northern College of Music, Royal College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance Out of 18 institutions, 14 had 0% Black students listed as graduating and 13 had 0% black or Asian students graduating in 2015/2016. Amongst the 5 institutions that had some representations of graduates of colour, the 1 institution that had only Asian representation had 0% Asian graduates gaining 1st Of the 4 that had both representation of Black and Asian graduates only 1 institution had less than 15% difference in attainment between black students and white students gaining 1st and 2:1 6 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
Out of the 18 institutions, none of the institutions that have dance, music or drama in their title had any graduates of colour listed. The largest attainment was between black and white graduates gaining a 1st and one institution was nearly at 30%. From the work of Higher Education Academy (HEA) and Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) we know that whilst this is a sector-wide issue for home students and graduates of colour, this is the same across this sector for international students and graduates of colour too. This ToR aims to transcend blame, but instead to consider the history, development, and impact of the nuances of whiteness in the hope of developing understanding and most importantly opportunities to present ideas and experiences that may be a catalyst for transformative practices, which move whiteness from a normative construct of oppression into something else. ‘Whiteness,’ like ‘colour’ and ‘Blackness,’ are essentially social constructs applied to human beings rather than veritable truths that have universal validity. The power of Whiteness, however, is manifested by the ways in which racialized Whiteness becomes transformed into social, political, economic, and cultural behaviour. White culture, norms, and values in all these areas become normative natural. They become the standard against which all other cultures, groups, and individuals are measured and usually found to be inferior’. (Henry & Tator, 2006, pp. 46-67).
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A NOTE FROM THE LEAD.
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It was not before going to an African country that I had truly realised what being “white” means, and the impact that my skin color can have on my identity. This year I went for the first time to Mozambique, an ex-Portuguese colony, to make a documentary film on the capital city, Maputo. As it is common to happen when we travel to a different country from ours, it was not surprising that I was feeling different, not belonging. But for the first time, I became conscious of what it is to be affected by racial and historical concepts, as the one of “Whiteness”. Thinking of “Whiteness” as a colonial social construction that set up normative privileges for white–skinned people, based on racial supremacy ideas, I questioned myself: how deep this normative is internalised in us that it was necessary for me to go to another continent to be able to realise what it truly means and be aware of how much it has been affecting me. For the first time in my life I was forced to be self-aware of my skin colour all the time and the feeling of being the only one different and so unable to be unnoticed had a strong impact on me and made me think of the black people that in Europe have to deal with this issue in a daily basis. I am aware that this is still different, power and privilege dynamics are different. As a white Portuguese person in an ex-Portuguese colonial country, it was impossible to be detached from the history and the past events of the country. My identity was exposed in my skin and for the good and bad I couldn’t run away from it. No matter what, I was always seen as “the white”, and so a richer and “civilised” person and maybe even as a potential opportunistic and oppressor. At the same time, I cannot deny the privileges and advantages that were given to me even as an other, related to my skin color, in many services and various situations during my trip. If it’s still like that in a country where the majority of the people are black and it is supposedly over the colonial values, how do I expect it to be in Europe? This is the reason I think it is absolutely necessary to bring to the discussion the social concepts of “whiteness” and of “blackness” that have nothing to do with natural truths but were constructs inside (and outside) of colonial logic systems and are still waiting to be deconstructed. This publication collates different approaches, voices and perspectives from academics, artists and thinkers on the topic “Whiteness” aiming to be a useful resource for anyone that might be interested in taking part in the deconstruction or re-construction of this concept. - Inês Alves
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KEY QUESTIONS.
1. W hen were you first aware/made aware of whiteness and how does whiteness affect you on a daily basis (if at all)? 2. W hat actions do you take to practice anti-racism? 3. A re there any aspects of colonisation that are still prevalent in 2018? 4. How do you manage the trauma of seeing evidence of hate practices and crimes (environment/personal lives/educational setting/media)? 5. Have you recognised or identified ingrained beliefs that stem from whiteness in yourself (environment and/or personal lives or educational setting) and what does this mean to you? 6. W here in the creative curriculum have you or would you consider topics surrounding whiteness or constructions of race? 7. Have you either experienced or witnessed the effect of microaggressions and how did you manage it? 8. W hat activities already exist that transcend racial inequality? 9. W here does whiteness sit within a post-racial world? 10. How does creative expression combat racial inequality?
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PEER REVIEW.
Shades of Noir has been pleased to invite Terry Finnigan and Linda Stupart to peer review this Terms of Reference. Terry Finnigan is Head of Student Attainment at LCF. She has always had the student experience at the forefront of all her work. She has been motivated by her sense of social justice and entitlement for students from diverse backgrounds, at different stages of their educational journey, to achieve at the highest level. Terry has worked within the areas of study support, learning and teaching and widening participation over the past 25 years in the FE and in the HE sector. She has championed student voices, and ensured that they are heard and inform UAL’s work with the student voice project ‘Tell Us About It’ and created an innovative art and design website ‘Visual Directions’ which makes the two key creative practices of sketchbooks and reflective writing explicit. She became a National Teaching Fellow in 2010 and is the joint lead tutor with Aisha Richards on the Inclusive Learning and Teaching in HE unit at the Learning and Teaching Exchange at the University of the Arts London. She has also recently jointly authored two HEA Scotland publications, one entitled Embedding Equality and Diversity in the Curriculum: an Art & design Practitioners Guide. (2015) and Retention and Attainment in Art and Design (2016). She regards herself as an agent of change and is always keen to encourage staff and students to find spaces to change pedagogy within their own practice. Linda Stupart is a South African Artist, writer and educator. Their writing and performance combine feminism and witchcraft to make visible and to critique patriarchy. Stupart studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. One of Stupart’s first solo shows, Who’s Abject Now Bitch? (2009) at YOUNGBLACKMAN was a scathing critique of the Cape Town art scene and its casual gender bias. Stupart engages with writing, sculpture and performance, and finds kinship between queerness and magic. Source: www.studiointernational.com/index.php/linda-stupart-interview PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 11
A NOTE FROM TERRY FINNIGAN. I was very pleased to be asked to review this Terms of Reference around Whiteness. It is a concept that over the last three years or so I have become much more familiar with, much more confident in talking about and much more comfortable to discuss with others and to continually reflect on my own unconscious bias and actions. Through the simple act of reading through the variety of pieces, some creative and other academic, with an open heart, I have learnt new things and it has inspired and moved me to continue down the road as a social justice activist, a critical pedagogy theorist and a strong Ally around this work. This is a very rich and varied work with creative examples in poetry and art pieces and academic discussions with key experts within the field and reflective pieces from students and artists about their own lived realities. Ines, the lead for this publication, begins the piece with a very insightful account of her experience as a white Portuguese person in an ex Portuguese colonial country, Mozambique. She urges the reader to take part in the ongoing discussions around the concepts of ‘whiteness’ and ‘blackness’ which are social constructs and to start to deconstruct and reconstruct them to deepen their understanding of the existence of systemic racism and how to counteract it going forward. The interview with a white academic is very revealing and it evidences white discomfort in the way they are answering the questions. They are unsure. They are in unfamiliar territory. They feel they may offend and also that they have little to bring to the table and that they are not a black female so how can they comment? How valid are these concerns? The question about what diversity is about is answered with confidence, and yet as Tiffany also noticed, almost in a formulaic way. It is a question they know the answer to as it is the acceptable face of talking about difference but is it an authentic answer? The experience of the interview obviously makes the person reflect and it will be interesting when they are contacted again, to see if they have made any changes. This contact in my opinion should not be in 18 months, but much sooner, perhaps in six months’ time. There is a sense of urgency with this work. Lorde ( 1984) comments on the transformation of silence into language and action “ …it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.” The very personal reflective piece entitled ‘Whiteness in HE’ is extremely powerful. Andrew discusses in great detail the role of Allyship and the importance of listening and reflecting on marginalised voices, and the act of constantly learning and challenging their own behavior and prejudices. The Ally is vital to facilitate change. This person needs to keep critiquing their own whiteness and through the productive action of change, the ‘othered’ remains at the forefront and the main focus of the process. This 12 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
speaks to me and helps me reflect on my own role. They comment on the strategic gap that the white voice can bridge between people who have had the lived experience and those who have not. Leonardo ( 2009) builds on this by talking about ‘empathy’. ‘Empathy enables whites to become ‘border crossers’ (Giroux, 1992) with the benefit of critical reflection and recollection.’ (Leonardo 2009:98) He continues that white border crossers understand that transcending boundaries itself is a racial privilege. He concludes that critical pedagogy needs to forge a third space for ‘neo-abolitionist’ whites which is neither enemy or ally but a concrete subject of struggle, an identity which is ‘always more than one thing, and never the same thing twice’ (Ellsworth, in Leonardo 2009) Essentially, the work I have been involved in over the past twenty five years is around working through an antiracist framework within the further and higher education context, and the last eighteen years within the subject discipline of art and design. I am a cisgender white woman who is committed to the power of education to bring about change and transformation. (Friere 1968). I am a National Teaching Fellow (2011) and deeply committed to the student experience. I have worked with diverse student groups all my working life and I have developed a much more complex understanding of this work. I also work within teacher education and have been instrumental, with colleagues, in creating and delivering the Inclusive Teaching unit over the past 6 years. This is delivered through the framework of critical pedagogy and the belief that education is not neutral and is about transformation and change and critical thought. It also should involve ‘acts of concrete reclamation’ and create marginal sites of resistance (hooks in Davidson and Yancy ,2009). The work of Shades and the creation of the Terms of Reference series does just this. My work around diversity and equality which are familiar and safe categories, as reflected in the earlier interview with the academic, has developed into a much more radical and political activist position. Increasingly, I am looking for ways to dismantle the material basis of white privilege I work within and move to becoming an anti-racist activist. I am reflecting on the concepts of whiteness, white fragility and white discomfort and how they relate to me and how I live my daily life and how they relate to black staff of colour and students of colour which at times is an ongoing challenge. It is all emotional work. hooks (1994) discusses it as ‘love as the practice of freedom’ . She further reflects that ; ‘…Choosing love we also choose to live in community and that means we do not have to change by ourselves. We can count on critical affirmation and dialogue with comrades walking a similar path’ PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 13
An example of community and comrades walking the same path is exemplified in the publication Inside the Ivory Tower Narratives of women of colour surviving and thriving in British Academia (Gabriel & Tate, 2017), which developed out of the organization Black British Academics founded by Dr Deborah Gabriel. This publication includes a detailed review of the book by Patricia Tuitt in which she advances the proposition that the book itself meets the requirements for the admission of expert evidence before a tribunal adjudicating on a case of race and/or gender discrimination.. It is a collection of essays written by ten academics, all women of colour, which document their experience of race and gender discrimination in UK Universities. It discusses the concept of well-being for all staff as part of HR processes in HE and the feelings that can be spoken. What is not recognized here is the daily racism and racist micro-aggressions experienced by Black women academics. Their feelings are often silenced. Also many of the author’s experiences did not see equality and diversity workshops as safe spaces for people of colour who may be invited to ‘tell their story’ and then could be met with hostility (Richards ,139). The book is a very powerful piece and needs to be read by a wide audience, all Vice chancellors and Heads of HR need a copy in their office, which should be read and acted upon . This TOR is interspersed with poetry and art on the subject of whiteness, which is thought provoking and very powerful. This gives the reader the opportunity to stop and listen to the voices and the images and reflect on the topic in a different way. There are also short interviews with artists and activists around antiracism and whiteness, a very powerful question which I learnt a great deal from is ‘What actions do you take to practice antiracism?’ This answer is succinct but in some ways I regard it as a call to arms. I donate a percentage of income to racial justice causes, work with fellow white people to interrupt our internalized superiority and seek to build meaningful relationships across race. The idea of building meaningful relationships across race is something that is echoed in Robin D’Angelo’s brilliant piece on white fragility. She talks about the white patterns that make it difficult for white people to understand racism as a system, one of which is segregation. Most whites live their lives in segregation and mainly only mix with whites. And yet society does not teach us to see this as a loss. Whites also see themselves as individuals and so feel they can represent the universal student experience. They also feel they have an entitlement to racial comfort as they are in the dominant position in society and they also experience psychic freedom ; whites do not share the social burden of race. I have been witness to three examples of white fragility over the past year within the university , which is a white dominant environment, where I was asked to mediate. These have been difficult and painful interactions. Often whites who are challenged for perceived acts of racism are at a loss of how to respond in constructive ways. They do not always listen or see this as an opportunity to learn and change their behaviour. They experience white discomfort and often turn the blame onto the person of colour. She urges people to let go of their racial certitude and reach for humility. In the subsequent interview with her, which is educational and thought provoking, she declares that her objective is to expose whiteness and therefore to interrupt it.
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As Morrison declares : ‘The resources available to us for benign access to each other for vaulting the mere blue air that separates us are few but powerful; language , image and experience…’(Morrison 2017: 35) All of these things are found in this TOR. That is why it is so powerful and essential to be read by anyone who is seeking change. There is a wide range of resources and a wide reaching reading list. This topic has been hidden. As the founder of Shades of Noir, Aisha Richards comments ‘this work is to make visible the invisible’. This publication will be accessed by all the participants on the Inclusive Teaching Unit from next year. This unit which engages library , academic, technical and admin staff at the university focuses on inclusive pedagogy, curriculum and assessment. It is where we create safe spaces where white and black staff can engage in dialogues around this subject. Anti-racism goes hand in hand with a more in depth understanding of whiteness It is an essential resource for all staff who teach and who manage in Higher education. It should be read and reflected on and used as a catalyst for change. Terry Finnigan Head of Student Attainment London College of Fashion
Further Reading: Colorlines website - www.colorlines.com/categories/arts-culture hooks, b. (1994) Outlaw culture : Resisting Representations New York, Routledge Leonardo, Z. ( 2009) Race, Whiteness and Education New York, Routledge Lorde, A. (2007) Sister Outsider Berkley Crossing Press Morrison, T (2017) The Origin of Others Cambridge, Harvard university Press
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A NOTE FROM LINDA STUPART.
Athi-Patra Ruga, ‌ellipsis in three parts, Body paint on Rives BFK cotton paper
The White Academic, or, growing a skin in the game Some questions: Is it our job to define whiteness and its borders? Is there whiteness without violence? Can you write whiteness that undoes whiteness? Can whiteness be visible and not be an authority? Can whiteness jump, suddenly, from the page, to become something that lies on the surface of some bodies, but does not cover and colonise and bury the whole of the world trapped and struggling to breathe beneath our pulsating skin? I feel extremely awkward writing this. This is why I agreed to write it. One time I invited Darkmatter[1] to come perform at Goldsmiths and I had to stand up 16 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
and thank the departments that had given me bits of money to support them (not the art department where I was finishing my PhD, but anyway…) and it was literally the awkwardest thing ever and I looked at the crowd and I was one of the few white people in the room and I knew I had nothing to say to the audience at all and I thought about how it feels to be the one brown or black person in that room and rooms like it every day; and now I wonder what I have to say to this audience, that is to you, now, the reader... Perhaps you, now, the reader, are white. Does that mean I am writing for a white audience here? This of course is a terrible thought, but let’s be real who is reading my writing and seeing most of my performances and entering galleries with my work in them or being taught in my classes anyway???? Ok, so if you are white, dear reader, here are some things you can do: • When someone invites you on to a show say ‘Hi, I was just wondering how many artists of colour there are on the show’. this also works for publications etc. • When you see a person of colour being harassed by the police, especially the immigration police, intervene [2] (you can do this because you are white) Same goes for racist and islamophobic harassment in any public situation. • Completely rewrite your curricula to centre people of colour and artists from Africa NB: This does not mean having a lecture at the end of a lecture series on ‘postcolonialism’ (of course I have done this, being white means being able to be lazy without becoming a stereotype of laziness), this means revising everything • Cite artists and theorists of colour. Citation is knowledge production.[3] • HIRE PEOPLE OF COLOUR TO WORK IN YOUR INSTITUTIONS. I’ve worked at UAL a lot. Supervising dissertations at Camberwell, I got all the queers and feminists and I also get the ‘postcolonial’ students. I ‘get’ the black students and they say, ‘it’s so great we have you as our tutor because you get our research projects’ and I say well wouldn’t it be better to have a black tutor and they just laugh and sadly shake their heads and I don’t get it. • Know when to leave the room because the room is not for you. • Know when to fight because the fight does not affect or hurt you, because you have no skin in the game. When people ask me whether I will go back to South Africa I usually say no, because PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 17
the last thing that South Africa needs right now is another white art lecturer. The last part of this sentence is definitely true, but I can’t say if this is actually my real reason or not; I don’t know myself or my whiteness well enough to tell. When I’m back home (Cape Town is home when I’m in London, and London is home when I’m in Cape Town and I am writing this in London, so here I mean when I am in Cape Town) my friends sometimes call me up for not being there. In particular one of my dearest friends and coincidentally favourite artists, Athi-Patrs Ruga[4] says to me, loudly ‘why are you so involved in student politics over there when our students are being shot in the back over here. When our students are decolonising the institution, when one of your former performance art students Sethembile Msezane is spreading her wings as Rhodes is falling to the ground? [5] The one time I went to a relatively tame student protest in Cape Town I remember the stun grenades and the gunshots and the running and the bullets and tear gas, but then I got to stop running when we reached The Bar and ‘(t)here is no water now and so the rainbow is reflected in an oil slick on the gravel where the casspirs drive and leak – the same cars or monsters sewn with bullet holes and rust and the same streets slipped with blood.’ [6] We drank beers out of bottles and we stood in the way of the police trying to arrest only the young black people in the bar and then we laughed at them when their casspir wouldn’t start at the traffic light. Something that is different in Cape Town is that most of the policemen are black, even though they enact white terror on black bodies, as if possessed by history. Being white in South Africa means: • I have said and done many terribly racist things • I benefited from Apartheid and continue to do so. • Like all white people, I am racist, racism is structural, inherent, internalised • I remember when they took a vote to allow the first black girl into my school. I was about 10. She told us her name was Carol (this was not the name she had been given by her parents) and she was the daughter of one of my white friend’s domestic worker. I remember seeing this meme or tweet or tumblr post online about how Batman’s superpower is white privilege. This makes a lot of sense and is also why he wears an all-black superhero costume because he is ashamed of his whiteness and his wealth, and also because when you have those kinds of weapons I guess it’s safe to be black and so to be visible at night. [7] Whiteness is a superpower though. Some examples of things I can do while white in London: Shoplift, shout at people, cry to get a replacement Macbook Pro or take my knife on the train, escape arrest (multiple times, in handcuffs the police look at me and my whiteness is so bright it shines into their eyes and they are blinded by the light and they think they’ve made a huge mistake and so they uncuff me and I go home), use ‘I’ pronouns in essays, have a solo show in a gallery. Like any superpower, maybe whiteness can be used for good? [8] It is true we white academics can walk through institutional walls [9] like pale floating ghosts. And I 18 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
Sethembile Msezane performs at the fall of the Cecil Rhodes statue, 9 April 2015.
think the only way we can take black, brown, Asian, afro-Caribbean, African, South American,!Xam, indigenous colleagues and students and knowledges with and ahead of us is to break those walls done completely; brick by bloodied brick. lindastupart.net End Notes. [1] Darkmatter is a now defunct poetry duo, consisting of trans South Asian poets Janani Balasubramanian and Alok Vaid-Menon. Their poem, ‘White Fetish, is a particularly useful example of how whiteness can be seen from the outside, with the same kind of fetishistic lens used to view brown and black people in traditional knowledge-making and scholarship. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEjLegrOqqY [2] ‘If you see somebody else being stopped and searched, don’t just walk past, but intervene: • Ask if they are ok, and if you can help. • Inform them of their rights, and the duties of the officers towards them. • Film what is happening. Ask permission from the person being stopped first, or otherwise only film the police officer. • Try to get other members of the public to intervene as well. The more of you there are, the more pressure you can put on the police officer. • If they are arrested, give them your details so they can contact you as a witness. PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 19
• If you are carrying anything illegal, stay away as the officer may decide to search you as well if you try to intervene.’ Cited from: London Campaign Against Police and State Violence, http://lcapsv.net/guide-to-stop-search/ [3] See Sara Ahmed, 2013, ‘Making Feminist Points.’, Feministkilljoys. http://feministkilljoys.com/2013/09/11/making-feminist-points/ [4] ‘Exile has played a huge role in South Africa’s history and your current work. Can you tell us why you chose to explore this? Disembodiment is what I started with. We can be exiled from ourselves. We can be exiled from the monuments we see in the city. There’s also archival exile whereby we forget things. Education, women’s rights and queer identity issues – I feel if we looked back into the history that we have as queer black people, we would see that we’ve played such a big role in the culture that forced politics to change.’ (My Black Friend ©), Athi-Patra Ruga is a textile, sculpture, and performance artist from South Africa, whose recent work is explicitly proposing an Afrofuturist colony for exiles escaping the horrors of historic and contemporary racism. The above quotation is from an interview about this work here: http://10and5.com/2017/11/01/ artist-athi-patra-ruga-rewrites-history-in-new-queens-in-exile-show/ Much earlier, Athi did a performance at the University of Cape Town that really helped me to see how the institution worked in relation to blackness. It was hard to see. In the performance, Athi-Patra Ruga covered the walls of the university white cube with paper, and then covered his body and a white woman’s body in paint. They both wore heels, and violently wrestled with each other, making body prints on the paper on the walls. This happened over three nights with three different women. More on this here: https://artthrob.co.za/product/1039/ [5] You can read more about this performance here: https:// face2faceafrica.com/article/sethembile-msezane-cecil-rhodes and Sethembile’s work here: http://www.sethembile-msezane.com/ The excellent Rhodes Must Fall mission statement here: http://jwtc.org. za/resources/docs/salon-volume-9/RMF_Combined.pdf See also: : Sandy Ndelu, Simamkele Dlakavu & Barbara Boswell (2017)’ Womxn’s and nonbinary activists’ contribution to the RhodesMustFall and FeesMustFall student movements: 2015 and 2016’, Agenda, 31:3-4, 1-4 Full text available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10130950.2017.1394693 [6] Linda Stupart, ‘On Athi-Patra Ruga’, adjective Issue 3: pp 69. . Mitchell Messina edited this printed issue of Adjective. Working hard against the grain, Mitchell managed to purposefully produce a print arts publication in South Africa, which does not include any white straight men. Adjective also exists here: http://www.adjective.online/ 20 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
[7] See: Travis Alabanza, 2017, ‘Before I Step Outside [You Love me]’, selfpublished chapbook. You can also read an interview with them here: http:// www.qxmagazine.com/2017/10/qx-meets-travis-alabanza/ [8] For a critique of white femininity uses for evil, see: bell hooks, 1996, ‘Doing it For Daddy: black masculinity in the mainstream’ in reel to reel: race, sex and class at the movies, New York: Routledge, pp 83 – 91. [9] See Keynote by Dr. Sara Ahmed, Goldsmiths, University of London: “Brick Walls: Racism and Other Hard Histories”, Unsettling Conversations, Unmaking Racisms and Colonialisms R.A.C.E. Network’s 14th Annual Critical Race and Anticolonial Studies Conference University of Alberta, Edmonton, 2014. https://vimeo.com/110952481
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KEY DATA.
Data Source: ECU (2016), Equality in higher education statistical report 2016. 22 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
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EXPANDING THE CONVERSATION.
WHITE ACADEMIA: DOES THIS AFFECT YOU? AISHA RICHARDS, FOUNDER OF SHADES OF NOIR. We at Shades of Noir continuously encourage discourse between all people. We do this as a form of resistance, which aims to support understanding and acknowledge difference. We believe this is a positive step towards social justice and cultural competency. The following text reflects an interview in the form of a conversation with a senior academic (SA) within a specialist institution with Shades of Noir (SoN). The key topics within this dialogue are around diversity and social justice within a Higher Education context. This interview has been anonymised in order to protect the identity of the participants. This is a rare opportunity to have this type of honest conversation shared. All parties hope that this dialogue will be a catalyst for further discussions to take place to support change.
be anonymised. I think it will be stronger with people not knowing who you are. I know a lot of people...you could be anyone and that is the point. SA: Can I ask why you have asked me to do this? SoN: I don’t really know you, which is a plus so I don’t know what to expect. I’ve seen you in action saying what is on your mind even when it might make others uncomfortable but never heard your views on the topics I’m interviewing you on. I need this honesty for this piece so please please relax. SA: I will try. SoN: Ready? Ok, first question: As a person would you say that you have a diverse pool of friends outside of work?
SA: Hi SoN: Hi. You look a little nervous. SA: I wasn’t but now I am. SoN: Don’t worry this will be anonymised. It’s really important that you don’t over think these questions and offer your truth. There is no judgment, nothing to be caught out on...it’s going to be fine and I will show you the piece before it gets shared too. SA: I’m not sure I want it anonymised? Is that worse if I don’t put my name by it? SoN: It’s interesting that you used the word ‘worse’, it will be fab. It will be. Sorry on this occasion it will definitely
SA: I’d never thought about this. Ok, politics, gender, yes. Mmm sexuality and religion are pretty diverse. Have I gone red? I have...I’ve gone red because I have very very few black (can I say black), or Asian friends. What does this say? SoN: It’s fine for you to use whatever terms you deem appropriate to make your point. It is absolutely fine to use the words Black, Brown, Asian, People of Colour, BAME, BAM. Ok relax, remember just be you. So, you are in quite a Senior role. In your team and the people in your direct reporting line, what do they look like? SA: Predominantly White middle classed, PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 27
women in my team and white men, middle classed as well above me mainly. SoN: What about religion or any other intersections? SA: I don’t know, I guess that is personal stuff, if they wanted to say...I don’t know. I feel a little bit bad that I don’t know - should I? SoN: I don’t know. So with the predominantly white community surrounding you in all areas of your life does race, ethnicity or whiteness ever come up in discussion? SA: Not really. Well, it does but in relation to students numbers and experience. This does come up very often. SoN: How much time do you spend with students? I don’t mean Student 28 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
Union or course reps. I mean students? SA: Since being in this post, I spend most of my time in meetings and doing administration. I do present to Students within their courses, I have chats at lunch and around the college. I guess that is a yes? SoN: So of the students you come into contact with, who are they? SA: What do you mean? SoN: What do you know of and or about these students? SA: Ok, they are quite diverse, is that what you want to know? SoN: I am...I’m aiming to understand and share what you define as knowing somebody in the broadest terms.
SA: Ok so with the students I guess I only really know a very small amount about them in real terms. But I don’t think that is unusual in this job. How can we know many (shaking head), I think that is impossible to do and do all of the other things the job requires. The voice of the students comes through the union and reps. SoN: Ok so what does diversity and social justice mean to you? SA: Well Diversity I believe means difference, different races, genders, religions, politics, sexuality...oh and I think ages too. Social justice is making changes to support equality of all the differences that may not be being treated equally or rightly. SoN: Ok, so where do you think both diversity and social justice sit currently in Higher Education? SA: It’s really top of the list, I think the student population has changed and this has meant that equality of experience of all students is driving change. SoN: If you don’t have a diverse pool of friends, your team is fairly monocultured and you do not have time to get know students, how do you personally support meaningful change? SA: Wow, me. When you put it like that it sounds pretty bad. This is a difficult question because I’m thinking now, I guess I can’t. The word ‘meaningful’ is a hard one to assess. I suppose I do mention Shades of Noir a lot, I do encourage diversifying recruitment panels, diversifying reading lists, and definitely engage in any discussions with my colleagues that come up. I suppose what makes this ‘meaningful’ is, what it means to me? Maybe I haven’t been black or Asian, or really been disadvantaged so talking about it and encouraging others like me is what makes it meaningful?
SoN: Do you think that there is a need for you to spend time with your students and staff from different communities? Why and how could you go about this? SA: Yes I do need to find time to do this. I think it could help me know how ‘meaningful’ the activities are to students and staff. What was the last bit? SoN: How could you go about this? SA: Maybe invite people to lunch with me, maybe a group lunch once a month or term, with a mix of students and staff. I suppose this is why you asked me to do this interview, to acknowledge that I am not doing enough? SoN: No, definitely not. I asked you because, like many, this is an area that seems to be difficult to grapple with. As someone that I don’t work with often, who is not necessarily present at events and meetings I attend, in a position of power, I thought I would reach out to spend some time understanding who you are. SA: Ok. SoN: Ok that’s great, can I go back to something you mentioned earlier. You suggested that you have mentioned Shades to peers, can you provide an example of why and how this would or could happen? SA: Mmmm well just last week, a course leader was saying that they were working on bringing in creatives from a diverse community to enrich the the curriculum. I suggested that they have a look at the site for inspiration. SoN: Ok, so if you were to explain what Shades does what would you say? SA: Right, so Shades of Noir is an external PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 29
programme to University of the Arts London, but works with them predominantly as well as other institutions to embed social justice in all aspects of an organisation. It also has a fabulous online presence where it shares information, articles, research and creatives of or by BBBBlack and Asian people. I’ve been following you and refreshed last night on the website to get ready for today. There is so much online now. Very very useful. To be honest, I hadn’t looked in a while and to see all of the new bits in the education part, this is really going to be useful. SoN: We have another 40 minutes allocated as was stated earlier, do you fancy going out for lunch and calling this a rap? SA: That sounds perfect, lunch is on me...have I really provided enough? SoN: Let’s call it a work in progress. I would love to interview you again in 18 months to 30 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
see and hear of any changes? But I have one last question, this is a tricky question. Why don’t you attend the meetings specifically around attainment and or inclusion? SA: Ok, I’m really feeling hot now. SoN: Remember whatever you choose to say, there is no judgment and there will be others who feel the same as you. SA: Ok, well...I don’t feel comfortable talking about race. I don’t really know if I should be saying anything. I am a little worried that I may say something to offend someone. I know this maybe seems like a cop out but I suppose what can I really bring to the table.(?) I haven’t really experienced prejudice I don’t know what it’s like to be a black female like you and you will know more about this stuff than me. SoN: I know I said that was the last question
but I want us to build or expand on your response. Look, I understand how difficult this must feel to say this out loud but it is important that you do. Prejudice affects everyone, it’s not good for society so to reach people like yourself (as you are included in the everyone) is super important. Ok... so how do you think you could overcome all the things that currently prevent you from joining the collective community at the types of meetings that make you uncomfortable (who don’t always agree, in fact I’d say mostly don’t agree at times) to be part of the change?
actually it really does? Anyway thank you for this….was this ok? I have learned a lot about myself which I didn’t expect. Am I done? Gosh, I’m hungry and tired. SoN: Thank you for taking time out to meet with me.
SA: Well, to be honest this interview has helped. I think I’ve realised that you do have to start somewhere. Continuing to have discussions with the majority of white staff, students and my friends doesn’t necessarily help. Ok...I didn’t acknowledge ‘this’ before, that I have things to do and maybe this is part of the change. This type of subject really didn’t seem to include me, but maybe PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 31
RE: TO WHITE ACADEMIA. TIFFANY WEBSTER, SON GRADUATE
In response to reading of the ‘White Academia’ interview, I approached this reading with no prior knowledge or information to what this interview would be about as I had not read the title, nor did I know who was being interviewed as it is anonymous. As such, I began reading. The questions were direct and to the point. Some might say cut throat. Automatically rendering the interviewee in an exposed and vulnerable position. The first thing I had noticed upon reading the first sections is, I would find myself attempting to decipher and figure out who the person 32 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
was more than analysing the actual content and their answers. I noticed I would listen to the language and choice of words, examining if they spoke like someone I knew. Here, upon reflection, I realise that if I had recognised this individual, it would automatically affect how I received this piece of writing and interpreted this interview, as my own bias would also come to light. I could sense their discomfort, and that they couldn’t escape the awkwardness that these questions were forcing them to respond so openly to. These were questions that they perhaps had never paused to think about nor
even had a reason to, because maybe up until this very moment, they hadn’t ever actually been asked to be accountable for themselves.
and lived this way. They couldn’t. I sensed that the interviewee picked up on their cognitive dissonance also.[1]
As the interview unfolds and more layers are peeled back, the questions dig deeper and the thought patterns of this individual become more apparent; telling me more and more about this person and how they process their thoughts and reasoning. The individual being interviewed seems to be thinking out loud and also answering the questions as transparently and honestly as they can or know how to, or so I gather from their responses. I’m taken on a journey through their threads of thought that seem to be unravelling as the questions dig deeper into their cognitive understandings. I myself, notice that I’m witnessing this individual gradually realise how they have been navigating their systemic social surroundings, from the workplace, to their personal social friendship circles.
Ultimately, learning that the interviewee occupied a senior position within whichever institutional structure they occupy and having answered these questions so openly and honestly, was and is a good thing; but it should not stop there.
‘Guilt doesn’t build solidarity. Guilt isn’t going to evoke sympathy from groups of oppressed people. Guilt shouldn’t get to put the important work and conversations about power and racism on hold. And it shouldn’t be expected that people of color hold that guilt – we are often holding enough already’ - Jones. M, (2015) Their answer to what diversity meant to them and what social justice meant seemed like a textbook answer. The question I found myself asking, is whether or not the interviewee actually practiced these points and could give more than one example of how they actively practiced
I witnessed the build up, the moment of realisation, then the understanding which lead into the ‘feeling bad’ moment and then finally ending with feeling grateful and thankful for the conversation. They had learnt something. This is great, but this is only the FIRST step. Accountability often begins by simply accepting that none of us are perfect, and are going to mess up. It doesn’t mean we’re terrible people. It means that the work of dismantling oppression is a continuous process. - Jones. M, (2015) I have seen many take this first step. This is not the first time I have read, watched, experienced and had these conversations myself within my own circles. It’s refreshing to read this from an individual of senior position, but it also makes it even more urgent for me to SEE the impact and [1]. Cognitive Dissonance: Refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance. PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 33
effects of this conversation. As senior roles affect many people on a daily basis and entail power dynamics that differ from the conventional conversation on this topic with an ‘average’ individual that has different privileges and structural power. The purpose of this interview for me was not to extract white guilt.[2] We have enough of that going around already. For me, my expectations at this point are actions. I need to see the repercussions that trigger actions brought about from this conversation, the realisation and the accountability that is being held. I want to read an interview in 18 months time which reveal the activities and demonstrates the ways in which this person has now implemented changes into their lives which reflects this new-found insight For if my actions and decisions that I make today affect my tomorrow, then by this rule, the actions and decisions that individuals take in senior roles and positions will not only affect their own tomorrow, but also directly affect the tomorrow of many others.
[2]. White Guilt: Refers to the concept of individual or collective guilt often said to be felt by some white people for the racist treatment of people of color by white people and/or systemic both historically and presently. Also associated to the revelation of being complicant to structural racism and realising their own unconscious bias that they’ve been conditioned to practice, due to our current structurally racist socio-political framework. 34 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
Understanding this is vital. We all have to do the work.
IS THAT A SIGN: WHITE SUPREMACY. Often I walk into this building that is becoming more familiar It doesn’t feel like home though I had so much hope when I was ‘accepted’ onto my course It doesn’t feel like home though Am I joining a global community of creative, liberal and forward thinkers? It doesn’t feel like home though I’m surrounded by many looks, stares and every so often a touch of my hair It doesn’t feel like home though I walk up to the barriers and panic a little, I may not have my ID pass It doesn’t feel like home though Daydreaming of being told no pass, no access and reminded that I don’t belong It doesn’t feel like home though Teachers, students no, not even the reception and security look like me It doesn’t feel like home though
I’m reminded of a peer’s photo of me standing in the lunch queue she titled ‘migration’ then shared It doesn’t feel like home though I remember the many times I caught the students on my course staring at me saying nothing It doesn’t feel like home though The course team notice I’m alone(r) and ask if I need anything, what happens if I say yes? It doesn’t feel like home though Teachers accommodate me, those two ‘ethnic sounding’ names from industry on repeat It doesn’t feel like home though I hear there’s an event to talk about ‘the sign’, the student who made the banner It doesn’t feel like home though It’s a sign of white supremacy, it’s the only time anyone had really seen ‘it’ doesn’t this feel like home though?
Hold on, I’ve been coming here for 2 years, I pay fees like everyone here? It doesn’t feel like home though I get past the ID checkpoint and I see a red, white and black banner It doesn’t feel like home though The banner is gone in a flash, too late it has been imprinted in my mind and soul It doesn’t feel like home though PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 35
ROGER PEET. JUSTSEEDS ARTISTS’ COOPERATIVE.
Roger Peet is an artist, printmaker, muralist etc. living in Portland, Oregon, USA. His work tends to focus on civilized bad ideas, predator-prey relationships, and the contemporary crisis of biodiversity and what can and can’t be done about it. He coordinates the Endangered Species Mural Project, and helps to run the cooperative Flight 64 print studio in Portland. He collaborates with artists, activists and scientists globally and locally in the service of a more generous and a wilder world. Betray Whiteness, Screenprint from rubylith, 8” x 10”, 2017. ‘I made this print while thinking about the biology of the black widow spider, which has a venom whose power vastly exceeds that necessary for killing the spiders’ prey. Doctors trying to diagnose a black widow bite ask a sufferer if this is the worst pain they’ve ever felt; a positive answer indicates a potential encounter with a widow. That seemed an apt metaphor for the power conveyed by the ideology of whiteness- the power to hurt and destroy in novel and occult ways.’
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WHITENESS IN HIGHER EDUCATION.
ANDREW ILLMAN, ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART.
How can the White voice be utilised for the purpose of challenging racial discrimination within education? ‘The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious, one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.’[1]
[1]. Baldwin, J, ‘A Talk to Teacher’. (1963) <http://richgibson.com/talktoteachers.htm> [accessed 28 March 2017]. 40 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
It is important to contextualise this submission through the social position of which I am writing it. I am a White middle class person who has lived life with many privileges. The most relevant, in terms of this piece of writing, being that I have never experienced racism being directed at me, and most likely never will. A perspective of this privilege, which resonates with me is outlined rather succinctly by Schlosser; ‘I’ve never had a stranger just starting touching my hair on the subway. Or my skin. No one’s ever asked me why my art is about my Whiteness. Or to justify why
I’m concerned with my family history. A fellow student has never said she can’t look at me while I’m talking because of my White face. I don’t get called thuggish or intimidating for sitting in the corner of the cafeteria with with friends. When I travel, I don’t get chosen by security. My country isn’t banned, but bans others. People don’t stare at me when I walk into a faculty room, or an office, or a classroom because I’m the only one with White skin.’[2] The grounding of this submission comes from a space of reflection of my role within Shades of Noir (SoN). SoN works primarily within higher education institutions of Art and Design around the World, striving to transform the curriculum and culture; making them more diverse, bringing to light the cultural currency that isn’t normally recognised and pushing them to be less eurocentric. As Richards states, ‘This is a program that creates opportunities for marginalised groups and their need for safe spaces to articulate self-determination and liberate the struggles from oppressive structures both in education and society.’[3] I have not experienced a great deal of marginalisation in either my education or within society which means that my function within SoN has, at times, felt awkward; acknowledging my ignorance [2]. Schlosser, M. ‘My Shades Experience – Mica Schlosser’, Shades of Noir, (2017) <http:// shadesofnoir.org.uk/my-shades-experience-micaschlosser/> [accessed 24 November 2017]. [3]. Richard, A. ‘About Shades of Noir’, Shades of Noir, (2016) <www.shadesofnoir. org.uk/about> [accessed 24 November 2017]
towards the institutional racism People of Colour face on a daily basis, and pushing myself beyond my White bubble has been a humbling growth. However, it is important to note that fear and pride have at times slowed this change, two factors that I feel many people of a similar social standing allow to discourage their engagement and acknowledgment when approaching diversity, inclusion and pedagogies of social justice. In an attempt to dispel that fear and pride this conversation will explore the implications of Whiteness within education and how it can be used to reverse the ingrained marginalisation of the institution. How can this privilege be used to challenge discrimination? How can the White voice be used to dismantle Whiteness in curriculum? And what role does the White voice have within pedagogies of social justice? I would ask that any White readers not be put off by these questions, but rather challenged to open up to a potentially new perspective and to be encouraged in the knowledge that you too can help implement change. This paper comes from a position of encouragement rather than self righteousness, we are on this journey of learning together. The White Voice. To first demystify the term ‘White voice’ it is important to acknowledge the social construction of race and Whiteness. White culture has been established as the norm in our ‘westernised society’ and in doing so it ‘others’ anything outside of those constructed PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 41
standards.[4] In describing a man, it is more common to acknowledge the Blackness of that man rather than their Whiteness, we assume that unless stated otherwise that the man is White. This standardisation is therefore set as an ‘invisible’ mark to which we compare other cultures, ways of living and ideologies. White culture both exoticises and dismisses these states of ‘other’ labelling them as different or inferior. I, for example, sometimes catch myself having prejudiced thoughts towards people within minority groupings (race, gender, disability etc.), not out of malice, but out of a subconscious conditioning. I have grown up in a ‘White Christian Country’ where racism is ingrained and perpetuated through representations of our culture through the media. Whilst I am not racist, I am aware that my White Voice is steeped in a prejudice that is hard to remove. This understanding of Whiteness sits within ‘Critical Race Theory’ (CRT), a framework of critique which was born in the 1970’s. To outline it briefly, Rollock and Gillbor state that; CRT is a body of scholarship steeped in radical activism that seeks to explore and challenge the prevalence of racial inequality in society. It is based on the understanding that race and racism are the product of social thought and power relations. CRT theorists endeavour to expose the way in which racial inequality is maintained through the operation of structures and assumptions
[4]. Guess, T.J, (2006) The Social Construction of Whiteness: Racism by Intent, Racism by Consequence. Critical Sociology 32, 649–673. <https://doi. org/10.1163/156916306779155199> [accessed 18 December 2017] 42 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
that appear normal and unremarkable.[5] Critical Race Theory facilitates and enforces space within institutions of law, education or wider society to recognise, problematise and challenge systems of oppression.[6] It works to prioritise and bring forward the voices of people of colour, who are best placed to talk about their experiences, the impact of racism and the marginalisation that comes with being a minority in the West. CRT is therefore an essential lens with which to consider this topic, as it ensures that the focus is very much on critiquing the manner in which institutions function and their Whiteness. Viewing this conversation from the perspective of the ‘Othered’ is key to changing mindsets of our Whiteness. Through my role within Shades of noir I have come to understand that the experiences of People of Colour should be foremost and importantly not my own interpretation of these experiences. If I were to only go on my own interpretations my actions would be coming from another far less informed place due to my Whiteness and the privileges that that holds. Within this context the ‘White Voice’ is critiqued, to be one of both ‘normality and
[5]. Rollock, N. and Gillborn, D. (2011) Critical Race Theory (CRT), British Educational Research Association <https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2014/03/Critical-Race-TheoryCRT-.pdf> [accessed 15 December 2017] [6]. William F Tate. “Critical Race Theory and Education: History, Theory, and Implications.” Review of Research in Education, vol. 22, 1997, pp. 195–247.
invisibility’[7] and therefore a problematic force within education. Particularly within Art and Design, the disproportion of lecturers of Colour against White lecturers suggests a significant disparity in the curriculum which fails to consider the needs of the intersectional student body.[8] Additionally, beyond but not excluding the Arts, there is also a culture of only presenting the White eurocentric experience; a disparity that is critiqued by student led campaigns such as ‘Decolonise the curriculum’ and ‘Why is my curriculum so White?’[9][10] Both of which highlight how Institutions of Education are still largely dominated by Whiteness. The cultural capital held by the Institution must first be acknowledged and taken on board before change and decolonisation can be implemented. This said, it is important to acknowledge that this decolonisation should be an evolving process which should be careful not to enforce the binaries of colonial times by perpetuating what was,
[7]. H. Richard Milner, I. (2007) Race, Culture, and Researcher Positionality: Working Through Dangers Seen, Unseen, and Unforeseen. Educational Researcher 36, 388–400. <https://doi. org/10.3102/0013189X07309471> [accessed 15 December 2017] [8]. UAL So White, (2015) <https://ualsowhite.tumblr.com> [accessed 15 December 2017] [9]. Savva, A., 2017. Cambridge University students launch campaign to “ decolonise” curriculum to include more ethnic minority writers. Cambridge News. <http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/ cambridge-news/cambridge-universitystudents-launch-campaign-13808830> [10]. TV, U., (2014). Why is my curriculum white? <https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=Dscx4h2lPk> [accessed 15 December 2017]
but rather focusing on what should be.[11] This change is however slow, as the Academics within these White Institutions, must also acknowledge their own positions of privilege. Something which, as aforementioned, is an ongoing process that for myself is often hindered by fear, nervousness and pride. It is not uncommon to see a White Lecturer, Dean or Guest Speaker fumble awkwardly when asked to discuss issues of diversity within their institution. I, myself often feel uncomfortable in this scenario, not because I am disengaged with social justice, but more often because I am uncomfortable in my Whiteness and feel ill equipped to implement change. As these important conversations occur with increased intensity, it is important that as ‘White Academics’ we (white staff and students) recognise our privileges and our voices hold the heavy weight to support positive change for our communities. It is however crucial to stress that any change must be implemented through the Allyship and not independently of an intersectional community. This is to ensure that the White voice does not again gain more power, but acknowledges, raises up and implements the needs of the ‘othered’.[12] Challenging Discrimination The encouragement and mutual support of such a community, means that everyone has the potential to be a changemaker and to challenge discrimination, no matter what their privileges may be. This potential however, does not come without learning. It is important that the ‘White [11]. McClintock, A., 1992. The Angel of Progress: Pitfalls of the Term “Post-Colonialism.” Social Text 84–98. <https://doi.org/10.2307/466219> [accessed 12 December 2017] [12]. Freire, P., 2000. Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition, Critical pedagogy today series. Bloomsbury Academic. PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 43
Academic’ also realises their own gaps of cultural knowledge in both the teaching environment and the wider society. It maybe that because of our Whiteness that we will never wholly understand what it is be racially marginalised, but at the very least it is our role to understand and to emphasise with those experiences. I have had the privilege to be continuously learning from the Shades family, they have taught me to reflect on my own gaps and have built me up with the confidence to open up key conversations such as this one. To dismiss any experience other than our White one, would be ignorant and at detriment to the purpose of education. To be able to start this process of understanding and empathy, the ‘White Academic’ must first prioritise taking the time to both listen and reflect on what the marginalised voices around them are ‘shouting’. There is a key difference in being aware of discrimination and actually being engaged in challenging it. The Black Lives Matter movement has been featured in the news in recent years drawing attention to the ongoing racial discrimination and social inequalities within western society. The marches and protests will have been seen by many White people, whether that be through news outlets or in person; yet because these accounts of discrimination often only resonate with the marginalised, they are easily shrugged off over time by those in privileged positions. Through this awareness, It is important that in spite of our Whiteness, we don’t tokenise these surges of trending reports (and our response to them) to be one off situations, but instead recognise that these issues are ongoing and for life. In understanding this, it is therefore vital that awareness leads to a daily and ongoing
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engagement with creating change.[13] It is important to also critique the ways in which Whiteness and the privileges it holds can be used alongside this engagement for the benefit of positive change. My White voice, for example, can often resonate more deeply with other ‘White Academics’ when making the same point about discrimination as my Black and Brown colleagues. This unconscious bias[14] is ingrained within the institution and so means that my whiteness can allow me to navigate the ‘system’ with a greater ease and at times have quicker access to implementing positive change. This is not to say that I, as a ‘White Academic’, have the authority to speak on a Person of Colour’s behalf, but rather I am using my privilege to facilitate a more open dialogue between those who have lived experience and those who do not. This allyship stands shoulder to shoulder, however as a ‘White Ally’ I can’t come to it ill prepared. People of Colour have been tirelessly pushing for institutional change for decades and through this lived experience are equipped with knowledge and grounding. To effectively challenge discrimination, the ‘White Academic’ must also invest in their own grounding of personal development. From my own experience, I know that this can be a nerve-wracking process as in many ways it feels like having to start afresh to understand one’s privileges within the context of race. However, this journey can be supported through attending [13]. Guardian, T., n.d. How far should an ally go? - Token podcast. <https://www. theguardian.com/society/audio/2016/sep/14/ black-lives-matter-airport-protesters-whitetoken-podcast> [accessed 12 December 2017] [14]. Killick, D., 2016. Internationalization and Diversity in Higher Education: Implications for Teaching, Learning and Assessment, Palgrave Teaching and Learning. Palgrave Macmillan.
events, broadening reading lists to cover a range of intersectional topics, critiquing your whiteness and actively seeking ways to understand more about what can be done within your institutions to make change. SoN is a great place to gather and assess knowledge; the education site highlights a wide selection of intersectional creatives, curriculum case studies and reading material.[15] As part of this learning process, it is also important to reflect on personal progress to consider how your knowledge and understanding continues to grow with the encouragement of an intersectional community. A large part of my own encouragement in promoting social justice, is in the knowledge that I am growing academically and challenged to learn every week. Whilst being present at discussions which surround issues of social justice is encouraged, it is also important to acknowledge when it is not appropriate to be there. This may feel to be a contradiction to the process of change, but it is actually valuable to be aware of the space Whiteness takes up in any such environment. Whiteness can hinder the conservation and development of change as it can reinforce the constructions of race and create tension in vulnerable spaces.[16] I have found that my own presence on occasion has caused uncomfortable tension for Black and Brown students who didn’t feel they could express their lived experiences of institutional racism without having to justify them ‘yet again’ to my ‘whiteness’. Through further discussion with these students I understood how my presence, and what it represented, made them feel [15]. See education.shadesofnoir.org.uk [16]. Jalili, K., 2017. Safe spaces: What Are They, and Why They Matter? Shades of Noir. <http://shadesofnoir.org.uk/safe-spaceswhat-are-they-and-why-they-matter/> [accessed 12 December 2017]
like they had to hold back and in many ways not speak out against the institution. This is in no way an excuse however for the ‘White Academic’ not to engage in other ways as this highlights that facilitation is just as important. This may be in the form of financial assistance to run events, physical spaces within a building or a sharing resources in aid of supporting pedagogies of social justice within institutions.[17] Challenging Education Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK are widely shown to be predominantly White[18] in culture and staff/students, something which is highlighted by campaigns such as ‘Rhodes must fall’[19] and ‘UAL So White’.[20] The current lack of intersectionality within UK HEI staff teams is particularly exposed not only by conclusive data but through the attainment gap. The attainment gap shows that a Home white student is eighteen percent more likely to attain a First or 2:1 than their Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) peer. [21] It is evident that there is an unconscious bias within many UK institutions, a bias which is perpetuated by whiteness and the ‘bubble’ of the institution, that means that Students [17]. Shades of Noir. (2017) The Little Book of Case Studies: People of Colour. <http:// education.shadesofnoir.org.uk/people-ofcolour/> [accessed 12 December 2017] [18]. NUS, 2011. Race for equality. <https://www.nus.org.uk/PageFiles/12238/ NUS_Race_for_Equality_web.pdf> [accessed 12 December 2017] [19]. RMF, O., (2015). Rhodes Must Fall.<https://rmfoxford.wordpress. com/> [accessed 12 December 2017] [20]. Ibid [21]. NUS, 2017. HE Black Attainment Research briefing. <https://www.nusconnect.org.uk/resources/ he-black-attainment-research-briefingoct-2017> [accessed 12 December 2017] PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 45
of Colour are less likely to gain a First class degree due to their race. When this system goes unchallenged they remain incubators of marginalisation and discrimination. This form of discrimination is something that can be directly changed by the ‘White Academic’s’ engagement and growth. In general terms the fresh face student comes to University to soak up the university culture; a new found independence, a focus on one practice/subject, and a desire to learn. Any preconceptions they bring to the institution have the potential to be reaffirmed or challenged. When comparing socio-economic statuses, a white student, due to their privilege, is more likely than to their black peer to have easier access to Russell Group institutions.[22] Similarly white students are more likely to be encouraged to participate in a degree which may lead to less of a ‘conventional’ career, such as the Arts, as there is no feeling that this will prevent them from securing a ‘well paid job’ post degree. This suggests that by the nature of their whiteness, much like myself, these students enter Higher Education, not having to have pre-considered their privilege. As such they reinforce the white foundations of the institution. The personal development and allyship of the ‘White Academic’ is, therefore the basis of which to productively challenge marginalisation within Higher Education. One such way to challenge the White foundation is through means of the
[22]. Havergal, C., 2016. Ucas data reveal inequality in university admissions. Times Higher Education. <https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ ucas-data-reveal-inequality-in-universityadmissions> [accessed 12 December 2017] 46 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
curriculum in place and its development.[23] Challenging students to look beyond familiar eurocentric and white practitioners can broaden their understanding of their subject and in turn encourage change in institutional culture. This must, however, be a supported process that ensures work and cultures are not appropriated or taken out of context. The White Academic has the opportunity to lead by example, not only by broadening their own teaching resources, but by also inviting intersectional academics into their teaching space. Guest lectures, or better still, an intersectional academic team can form a more rounded platform of education.[24] This Intersectionality should not however be reduced to a tickbox exercise to fulfil quotas, but intentional; those in positions of privilege to hire new staff must recognise the need of their students and the gaps of knowledge within your own teams. Whilst many UK HEIs proportionally draw a large number of BAME students, both Home/EU and International,[25] they don’t productively utilise the vast amount of cultural capital (the knowledge and intellectual skills)[26] these students have to offer. These students bring a culture with them that contrasts the white eurocentric experience, and as such can be collaborated with to diversify the Institution’s approach to curriculum. [23]. Finnigan, T., Richards, A., (2016) Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design. <https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/ ug_retention_and_attainment_in_art_and_ design2.pdf> [accessed 12 December 2017] [24]. Ibid [25]. HEFCE, n.d. Student characteristics. <http://www.hefce.ac.uk/analysis/HEinEngland/ students/> [accessed 12 December 2017] [26]. Bourdieu, Pierre. “The Forms of Capital” (1985), Handbook of Theory of Research for the Sociology of Education (1986) pp. 46–58
The ‘White Academic’ and even the institution as a whole, should not however appropriate these cultural differences to become themselves culturally rich as this perpetuates the dominance of Whiteness. Instead partnerships to exchange ‘currency’ should be encouraged: Student-led equality groups, collaborative curriculums, intersectional research groups, staff training in diversity and inclusion are all potentials.[27] However, for any or all to be successful mechanisms of change, they need the ‘White Academics’ to allow space for more diverse practitioners to lead and or be sought out to join the academic community. A working example of this is Teaching Within; a programme, run by SoN, which funds twenty HE teaching degrees for twenty intersectional creatives. Conclusion White privilege can be a daunting term for many who have not engaged in their own privileges. This, when paired with a distance from marginal experiences, is something which I believe can discourage White people from critiquing their own place in society. It is also crucial to acknowledge that discrimination and marginalisation are continuous problems and not just tokenised reports in the media, as such we have to be active in challenging our own ignorance and disconnect. This disconnect can be an uncomfortable barrier for those who wish to engage in processes of change surrounding discrimination, but don’t feel they know how to or that they share the responsibility with allies.
both the importance of Allyship and the strategic gap that their White Voice can bridge between people who have lived experience and those who do not. The ‘White Academic’ must be prepared to listen and learn from allyship, investing in their self growth, and to understand that their role is vital to facilitating change. As part of this process however, it is necessary to continue critiquing one’s own Whiteness to ensure that through the productive action of change, the ‘Othered’ remain at the forefront and focus of the process. The ‘White Academic’ not only has the responsibility to participate in change of the wider institution, but the responsibility to encourage change in their own course and student body. Challenging the culture of an institution is a slow process and is something that needs to be continually pushed, however every small change is productive in the bigger sense. By encouraging students to critique their privileges and to open up their understanding through a diversified curriculum taught by an intersectional team, the ‘White Academic’ can directly influence this change we’d like to see. Change is difficult and involves a whole cross section of students and academics sharing cultural currency, learning and patience to support the dismantling of whiteness within HEIs. At times, as I have mentioned, change can be awkward and a series of stumbles, but my biggest reflection from my time with shades is that no matter what privileges you have, It is everyone’s responsibility to make change.
For the purpose of approaching pedagogies of social justice in HEIs, it is important that ‘White Academia’ acknowledges [27]. Shades of Noir. (2017) The Little Book of Case Studies: Inclusive Resources. <http://education.shadesofnoir.org.uk/creatingsafe-spaces/> [accessed 12 December 2017] PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 47
INTERVIEW: DAN HOLLIDAY. ROYAL COLLEGE GRADUATE.
What actions do you take to practice anti racism?
How does creative expression combat racial inequality?
Challenging Racism when ever I hear or see it
Some great art comes out of radical action. So if we look at today, some great Art is coming out fighting Trump and Putin’s policies. Their regressive policies in my opinion seem to be the polar opposite of any type of equality movements.
Where in the creative curriculum have you or would you consider topics surrounding whiteness or constructions of race? In a multiracial classroom or student group it is a topic that is always prevalent. Lecturers need to have an understanding of that in order to empathize with their cohort. Have you either experienced or witnessed the effect of micro-aggressions, and how did you manage it? I was working in a predominantly white office when a colleague used to mimic “ youth speak” which made me feel very uncomfortable as for me it was no better than some sort of 1970’s racist comedian but most of my other colleagues laughed along with him. When I later expressed my opinions to one of these colleagues he excused the behaviour by saying it was not racist behaviour as all the young people spoke like that thus excusing him of his behaviour. It was not what I would expect in an academic environment.
How does your work relate or explore this topic? If you are not engaged in the here now then there is no point making work. This quote puts it rather well “You can’t help it. An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” Nina Simone
What activities already exist that transcend racial inequality? I can not think of any activities that transcend racial inequality, even in music and sport which gives the impression of a level playing field. If the society we live in isn’t. it continues to impact those with in these fields. PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 49
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A WHITE TERRORIST. SUZETTE DORRIELAN, LCC ALLUMNI 2017.
If there has ever been a terrorist attack or mass shooting in your city or country and you are white, it’s doubtful you’ve had to experience the anxiety-fuelled mental machinations that people of colour do. First there’s the shock and fear upon hearing the news. That’s universal. And of course the relief that you or your loved ones weren’t harmed. But the difference in how a POC will react is that a single statement will pop into your head in those early moments: I hope they aren’t [insert personal racial or religious identity here]. That thought hangs over you until you get confirmation on the attacker’s identity. You silently begin to prepare for the worst case scenario. The looks you’ll get on the street. The poorly veiled rhetoric attacking your group in the media. The physical or verbal assaults that, more so these days, is not out of realm of possibility. If the attacker is white, relief washes over you briefly. It’s a quick moment followed by a more tangible and much more extended feeling of resentment of having to feel that way at all, knowing that your white counterparts didn’t experience any of the fear or paranoia that has become second nature to you. Worse still is the knowledge that white people will be unfazed, unmoved and unmotivated by the occurrence. Their personal lives aren’t affected at all by the notion of a white terrorist. And here you were ready to change your route to work or contemplated going without your hijab to “blend” in.
A white terrorist is never an indictment of white people has a whole. And it shouldn’t for reasons like common sense, human decency and that assumptions based on race, skin tone or religion is the shallowest means of judging personal character and doesn’t reflect the modern society we claim to be. But as many know, the same can’t be said for Muslim, Asian or Black people. A criminal of any of these identities are marked exclusively by that identity. The media fuels this by offering one-dimensional coverage steeped in centuries’ worth of racialised stereotyping. America’s first feature film Birth of a Nation cemented the “black brute” construct that has persisted as a reason for persecution for 102 years. Likewise, French, English and American Orientalism has been the basis for the pernicious imagery we see of Muslims and Arabs in the news media, film, novels and even art around the world. The ways in which this imagery has been used by governments in policy, like say the ill-fated War on Terror, is a study in the symbiotic relationship between the media and the government, where both use one another to inform their praxis (see Lance Bennett’s theory on indexing). It is also just one facet of institutionalised racism, where whiteness is rendered invisible in Western society. To the point we ignore the benefits – large and small – that come with being white. Like never having think or say I hope they aren’t white...
THE ONE DROP RULE & THE ONE HATE RULE. ‘The prevailing criterion for deciding who is black is of course the principle of hypodescent. This ‘one drop rule’ has meant that anyone with a visually discernible trace of African, or what used to be called ‘Negro,’ ancestry is, simply,black. Comparativists have long noted the peculiar ordinance this mixture- denying principle has exercised over the history of the United States. Although it no longer has the legal status it held in many states during the Jim Crow era, this principle was reinforced in the civil rights era as a basis for anti discrimination remedies. Today it remains in place as a formidable convention in many settings and dominates debates about the categories appropriate for the federal census. The movement for recognition of ‘mixed race’ identity has made some headway…’ Hollinger, (2005) Hollinger, D. A. (2005). The one drop rule & the one hate rule. Daedalus, 134(1), 18-28.
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INSIDE THE IVORY TOWER BOOK REVIEW.
PATRICIA TUITT, FORMER PROFESSOR & DEAN BIRKBECK, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.
Expert Evidence. A Review of Deborah Gabriel and Shirley Anne Tate (eds.), Inside the Ivory Tower: Narratives of Women of Colour Surviving and Thriving in British Academia. London: IOE Press. 2017. 152 pp., ÂŁ24.99 (PB). IBSN: 978-1-85856-849-2 Inside the Ivory Tower is a collection of essays written by 10 academics, all women of colour, which document their experiences of race and gender discrimination within the setting of the UK public university. The narratives are drawn from across the disciplines of Arts, Humanities, Science and Social Sciences. 54 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
All of the authors have spent several years within the university, and many occupy high-profile positions within academia, including that of Professor, Associate Dean, research project leader, and, in the case of two of the authors, founding Director of highly successful cross disciplinary networks of Black and minority ethnic academics. The essays are underpinned by extensive references to internationally recognised authorities on the physical, psychological and economic impact of race and gender harm. These authorities include the American scholar, Kimberle Crenshaw, who developed the theory of intersectionality, which
informs several of the essays; academic and political activist, Angela Davis; author of The Alchemy of Race and Rights: Diary of a Law Professor, Patricia Williams; philosopher and psychoanalyst, Frantz Fanon, and educationalist, Paulo Freire. In the conclusion to the work, the authors set out their ambitions for the collection in the following terms: We hope that this book is read widely and at all levels, from students to vice chancellors and Board directors and everyone in between – as everyone has the power to make a contribution to wider change. Readership must be wider than those working in equality and diversity roles, who often bear sole responsibility within universities for promoting race and gender equality. It is everyone’s responsibility to promote and deliver race and gender equality and stand up to all forms of discrimination. We believe our book belongs on desks everywhere...(Gabriel, 148). This brief summary of the background to the book’s publication paves the way for me to advance the basic proposition around which this review is structured. I would suggest that Inside the Ivory Tower meets all the requirements for the admission of expert evidence before a Tribunal, adjudicating on a case of race and/or gender discrimination, and/or before a body, such as the Law Commission, dedicated to reform of the law. What the expertise of the authors would tell such a Tribunal or law reform body is that the legal concept of victimisation is
an inadequate tool with which to protect employees who seek to challenge the forms of racial and gender harm prevalent within the contemporary university space The legal concept of victimisation applies when an employee is subjected to a detriment by an employer because the employee has complained of race or gender discrimination (or of any of the other protected characteristics named in the Equality Act 2010); or has made a disclosure in the public interest under the Public Interest Disclosure Act,1998. In light of the purpose of the victimisation principle, evidence contained in the book of “hyper-surveillance” of black women by other employees (Mirza, 45) and by “students” (Gabriel, 27) is deeply troubling. According to Tate, the university has the Black woman academic “constantly...under surveillance for any sign of trouble, any possibility of a claim of racism to break the uneasy White conviviality of academia” (59). Surveillance, then, aims at ensuring that complaints of racism and sexism are seldom raised with senior management (see Richards, 139). A Tribunal or law reform body would surely wish to receive relevant and reliable evidence of how the objectives of the legal concept of victimisation are defeated by the culture of the University. As I hope this review will demonstrate, Inside the Ivory Tower constitutes the respected body of opinion within a given profession, which the UK rules of evidence usually demand of expert evidence. However, I would note that Tribunals and Inquiries are not bound by PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 55
the strict rules of evidence, and are able to be more flexible over the terms upon which they receive expert evidence. I am, therefore, subjecting this edited volume to a higher than strictly warranted standard of scrutiny. A detailed analysis of the case law on victimisation is beyond the scope of this review. However, my argument that the purposes of discrimination law are defeated by universities who condone or actively encourage a culture in which employees are discouraged by management and by other employees from voicing concerns about race or gender discrimination is made more compelling by the decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in the case of Woodhouse v West North West Homes Leeds Ltd [2013]. The point to be taken from the Woodhouse case is that the law offers considerable support and license to an employee who, in Gabriel’s words, will “talk back” about racism (28). The summary facts of the case are that after bringing 10 grievances of racial discrimination to his employer, Woodhouse was dismissed from his employment. The grievances formed the basis of Woodhouse’s dismissal; specifically, his employer decided that Woodhouse had shown by these challenges that he had “... lost all trust and confidence” (para.46) in West North West Homes Leeds as employer. Crucially, the employer concluded that Woodhouse had demonstrated that he would not be able to regain trust unless his allegations of discrimination were accepted as established, enabling him to work in “a discrimination free environment” (para.46). The dismissal letter concluded with the observation that Woodhouse’s “numerous allegations of discrimination have been taken seriously, but were ultimately not upheld following thorough investigations” (para. 46). The Tribunal at first instance did not uphold 56 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
Woodhouse’s claim that the act of dismissal amounted to victimisation of him, because he had brought complaints about racial discrimination. Instead, the Tribunal found that West North West Homes Leeds had dismissed Woodhouse because of the multiple claims of discrimination he had made, which were all judged to be ill-founded. In the view of the Tribunal, an employee who had made multiple “non-racial” complaints would also have been dismissed (see para. 50). The Tribunal’s decision was reversed on appeal. The Employment Appeal Tribunal found that the first tier Tribunal had erred in law in relation to an important matter. The Tribunal was in error in taking a “comparative approach” to the question of employee victimisation (para. 82).. There is no requirement for proof that an employee similarly situated to the employee who claims to have been victimised would have been treated in the same way. The correct approach is to establish whether the detriment – in this case the dismissal – was caused by the employee’s complaint of racial discrimination. The EAT noted that even if a comparison between employees was appropriate, there was an obvious flaw in the “comparison here between somebody who has made groundless complaints of race discrimination and someone who has made groundless complaints of a different variety” (para.84). The Employment Appeal Tribunal’s finding that the dismissal did amount to victimisation reveals that an employee who “talks out” (Gabriel, 28) - even groundlessly - about her/his employers’ alleged racially discriminatory practices is protected by the law. The one caveat to this proposition is that the employee must not be found to have deliberately made a false claim of, or deliberately given false evidence about, discrimination. There was no suggestion that Woodhouse’s belief that his employer was acting in a racially discriminatory fashion was not a genuine one. Indeed, the letter of
dismissal acknowledged that “... on occasion some of the panels have found that particular actions were not satisfactory, but that did not amount to discrimination” (para.46). One might conclude that Woodhouse was an exceptional employee in not allowing himself to be silenced on the question of race, and such exceptional individuals must also inhabit the university. An area to explored during our hypothetical Tribunal case, or hypothetical law reform investigation, would be whether the university culture is uniquely endowed with mechanisms through which it can suppress the voices who wish to speak of race and gender discrimination. There is sufficient evidence to be found between the pages of Inside the Ivory Tower to indicate that such a question would initiate a fruitful line of enquiry. The following statement from the opening page of Tate’s contribution to the collection is instructive: Employee ‘well-being’ is on the strategic agenda of every university in the UK as part of the people management framework. Wellbeing relates to those feelings that can be spoken...However, ‘those feelings that can be spoken’ already implies questions of power, governmentality and affective management, because some feelings are necessarily ruled out as unvoiceable. If there is already an unvoiceability regime in place, then only some answers will be recognised as acceptable when asked the question ‘how do you feel?’ about this or that aspect of your life as a Black woman university employee. Questions about and answers that voice the daily racism and racist micro-aggressions experienced by Black women academics will not be asked or recognised...Indeed we could say that the objective of ‘well-being’ as a strategic aim is precisely not to do anything with these affects because that would be to admit that we inhabit racially toxic institutions that are inimical for everyone’s psychic health (54).
It is noteworthy, in light of Tate’s comments, that of the 10 women who contributed to Inside the Ivory Tower, only the two who occupy senior management positions felt empowered to challenge the university over race and gender issues: I am now a scientist who gives back by focusing on my students’ academic ambitions rather than my own. A scientist who will question and challenge decisions that do not benefit my students. A scientist who gives back by mentoring women scientists, Black and White, using my experience to aid in their progress (Opara, 131). Wilson also speaks of being “in a strong position to draw attention to issues of educational injustice” (117), claiming the right to “highlight to White colleagues how important it is that they hold high expectations for Black students” (117). However, the majority of the authors’ experiences are overwhelmingly ones in which “workshops in equality and diversity are never ‘safe spaces’ for people of colour who are invited to ‘tell their story’ “(Mirza, 44); where even a hint of complaint is “ met with hostility” (Richards, 139). Black women academics are left in no doubt as to what bringing a formal complaint might mean: “ you will never work in the education or the creative sector again” (Richards, 139). Gabriel and Richards found that without the support of the academic networks they founded (Black British Academics and Shades of Noir, respectively), they would have been effectively silenced on the subject of race and gender discriminatory practices occurring in the university. Shades of Noir has now entered its ninth year of operation, and even now its director has found that, within the university, her “relationship with... directors deteriorated” (Richards, 140), evidenced by the fact that “they undermined me with my PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 57
peers and students, and even tried to instigate a disciplinary case against me” (140). For Bernard, securing a “Black mentor, external to the Academy” (83), proved to be the development which enabled her to give voice to “some of the obstacles created by race and gender based discrimination” (83). As valuable as are external mentoring and networking opportunities to the working lives of Black women academics, the law requires that a complaint of race or gender discrimination (or of discrimination motivated by any other of the protected characteristics identified in the Equality Act 2010) should be made directly to the employer, or, within the scope of its jurisdiction, to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, which is the body established to enforce compliance with Equality Act provisions. Inside the Ivory Tower provides compelling evidence to the effect that formal complaint is discouraged, and, in so doing, the relevance of the law of victimisation put in question, when: The very arrival of the ‘Black/Othered’ body into White normative organisations is used as evidence that spaces of Whiteness and privilege no longer exist; where just using the word ‘diversity’ is seem to ‘do’ positive things for the institution. Visual images of ‘colourful’ happy faces are used to show how the University has embraced difference (44). “Starting the (often difficult) conversations about gender, race, class, homophobia..is the most important first step to generating change”, says Wilson (119). Such conversations are also the precondition for the entry into the conversation of the law; a law which can, as in Woodhouse [2013], push against the ingrained racialised cultures of the institution. If not silenced, what complaints would Black women academics make to their university senior management teams? Which of these complaints would be of interest to our hypothetical Tribunal or law reform 58 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
investigation panel? As a preliminary, it must be noted that the law does not purport to offer redress in all instances in which an individual is adversely affected by acts that are motivated by race or gender bias. It is for this reason that the law speaks of ‘detrimental’ acts when alluding to a potential victimisation claim, following a complaint raised with reference to the Equality Act, or following a disclosure in the public interest. It is for this reason, too, that this review is seemingly narrowly focused on the harms that the law will recognise: not because of a failure on my part to acknowledge the injurious effects on Black women academics of: Institutional indifference to the paucity of Black academics and the consequent wasted talent...minority students [paying] fees in increasing numbers to universities that promote their commitment to diversity while exposing students to European insights and understandings, delivered by all-White academic teams (Kwhali, 21). However, the law does recognise what Bernard alludes to as “invisible injuries” (84); those injuries which Tate categorises more concretely as “psychic” harm (54), often caused by “ over-surveillance and micromanagement” of Black women academics (Douglas, 99). Although frequently criticised for its privileging of claimants who seek to remedy physical injuries or property damage, the law has long recognised that psychological injuries are capable, in principle, of founding a claim. Continuing with the theme of severe mental distress, Wilson argues that when not over-scrutinised, Black woman academics confront the reverse, but equally disconcerting, “experience of invisibility” (111), which causes heightened “feelings of low self-worth...fragile sense of dignity and compromised personal identity” (111). But the overwhelming picture presented by these narratives are of the classic forms of detriment which are so-well documented in the reports of courts
and tribunals. Says Kwhali: Universities...are communities within themselves, privileged by tradition and framed by a historical context of elitism and social advantage. My experiences suggest that they appear to operate by their own codes; temporary or permanent contracts are not always subject to open recruitment; doctorates and teaching qualifications are required for some positions while staff in the same subject area who have neither can be on an identical job title or higher salary grade... Hourly paid lecturers are frequently recruited on the basis of who you (and they) know, with various excuses offered as to why such opportunities cannot be externally advertised against transparent criteria. These seemingly entrenched practices make the sector far less penetrable by potential staff from less traditional academic backgrounds or educational traditions, including, but not exclusively, Black people (20). If empowered to speak, Black women
academics would tell of Black students “angry about their enduring marginality and disadvantages, despite the overwhelming selfsatisfied bureaucratic rhetoric of institutional ‘equality and diversity’…” (Mirza, 51). Perhaps the most striking testimony from these women would be of a kind which resembles Jackson’s contribution to the collection. Jackson’s position is unique among the authors in that she is employed at an institution which employs few Black academics and has equally low recruitment statistics of Black students. For Jackson, it is her experience as research lead of a funded research project involving refugees living within the community that has exposed her to the ways in which the university projects its discomfort with, and disapproval of, racialised subjects. I write these words with a kind of wary irony, since I know how privileged I am; PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 59
because I am proud of the innovative work we accomplished together, and because I remain a grateful friend with some of the refugees I work to support. But – and here I feel a sharp conflict between my different identities – while those refugees would support me in whatever way they could, they could not help me in my career. In fact, they probably held me back, since my professional association with the new migrants... also became an association with powerful racist tropes, including the ‘impoverished African’, the ‘fake refugee’, ‘illegals’ and ‘welfare scroungers’. Such ideas were as embedded in the institution as they were more widely...As I listened to professional voices discuss the othering of the migrants, it was impossible not to speculate about what equivalent thinking or speaking might be going on about me. Although patches of colour might be appearing on campus, it seems that the White hegemony of the Ivory Tower would remain untouched. I too was kept outside. (75/76).
to the gap in attainment between Black and White students, feel unable to speak out. Further, to the extent that the refugees of Jackson’s account are engaged in a university project, supported by public funds, it is doubtful, based on her testimony, that the university is giving appropriate regard to the requirement under section 149 (c) to “foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it”.
In short, given the opportunities which the legal framework assumes to exist in the workplace, Black women academics would speak of justiceable matters. The legal framework in which Woodhouse’s claim was decided operates as a warning to employers who expose employees to detriment because the employee has made her/his voice heard.
Expert evidence must be reliable. It must be relevant to the matter under enquiry. It must come from a source which can be accepted as a constituting a respectable, but not necessarily majority, body of opinion in the field of claimed expertise. In the opening paragraphs of this review, I advanced reasons why the narratives contained in the book meet these requirements. Those paragraphs focused on the positions of influence which the women held within the university, and the quality of the research underpinning each chapter.
The “educational injustice” issues of which Wilson speaks, which sees “73.2 percent of White British students attaining a ‘good’ degree compared with 57.1 percent of Black and minority ethnic students” (117), are, on the face of it, inconsistent with the public sector equality duty, which binds universities. Section 149(b) requires public bodies to “advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it”. The objective is entirely undermined if the very staff who would be able to report discriminatory practices, which contribute 60 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
Thus, the law is not side-lined because alleged discriminatory acts have resulted in harms which fall beyond those it recognises. The law is being made impotent because those who can bear witness to potentially discriminatory practices are forced, as Kwhali was, to conclude that “the cost of speaking out against unfair employment practices” (19) or “on behalf of students” (19) would lead to “painful” consequences, including “criticism and isolation”, and, worse still, “accusations of bullying” (19).
Within the limited space afforded to me for this review, I believe I have extracted sufficient from the collection to convince the reader that these chapters could only have been written by academics who have devoted significant periods of their careers to a meticulous examination of the causes and consequences of race and gender oppression.
It remains for me to address the issue of how representative are the experiences the authors relate. Notwithstanding Gabriel’s sensible advice to the reader to avoid using the “narratives as ‘proof of evidence’ of some standard mode of raced or gendered discrimination” (2), my task here is greatly assisted by the fact that each author reflected deeply on the extent to which they were identifying experiences which could be said to characterise the condition of Black women academics generally. Douglas saw herself immersed in a world in which the experiences of Black women academics: could not be individualised and had to be understood as the expression of a phenomenon that shapes the working lives of Black intellectuals within the academy (100). Kwhali saw herself as offering a “story” which was “the stories of sisters and brothers of different skin shades, age and genders... in its content if not in its detail”(22). In similar terms, Mirza spoke of experiences which were “symbolic of the systemic nature of gendered racialisation as revealed by a Black woman’s narrative through time and space in higher education” (40). I conclude this review on the sobering thought that the one set of desks on which copies of Inside the Ivory Tower are unlikely to land belong to the senior judiciary. References Equality Act 2010 c.15. Patricia Williams, Alchemy of Race and Rights: Diary of a Law Professor, Harvard University Press, 1992. Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 C.23. Woodhouse v West North West Homes Leeds Ltd [2013] UKEAT/0007/12/0506.
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WHITE DUST. GITAN DJELI, PHD GOLDSMITHS UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.
All I see is whiteness. Cold. Slow. Head down. Shamed. Ashamed. Be shamed. She is all alone. Enrobed in a hat too large, casting shadowless shadows shaded by shame. Sheer loneliness. The world in abandon. Snow. Deceiving white. Disappointing woe. Dry look-Wet feel. Walking in socks send ripples and tremors down my spine Like a back tickle I cannot scratch. I remember the excitement of whiteness. Clear. Confident. Comforting at a distance. And then I stepped in it and I felt the glistening snakelike slime on my hand. In my head. In your head. The inability to walk without slipping. The muddy residue. The remaining blob itching the leaves. The icy pavements. The frozen nostrils. The wooden fingers and aching ears. The deception of listening hearing looking feeling this white echo ringing in the brain muscles. She dances, though, in her body. 1, 2, 3, 4. Stop. 1, 2, 3, 4. Underarm turn. And right. And left. Arms up. 1, 2, 3, 4. Stop. Black Rumba In Heels. Brown skin and sweat. Chin Up. Hips in gear. Or Bare Feet walking the earth in gold and orange hues. And travel peaks of green lush horizons bathed in promising summits and deep maroon passion fruits
entangled in its climbing roots. Where grass grows wild and the sweet aromas of cutting grass screaming in pain is never heard. Where green yellow brown red grass is not bitten by white dust and snow and knows not of the white gaze. That blind arrogant glaring in-yourface white light obliterating your senses to a second of amnesia. No aphasia I say. Anaesthesia better. Forgetting as both active and pathological. The injection a strong dose of debilitative unconsciousness provoking unknowing and undying. The torpor of feeling only half a limb of being numbed to decay. I feel my fingers slowly being eaten away and turning blue in my pink thick gloves. I see irritating boys and men fishing for attention by their fists of white balls. This innocent white ball hurts like hell. Stop it. They either run after a ball, scratch it, roll it and throw it at you. White snowballs. From fluffiness to weapons. From the pure missionary gaze to abrupt condescending violence. The air is crisp though. I feel like a bear in an oversize coat on top of four layers of woollen garments, double socks, scarf and hats. The wind transpires through it all touching my skin indecently, leaving its mark, burning it, reaching under my melanin, freezing my blood cells, breaking my bone to bare marrow. PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 63
The realness of thick liquidified gel, amplified in minerals, earthy being, grounded. White dust. Brown dust. Apart by a thin line. Yet worlds universes galaxies apart. Separated by a deep rich black whole where its steel pan warm, shallow river bright, plump valley clear, drummingly musical and sonic and street-eye-view close to the bodyto-body engagement of dancing crowds. Where brown eyes play in brown dust. Where black hair rises to heights.
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INTERVIEWS: GITAN DJELI. What actions do you take to practice anti racism?
What activities already exist that transcend racial inequality?
Look at the privileges I carry as a middle class able cis brown woman as well as examine the prejudices that came with my upbringing in a very patriarchal racist conservative postcolonial society. Constant self reflection and unlearning as well as learning about the histories that brought such hierarchies of power, dismantle them in everyday practices and voice out the structures that continue to privilege whiteness as a dominant paradigm.
I think to transcend racial inequality, white people have to be made aware that the narrative of ‘We are all equal’ is problematic. I found this classroom activity to explain ‘What Is Privilege?’, inspiring. Prepare 10 questions for students to answer yes or no based on a list of privileges that they already carry (race, gender, socio-economic status, sexuality, ability, etc.. ) that might make them realise how they are more (or less) privileged in life than others.
Where in the creative curriculum have you or would you consider topics surrounding whiteness or constructions of race?
How does creative expression combat racial inequality?
White aesthetics in the visual art/ Whiteness in the Museum structure/ Colonisation and the racialisation of labour/ Coloniality and the perpetuation of racist institutions such as the gallery/ White innocence in literature.
Being visible. Produce different art. Promote unapologetically. Find collective spaces.
Have you either experienced or witnessed the effect of microaggressions, and how did you manage it?
I look at coloniality in the Indian Ocean, consequences of slavery and indenture and the structures and aesthetics (especially) residues of colonisation and highlight decolonial aesthetics in both contemporary arts and other creative practices such as music, poetry and literature.
At every level, from white students, from white professors in academia. Speak up. Make yourself heard. Name the problem loud and clear (with humour if possible) - ‘Are you feeling angry? Do you think it could be masculine fragility?’ or ‘I believe that it’s a very racist comment you made. Could I help you with some history that you might not have been educated with’. Passive aggressive basically.
How does your work relate or explore this topic?
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O QUE É ISSO DO PRIVILÉGIO BRANCO?
M. LIMA.
pri·vi·lé·gi·o (latim privilegium,-ii, lei de excepção, favor) substantivo masculino .Direito ou vantagem concedido a alguém, com exclusão de outros. Muitas vezes há um desconforto quando se fala de racismo e privilégio branco, como se estivéssemos a ser provocadores ou a tentar encontrar culpados. Neste texto pretendese falar em termos sistémicos, olhar para a sociedade ocidental de um modo estrutural, em vez de falar de indivíduos e das suas escolhas individuais. Se, por um lado, sabemos que a civilização ocidental se ergue em cima da escravatura, de colonizações 66 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
e segregações, por outro lado parece que só somos ensinados a ver atos de racismo em certas pessoas ou em pequenos grupos, nunca em práticas quotidianas, por vezes invisíveis e sedimentadas, que continuam a conferir vantagens ao grupo dos brancos. O privilégio branco de que aqui se fala é para ser pensado como um conjunto de benefícios institucionais (e não pessoais) garantidos aos que, por questões raciais, se parecem com as pessoas que ocupam maioritariamente cargos de liderança em instituições de poder. Se privilégio é o direito e vantagem mantidos por um grupo, ou por uma maioria, que se baseia na opressão e supressão de grupos
minoritários, então é algo que temos de abordar se queremos mesmo afirmar que o racismo e a exclusão estão a ser combatidos. Para abordar esta questão do racismo endémico e o privilégio em sociedades ditas cosmopolitas, há vários anos que pessoas e coletivos têm desenvolvido questionários de consciencialização, precisamente para levar a novas reflexões sobre a diferença disfarçada de igualdade. A exclusão que não nos afeta porque vivemos na ilusão da inclusão. Este exercício aqui reproduzido, usando algumas questões tiradas de diferentes publicações[1] e outras da minha autoria, contém apenas algumas das muitíssimas possíveis perguntas: 1. Já ouviste ou ouves a expressão “cor de pele”? Lápis cor de pele, pensos rápidos e 2. ligaduras em cor de pele, creme base em tons de pele... Essa cor condiz com a da TUA pele? 3. Se quiseres, estás em ambientes com pessoas da tua ‘raça’ a maior parte do tempo? 4. Quando ligas a televisão ou abres um jornal, esperas ver pessoas da tua ‘raça’ amplamente representadas? E em instituições públicas, esperas ser atendida/o por pessoas da tua cor? 5. Mostram-te como as pessoas da tua cor moldaram a história e a civilização [1]. Perguntas retiradas e reformuladas a partir de “UNDERSTANDING WHITE PRIVILEGE” por Francis E. Kendall, 2002 e “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” de Peggy McIntosh
para serem o que atualmente são? 6. Podes estar descansada/o que os teus filhos terão acesso a materiais curriculares que testemunhem a existência e história da sua ‘raça’? 7. És levada/o a falar em nome de todo o teu grupo étnico? Podes falar publicamente a um grupo poderoso sem pôr a tua ‘raça’ em causa? 8. Podes ser bem-sucedido/a sem que isso seja atribuído a toda a tua ‘raça’? 9. Podes facilmente encontrar posters, postais, livros com imagens, brinquedos, bonecos e livros para crianças em que figurem pessoas da tua ‘raça’? 10. Muitas pessoas da tua cor possuem automóvel próprio, postos de trabalho de chefia, casas no centro da cidade? 11. Temes que a cor da tua pele afete o tratamento que recebes por parte de autoridades ou instituições? Suspeitas que não te deram trabalho por causa da cor da tua pele? (Quando se usa aqui o termo ‘raça’ não nos estamos, naturalmente, a referir ao conceito da biologia que se aplica à divisão por grupos de animais da mesma espécie com diferenças genéticas. Nos seres humanos as características genéticas correspondem a uma só raça, mas o mesmo não pode ser dito em termos sociais e culturais, onde se trata as pessoas de modo diferente em função da sua aparência, uma construção social “positiva” PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 67
para uns e “negativa” para outros, também chamada de processo de racialização.) E cá em Portugal? Muita da polémica sobre o privilégio branco tem vindo dos EUA, um território usurpado aos índios americanos e povoado com mãode-obra escrava africana, onde os negros ainda hoje têm de reclamar que black lives matter, onde atualmente um presidente branco e rico é aclamado pelos seus discursos anti-imigração e onde a extrema direita fez um atentado numa manifestação antifascista, que resultou na morte de uma mulher. Mas cá em Portugal, estarão as coisas melhor? Existe segregação racial em bairros periféricos, morrem miúdos negros às mãos da polícia e mantemos uma imagem do colonialismo que assenta mais nos nossos grandes feitos do que na barbárie que infligimos. Condições perfeitas para que o privilégio branco seja um dado adquirido, mas não assumido. Em declarações ao jornal Público, no trabalho Racismo à portuguesa de Joana Gorjão Henriques, a artista Grada Kilomba explica o seguinte sobre privilégio branco: “Quando falamos de branquitude estamos a falar de entidades e de estruturas políticas, não de uma pessoa que é boa ou má.” Ou seja, “não tem a ver com moral”. Tem a ver com o facto de, “por questões históricas, sociais e políticas” haver um grupo de pessoas com “acesso a privilégios” (...) “Há um privilégio branco que eu não tenho como mulher negra. Uma mulher branca tem acesso a estruturas, a uma representação, a uma voz que eu não tenho. Quando abro o jornal não me vejo representada, entro num supermercado e não vejo as minhas crianças nos champôs. Sou constantemente confrontada com uma imagem que não é a minha e com a falta de representação. É um privilégio ser Representado.” Mas e nós, @s branc@s ativistas, revolucionários, anarquistas,... os anti-racistas? Ao ler algumas das perguntas acima 68 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
enumeradas, é possível sentir “mas eu não me identifico com os brancos e com esta sociedade; critico os jornais e televisões pelos seus discursos, estejam eles cheios de pessoas de todas as cores ou não, porque o conteúdo não muda; questiono a História ocidental e critico todo o domínio sobre outros e não acho que o colonialismo tuga tenha sido menos mau do que os outros.” Nós que queremos um mundo com privilégios para tod@s, sem divisões de ‘raça’ ou outras, e em que a diferença seja celebrada, podemos e devemos continuar a falar de privilégio branco. Primeiro, porque ao acharmos que a sociedade não nos condicionou ou que já desconstruímos o racismo, estamos a permitir que certas injustiças, mesmo que nos pareçam microinjustiças, persistam. E também porque apesar de umas poucas pessoas transgredirem a norma social, não quer dizer que a norma social esteja vencida. Uma pessoa não se identificar com os brancos não quer dizer que não seja identificada como branca. Segundo Harry Brod, um sociólogo norte-americano, “é preciso que fique claro que não existe tal coisa como abdicar do seu privilégio para estar “fora” do sistema. Estamos sempre dentro do sistema. A única questão é se estamos dentro do sistema para desafiar o status quo ou fortalecê-lo. O privilégio não é algo que eu use e escolha, portanto, não usar. É algo que a sociedade me dá e, a não ser que eu mude as instituições que mo dão, irá continuar a dar-mo e eu continuarei a tê-lo, por muito nobres e igualitárias que sejam as minhas intenções.”[2] Quando fazes certas escolhas de vida, quando optas por desafiar o status quo, é verdade que também sofres discriminações, perseguições policiais, desconfiança por parte de vizinhos e mais uma série de abusos de poder, com os quais as pessoas de outras cores têm de lidar [2]. Tradução literal do parágrafo do autor Harry Brod
quotidianamente. A grande diferença está, precisamente, em “escolher”, em “optar”. Não levaste com isso desde que nasceste só porque sim. Mesmo nos casos de outras faltas de privilégios, por exemplo o caso da pobreza, não se sofrem uma série de discriminações que só sofrem as pessoas cujo tom de pele é mais escuro que o dos europeus. De facto, várias pessoas brancas admitem que, mesmo não sendo normativas ou privilegiadas em vários aspetos, usufruem de uma série de condições à priori que pessoas não-brancas não têm. É importante falar sobre isto porque esse privilégio só existe para um grupo porque há outros grupos a serem subjugados. Existem muitos tipos de injustiças sociais, ambientais e animais, e o racismo é uma delas. Audre Lorde, uma escritora que se definia como negra, feminista e lésbica, afirmou que “A rejeição institucionalizada da diferença é uma necessidade absoluta numa economia de lucro que precisa de excluídos como pessoas excedentes.”[3] Isto é, a sociedade como a conhecemos só se mantém precisamente porque se alimenta da exclusão e da exploração, seja do sexo mais fraco, da classe mais fraca ou da etnia “menos evoluída”. Outro modo de articular este pensamento pode ser afirmando que o racismo é um produto do capitalismo e para acabar com um é preciso acabar com o outro. Dizer que todas as pessoas brancas são racistas pode ser um erro e pode ofender muita gente, embora eu como mulher branca e ativista antiracismo esteja disposta a admitir que a minha socialização, o meu crescimento, enquanto branca em Portugal me condicionou de tal modo que é provável que involuntariamente o seja. É a minha opinião que expresso com tristeza embora sem sentimento de culpa. Mas dizer que todas as pessoas brancas são privilegiadas não é uma opinião, é um
facto. Esse privilégio só desaparecerá quando houver uma mudança profunda e estrutural na sociedade. Mas é possível abdicar já de outro privilégio que é o do silêncio.
[3]. Tradução literal da frase “Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people.” da autora Audre Lorde PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 69
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TEACHING WITHIN. According to the Equality Challenge Unit’s latest report, there are over 18,000 professors in British universities. Less than a quarter are women, whilst a paltry 1.7% are BME women and only 0.6% are black. https://mediadiversified.org/2018/01/17/ why-are-women-of-colour-still-sounderrepresented-in-academia/ Shades of Noirs (SoN) ‘Teaching Within’ (TW) programme is a proactive academic progression intervention that responds directly to the under representation of academics of colour in the creative arts and design higher education (HE) sector. This programme was created in 2016 by Aisha Richards in collaboration with SoN and has been delivered across all 6 different colleges within University of the Arts London (UAL). Teaching Within responds to creative arts and design subjects having the second largest discrepancy between White academics and those of colour, with a mere 3.6 percent representation (ECU, 2009). Additionally, art and design has the second largest attainment gap across the higher education sector (Richards, 2017). TW is being delivered in an art and design HE sector, however this process and model could be applied to many sectors. ‘I was sceptical about the programme in the first instance and it has been tricky to implement from the course structure end. However, it became very clear really early on, that the mono culture and approach that currently exists has not
benefited and challenged all our students positively. The very presence of difference is powerful, let alone the knowledge and impactful contributions our teaching within academic brought to the studio, curriculum and my team’s personal pedagogic reflection’ UAL Course Leader (2017) TW has increased the presence of academics of colour and further enhanced a diverse community of practitioners across the institution. Additionally, it has supported the postgraduate teaching qualification student experience, (which sits within TW) opportunities for enhanced discourse, research and criticality amongst the student and staff community. ‘I think I have really developed my overall confidence as a lecturer, having to plan my own lesson plans and trusting my own creative ability as a designer. - I’ve realised my experience as a black female alumni is invaluable, even though I may not have as much experience as my fellow colleagues, particularly within the PgCert context and engaging students. The programme has provided me with an invaluable support network and a programme I can trust has my best interest in mind.’ Teaching Within Academic (2018) We have now completed our first year while continuously considering the lessons learned in order to deliver the next cohort programme. This has included surveys of all stakeholders and review meetings to further support cultural change. One of the successes are that over half of the TW academics from PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 71
the first phase have teaching hours beyond the programme both at UAL and beyond.
Eligibility: There are four communities that are eligible to access this programme: Shades of Noir (SoN) Graduates The successful development and engagement of SoN since its creation in 2009 has meant there are SoN graduates that are UAL alumni currently in the creative industry
Tell Us About It â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Tell Us About Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; was created by Terry Finnigan in 2009 and continues to be archived at the Stanley Kubrick Archive at LCC, as it continues to grow. This programme of work embraces, affirms and presents high achieving UAL students of colour voices through the creation of artifacts, where they reflect on their learning across their degrees. These artifacts are shared with new staff and new students so they become aware of the importance of difference within the student body and how it can enhance the learning experience. www.studentstories.co.uk/assets/ pdfs/20100310153604_2003409879.pdf
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Group for the Equality of Minority Staff (GEMS) GEMS is the longest standing and largest UAL staff group. The growth, engagement and prominence of the GEMS community; contributes to the changes in the UAL culture with regards to diversity, inclusion and equality. Many non-teaching staff are alumni to UAL and or practicing creative. BAME Talent Day The talent programme that was started at LCF by Angela Drisdale Gordon, which has now been rolled out at several colleges across UAL (Central Saint Martin renamed Teaching Futures - www.designcouncil.org. uk/news-opinion/interview-richie-manu ) and has contributed to the progression, access and invitation to industry specialists from diverse backgrounds, many who are UAL alumni. In addition to being part of one of these 4 communities, to apply for the scheme, the applicant needs to:
Teaching Within provides this university with an opportunity to progress the recruitment and value added of marginalized communities of practitioners and to transform the institutional paradigm in a variety of wide reaching ways. Further Reading: Richards, A. (2017). Reclaiming freedom beyond the glass ceiling to transform institutional cultures. In: D. Gabriel and S. Tate, ed., The accidental academic, 1st ed. London: IOE Press, p.16. http://blackbritishacademics. co.uk/2015/10/17/staff-and-students-ofcolour-speak-out-on-racism-in-academia/ https://www.runnymedetrust.org/blog/ black-female-professors-in-the-uk https://www.theguardian.com/ education/2017/jan/19/britishuniversities-employ-no-blackacademics-in-top-roles-figures-show
• Have been awarded a BA or and MA in art, design, communication or related subjects • Have graduated more than 2 years ago • Have worked more than 2 years at UAL in a non teaching role (GEMS only) • Have no teaching qualification • Not be in full time education currently or during the programme duration • Not currently be in a teaching role and not have had a permanent teaching post • Never been part of this programme (Teaching Within) previously
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INTERVIEWS: JADE MONTSERRAT. What actions do you take to practice anti racism? Breathing Where in the creative curriculum have you or would you consider topics surrounding whiteness or constructions of race? Embedded within Have you either experienced or witnessed the effect of microaggressions, and how did you manage it? Yes; mismanaged What activities already exist that transcend racial inequality? Exchange How does your work relate or explore this topic? PhD title: Race and Representation in Northern Britain from the perspective of the Black Atlantic How does creative expression combat racial inequality? Draws in and out
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WHAT WILL WHITE CULTURE HAVE TO DO?
JADE MONTSERRAT, PHD UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL LANCASHIRE. Presented at The What Should White Culture Do? Art, Politics, Race symposium, Royal College of Art, Saturday 11 November 2017, 12:30 pm 1) Dear friends, let us remember Glissants words “Every time an individual or community attempts to define its place in it, even if this place is disputed, it helps blow the usual way of thinking off course, driving out the now weary rules of former classicisms, making new “followthroughs” to chaos-monde possible”. 2) Understanding that the question What Should White Culture Do limits, negates, responsibility and accountability through the word SHOULD, I will speak about iterations of The Rainbow Tribe project, as a project that moves towards giving voice to a more democratic aesthetic, as an affectionate demand to address What Will White Culture Have To Do? I don’t want you thinking that my being here as your white Culture representative (can I have a t-shirt of that?) can alleviate the urgency of action. I want you to change the world. We need to start thinking exceptionally, as Stephanie Baptist said to me on Wednesday. 3) “First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of 78 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” “Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]” (University of Pennsylvania, 2018) 4) Alcoff in her article “What Should White People do?” is clear, suggesting there must be the “will to make significant sacrifices toward the eradication of white privilege”, adding “Part of white privilege has been precisely white’s ability to ignore the ways white racial identity has benefitted them.” In accordance with that sentiment Junot Diaz asserts that “it’ll take a lot to awaken those that have feasted well on our hegemonic structures.” 5) What collective strategies might we implement in resistance to structural racism and oppression? Morgan Quaintance in his e-flux article suggests refusal. How do we build to ensure our survival for refusal to work? In that case we need to consider collective refusal towards a level of joy. So where are our allies? Sandro Mezzadra suggests that “refusal is the origin of any politics of transformation.” The “No Surprise” letter suggests that we are solid, galvanized feminists, but for the
letter to impact our real and daily situations we require real structural change, and that too has to be done collectively. Alcoff cites Gloria Joseph who “also argues that white women are both tools and benefactors of racism, and that feminists must recognize and address white women’s social position as both oppressors and oppressed.” I continue to operate under the normalised structures that the letter describes. I am reliant on my body being objectified in ways that blur the personal and professional environment to a point that my sanity is tested beyond limits. As Claudia Rankine poetically recognizes in Citizen “The worst injury is feeling you don’t belong so much to you.“ 6) As Joseph Beuys pointed out “The next phase will involve the whole of mankind in the process of education.” We require an overhaul of our national curriculum. I was sent a link yesterday to a petition calling for black history to be taught in schools, in contrast to the histories told by the victors, the histories that have been undermined, silenced and buried, these histories require unleashing, shaking out. 7) I learnt nothing of our colonial and imperial histories at school. Richard Appingnanesi posits “...art history workshops should be programmed to acquaint the young with the culturally diverse knowledge production embedded in art history. We cannot stress enough how important it is to begin at the earliest age with a culturally inclusive view of society, with a wide horizon of knowledge, and a basic philosophy that can embrace the world with open-minded wonder. This is not
simply ‘art appreciation’ but a profoundly invested exercise in civic imagination.” 8) My school experiences were many and I was labelled a school refuser. From this outsider position I could observe varying principles and ethos upheld by these guiding institutions, I could compare curricular and in terms of their religiosity and moralising or absence of, begin noticing what I later learnt was an ethics of conduct; I attended Methodist, High Church of England and secular private and public schools. 9) Connecting the school experience was the isolating, exoticising fact of my presence, and whilst this could antagonise pupils and teachers through non adherence to their systems of hierarchical categorisation and expected subordination that supported a sense of belonging through totalising taxonomies, there was never a condescension towards either placing my body within a history of imperialist expansion or a recognition of contemporary black lived realities. 10) I lived conveniently in a white bubble, the “racialized legitimation of “Western civilisation” and the purported superiority of all things European”. We require an overhaul of our art historical canon. Glissant notes in Poetics of Relation that “Standardisation of taste is “managed” by the industrial powers.” 11) At Courtauld where I studied art history I was a self-proclaimed token and the art history taught there, skewed to the point of erasing anything other than a white male European perspective of history, allowed a personal disavowal of an identity that would PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 79
have benefitted from seeing and hearing from a multiplicity of voices. Instead the course reinforced a fractured, vulnerable identity already indoctrinated by a white male gaze. 12) We face the fact that our cultural and educational institutions are echo chambers for the white middle classes. Barby Asante, I understand from reading facebook, describes culture as a weapon, stating that “if it wasn’t a weapon we would all have access to it.” 13) Bell Hooks reinforces this in “Black Looks” “...control over images is central to the maintenance of any system of racial domination....for black people, the pain of learning that we cannot control our images, how we see ourselves (if our vision is not decolonized), or how we are seen is so intense that it rends us. It rips us and tears at the seams of our efforts to construct self and identity. Often it leaves us ravaged by repressed rage, feeling weary, dispirited, and sometimes just plain broken-hearted. These are the gaps in our psyche that are the spaces where mindless complicity, self-destructive rage, hatred and paralysing despair enter.” Griselda Pollock advocates a shift in the language promulgated within our cultural institutions and organisations and asks “Why are we still merely ‘correcting’ such radical imbalance with token additions? Do we need to grapple more profoundly with the structural racism and sexism of our culture and the way our cultural institutions performatively maintain whiteness and masculinity as norms?” 14) We require institutions, galleries, organisations, universities to embed care packages including racial justice training within their structures as standard, incorporating a code of conduct that with immediate effect brings about new equitable working environments, gender parity, racial equality, access. In a quote taken from Third Text’s Case For Diversity In Britain “It cannot be denied that art is embroiled in the 80 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
‘culture industry’ shaped by the twinning of market forces and state policy, the very essence of neoliberal capitalism, bonded to Private Public Partnerships” Richard Appingnanesi in the same document goes on to say “Artistic labour does not have a productive price that can be measured by an industrial output of marketable goods with a per unit profit. The artist has no control on the market price of artworks, insanely high for some, little or nothing for others, because artworks are not strictly commodities, and the artist has no wage-bargaining power that unions can use to negotiate with employers. Art has no use value, in Marx’s terms, but is a purely imaginary deposit of surplus value realisable only in cultural evolution.” Which reminds me to look at the organisation WAGE - a US model, the acronym standing for Working Artists in the Greater Economy. 15) As anxiety takes a hold, and we face an increase of violence, white-supremacist rhetoric, a patriarchy that won’t let go, heads of states that don’t recognise the humanity of difference, I’d like to quickly point out that the watercolour that was used to publicise the symposium, I’d always be sure, is of a white man who is haunted by the violence that ensued as a consequence of his educating at a youth camp organised by the youth league of the governing social democratic Labour Party. These are the eyes of the man whose lips are illustrated on the poster. On 22nd July 2011 Anders Breivick massacred 77 people, mostly teenage socialists, on an island in Norway. His actions were “the result of the political mainstreaming of pernicious racist and Islamophobic discourses.” (Sindre Bangstad) These Watercolours are of surviving teacher, Erik Pedersen. PLAY FILM What else will white Culture have to do? We require an emphasis on making clear and visible the circuits between energy source and our use of energy, as we face environmental catastrophe. The earth is vulnerable. This performance to camera filmed by Webb-Ellis called Clay is about humans gouging the earth,
humans being gouged from the earth, about rebuilding and the vulnerability we face in attempting to do this in isolation. What will white culture have to do? Listen and act on what it is hearing. My understanding is that our plurality, our shared responsibility outweighs an emphasis on individualism that is a pervasive societal norm. I can recommend Reni Eddo Lodge’s “Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race” because it speaks clearly about the deflecting responsibility of structural oppression back onto the oppressed. This year I have worked with 8 artists on a programme called Holding Space, where we come together every month for two days, where I began to expand my knowledge of colonial administrative processes, which this programme emphasises at its core. After each session I re-entered my all white spaces, including the semi personal professional ones alluded to above, attempted to speak about decolonisation and I am subsequently still recovering from the explosions that ensued and the punishment that continues from speaking about this taboo subject. Reni Eddo lodge thinks “that it is quite easy for people to wriggle out of institutional racism because they’re like ‘well, it’s nothing to do with me’. But structures really are made out of people. We are all are participating in it. Its embedded in institutions and small organisations like our families and friendship groups that then reproduce racism on a massive scale.” What this book has the potential to do is allow reflection writ large. We must all share the politics of representation. The reason I love this book so much is that it speaks from a uk context. An enlightening conversation with Jack Tan made clear that our histories, our black British histories are distinct from our African American comrades. The worrying thing with the homogenisation of American culture is that by attempting to challenge racism in the
uk by focusing on the African American experience we miss the particular British white racism and addressing it in a bespoke way. The risk is our whites adopting or performing US white racism. Our challenge is to look at our Imperial history and the economic rationale for maintaining structural racism. Eddo-Lodge points out that the Black British story is“starved of oxygen”, a story eclipsed, a deliberate attempt at keeping people ignorant about our colonial and imperial histories and the implications these have on culture and politics today. “What this does to the subjugated is distort our sense of reality.” I have spent all my life 9 miles West of Scarborough town: in a house with generated electricity, it’s own spring, gas lights, not a neighbour in sight. I came to live here through my mother’s marriage to a local solicitor and country farmer whose family had bought the land without knowing the properties on it existed. The land was used by him and his brother, an international armsdealer as a playground to blow and shoot shit up. Following divorce my mother retained a house and attempts to maintain it as a sort of home. It is an island amidst territory. For 23 years I lived under the care of this man who had grown up on the outskirts of Leeds, completed his law degree at Leeds University, and acted as duty solicitor at West Yorkshire Police, at the time that Jimmy Saville, also living in Scarborough and Leeds was, to the knowledge of the town in the case of Scarborough, allowed to abuse his status and was celebrated for it. I am the bastard child of dual heritage, not yet having met my biological father, who was incarcerated during my mother’s pregnancy. My Mother’s ex husband (who died last year) would reserve fearful stories of class, gender and racial marginalisation and inequalities for my ears PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 81
alone. One of the haunting stories he would retell might be thought of as in parallel with Rasheed Araeen’s “For Oluwale”. I cite this work because these cultural histories, painfully memorialised through art making, need to be made center stage. We need a Soul Of A Nation from a British context, we need exhibitions by our British Museum, our British Library our Tate Britain on our imperial and colonial histories, the legacies, curated by and focusing on those that speak from the margins. Back to the story, my mother’s ex-husband would refer to a young black man who was taken to the cells at West Yorkshire Police station whilst he was on duty. He described to me, always in private, how this young black man was beaten fatally, with all traces of his arrest and death consequently erased. Whether this account was true or not remains contested. My idea stemming from this story is to create a collective work, looking to the work of Rasheed Araeen and his ideas for a futurity, that envisions a collectivity inserting guerrilla memorialisation, breaking down barriers of participation within an institutional context. Rather than attempting to uncover truths behind this violent image of black death and the very clear message that black lives are disposable, implanted at a very early age, the idea is to discuss incarceration in its most expansive sense in terms of racism, imperialism and institutional domination, evasions, excuses and cover-ups, trauma and collective memory from personal experience and accounts, and translating them into actions for innovation, creativity and productivity. How might the question posed by Stuart Hall “From where does he/she speak?” expand the methodological role and function of culture? “For Oluwale” is a four panel work made after Araeen learnt about the death of the Nigerian migrant David Oluwale, who drowned in the River Aire in Leeds following continual police harassment. A subsequent criminal investigation resulted in the first-ever police prosecution of British 82 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
police officers in relation to the death of a black person. Today we must remember Sarah Reed and the very many others killed by the same structures that are supposed to be protecting. We must act towards shaping a society that does not profit by the relentless policing of our Black communities. “...it is justice that turns memory into a project, and it is this same project of justice that gives the form of the future and of the imperative to the duty of memory.” Paul Ricoeur 16) One iteration of The Rainbow Tribe Project which began collaboratively with Ria Hartley is The Rainbow Tribe: Affectionate Movement The workshop was initiated by the exclusively online enquiry of what “affectionate movement” has the potential to be within existing systems and movements. 17) An iteration that has branched off from this is a project entitled From A Creative Case To An Ecology of Care, in collaboration with Daniella Valz Gen, Alberta Whittle, Noa Carjaval and nicholas Tee. Following three public facing outcomes to this research in practice project, the difficulties in establishing dialogues when the go-to discourse is highly individualized were highlighted. We feel an imperative to centre care and are currently navigating the difficulties around that while holding the complexities that we face as artists making work. 18) The umbrella project’s title The Rainbow Tribe’s is taken from Josephine Baker’s pivotal 20th-century experiment ‘The Rainbow Tribe’ in which a group of 12 ethnicallydiverse children were adopted by Baker. The project explores Baker’s fairytale-like ideas of a modern mixed-race family in the climate of global 21st-century issues surrounding cultural diversity and political freedom within the context of the Imperial movement. Ann Anlin Cheng argues that “”The “Rainbow Tribe”...as a collection of children of different races teeters uneasily
between a bold dream of diversity and disquieting repetition of Imperial desire.” Baker’s family experiment was her flawed, solution to a global problem - how to transcend race. This liberal gesture, as identified by Cheng, (for both Baker and since) is not free from imperialist desires. The Rainbow Tribe project defines itself as a “cultural mix of peoples” who are “advocates of free movement”. The Rainbow Tribe project questions our collective agency, responsibility and commitment as global participants on a worldwide stage. 19) My art practice explores how Baker was appropriated by oppressors as a racialized symbol to serve a paternalistic agenda of apparent sympathy with the plight of the oppressed. This theoretical model, developed by Glissant (through his analysis of the way in which Nelson Mandela was appropriated), situates Baker as a “hero,” in Glissant’s terms, an “écho-monde” in western discourses, likewise therefore, symbolising the causes of oppressive powers: “Oppressive powers know this very well and attempt to incite “heroes”, whether real or mythic, to symbolise their causes. Thus there appear pseudo écho-monde, which Western opinion has apparently become expert at creating.” . Baker’s work was thus admired and applauded by the Peron regime and the French Resistance. Notwithstanding, Baker emerged from colonial and segregation contexts, utilised her celebrity status for humanitarian needs, and was subsequently courted by the Civil Rights Movement. My initial research on Josephine Baker included an enquiry into the balance between how she enabled control of her body and persona, the representations and possible manipulations of her body and an unapologetic quest for equality and freedom. 20) I have developed a personal interest in Baker as a dislocated self-styled woman longing to make sense of the constructs under which she was born. As a postcolonial subject
working from a North Yorkshire town I can draw from a fractured and erased biography; perpetually attempting to define place in community, shaped by experiences of cultural violence, nationalistic chauvinism, racism and xenophobia, coercion, and rejection. 21) Dionne Brand captures this liminal, fractured, disjointed space, which also serves to question cultural values, expectations and limitations: “To live in the Black Diaspora is I think to live as a fiction - a creation of empires, and also self creation. It is to be a being living inside and outside of herself. It is to apprehend the sign one makes yet be unable to escape it except in radiant moments of ordinariness made like art.” 22) The North Yorkshire rural landscape is I understand one scarred by borders, a testimony to territorial ownership; yet, I seek sanctuary within it. The project instigates conversations through practice from this personal understanding of the North Yorkshire rural landscape; and from my indeterminate history of migration stemming from my Irish and Welsh, Chinese and Montserratian ancestry. 23) The aims of creative work issuing from The Rainbow Tribe lead to investigating the idea of choreographed bodies and bodies in movement: ownership, representations and manipulations of the body; equality and freedom of expression, speech, movement, to actively participate as community, recalling and exploring through creative practice, and this quotation, again by Glissant, articulates this possibility: “This movement allows giving-on-and-with the dialectic among aesthetics.” My praxis is radical praxis which hopes to echo Josephine Baker’s radical praxis. The project straddles the thresholds of race, class, gender and globalisation, recognising that these elements are all in constant movement and flux. The Rainbow Tribe project can respond to the one, my one, point in time, again PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 83
recognising that all is in flux. My job as a creative practitioner is to feel it, research it and present it. The Rainbow Tribe project is an exchange between the Black Atlantic/ Black Diaspora and the North of England and the liminal space that I operate in, creatively. We might think of Josephine Baker’s “Rainbow Tribe” as an orphanage and by extension, through this contemporary project, Black Britain as an orphaned group: Where is my, and by implication where is the Othered bodies, space and place? As Stuart Hall notes, “‘identity is not in the past to be found, but in the future to be constructed’’ What should white Culture Do? Be ready to construct existing identities anew and create structures that Centre the celebration, care, warmth, and a real understanding of difference. In the words of Malcolm X “We have to change our own mind....We’ve got to change our own minds about each other. We have to see each other with new eyes. We have to come together with warmth.” WARMTH VALUE
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INTERVIEWS: ELLEN JONES. NUS WALES PRESIDENT.
What is your biggest challenge when talking about race? I often feel when I’m talking about race that it is hard for me to represent the viewpoints of those who face marginalisation, often when challenging racist views I am confident in my arguments but I do not feel that as a spokesperson I can accurately represent the experiences of people of colour. I recognise it is not my role as white woman to speak on behalf of people of colour but my role is to represent the issues of racism and mysognoir and to elevate the voices of those who it effects. How do you describe whiteness and the impact of this? Whiteness for me is not an identity I feel that many white people do not see themselves as white or categorise themselves in that way, which is a privilege in itself. The main reasons why white people don’t understand the implications of race is because they don’t face them, and they don’t have to make themselves aware of them if they don’t want to. Our education systems in the UK fuels this with white curriculums and celebrations of historic white victories such as colonialism which had a devastating impact on many people of colour. Racism will not go away until we educate ourselves on the experiences of others. Can you provide an example of how you have practiced anti racism? I practice anti-racism by being an active bystander rather than a passive one, if I see acts of racism or even people I know making jokes I challenge them in order to see that their views are harmful.
How would you explain white privilege to your peers? I find explaining white privilege to peers who have no former interest in liberation really challenging. I often I begin with making people understand that they have been given chances in their life because of the colour of their skin. They may not contribute to racist agendas, and have liberal ideologies but they still benefit from institutionalised discrimination, as many parts of our society were built by white people for white people. Often becoming a good ally is a journey but I encourage people to listen, understand and educate themselves and they will begin to see the injustices we white people gain from every day rather than be defensive when challenged. Do you personally work with Black led programmes, if so are there any things that you have to consider? I work as President of NUS Wales alongside the Black students campaign, however my role is to make sure their voices are heard in the decisions that we make as well as using my privilege to elevate them. What is your view on the term ‘microaggression’? I don’t really have a view on the phrase but I can understand from personal experience a build-up of comments whether it be on your race, sexuality, or gender over time can bring you to a point of wanting to break down as well as a negative effect on self-esteem.
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SHEDDING WHITENESS.
JON STRAKER, MACALESTER COLLEGE. Growing up in a white family, in a white community, and with very little Asian representation around me, I effectively grew up white. But I’m not. I’m adopted from Korea, and look very much like it. But for a long time I never wanted to acknowledge my ‘yellowness’. The first painting deals with me shedding my ‘whiteness’, illustrated in a more physical form. The other two paintings are Goya inspired interpretations of my white self devouring my yellow self.
Devour Self-Straker
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Shedding Whiteness - Straker
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Eating Self-Straker
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WHITE FRAGILITY.
ROBIN DIANGELO, WRITER/EDUCATOR UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON.
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Whiteness is a location of structural advantage, of race privilege. Second, it is a ‘standpoint,’ a place from which White people look at ourselves, at others, and at society. Third, ‘Whiteness’ refers to a set of cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed (Frankenburg, 1993, p.1) I am white. I have spent years studying what it means to be white in a society that proclaims race meaningless, yet is deeply divided by race. This is what I have learned: Any white person living in the United States will develop opinions about race simply by swimming in the water of our culture. But mainstream sources — schools, textbooks, media — don’t provide us with the multiple perspectives we need. Yes, we will develop strong emotionally laden opinions, but they will not be informed opinions. Our socialization renders us racially illiterate. When you add a lack of humility to that illiteracy (we don’t know what we don’t know), you get the break-down we so often see when trying to engage white people in meaningful conversations about race. Mainstream dictionary definitions reduce racism to racial prejudice and the personal actions that result. But this definition does little to explain how racial hierarchies are consistently reproduced. Social scientists understand racism as a multidimensional and highly adaptive system — a system that ensures an unequal distribution of resources between racial groups. Because whites built and dominate all significant institutions, their interests are embedded in the foundation of U.S. society. While individual whites may be against racism, they still benefit from the distribution of resources controlled by their group. Yes, an individual person of color can sit at the tables of power, but the overwhelming majority of decisionmakers will be white. Yes, white people can have problems and face barriers, but systematic racism won’t be one of them. This distinction — between individual prejudice
and a system of unequal institutionalized racial power — is fundamental. One cannot understand how racism functions in the U.S. today if one ignores group power relations. This control allows those of us who are white in North America to live in a social environment that protects and insulates us from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds expectations for racial comfort, making racial stress intolerable and triggering a range of defensive moves. We withdraw, defend, cry, argue, minimize, ignore, and in other ways push back to regain our racial equilibrium. That equilibrium consists of racial comfort, obliviousness, privilege and control. I term these dynamics white fragility, a concept that came out of my ongoing experience leading discussions on race, racism, white privilege and white supremacy with primarily white audiences. It became clear over time that white people have extremely low thresholds for enduring any discomfort associated with challenges to our racial worldviews. We can manage the first round of challenge by ending the discussion through platitudes – usually something that starts with “People just need to…” or “Race doesn’t really have any meaning to me” or “Everybody’s racist”– but scratch any further on that surface and we fall apart. When you add a deeply internalized sense of superiority and entitlement that we are either not consciously aware of or can never admit to ourselves, we become highly fragile in these conversations. We experience a challenge to our racial worldview as a challenge to our very identities as good moral people. It also challenges our sense of rightful place in the hierarchy. Thus, we perceive any attempt to connect us to the system of racism as a very unsettling and unfair moral offense. While the following do not apply to every PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 101
white person, they are well-documented white patterns that make it difficult for white people to understand racism as a system and lead to white fragility: Segregation: Most whites live, grow, play, learn, love, work and die primarily in racial segregation. Yet our society does not teach us to see this as a loss. Pause for a moment and consider the magnitude of this message: We lose nothing of value by not having cross-racial relationships. In fact, the whiter our schools and neighborhoods are, the more likely they are to be seen as “good.” The implicit message is that there is no inherent value in the presence or perspectives of people of Color. This is an example of the relentless messages of white superiority that circulate all around us, shaping our identities and worldviews. Individualism: Whites are taught to see themselves as individuals, rather than as part of a racial group. It follows that we are racially objective and thus can represent the universal human experience, while people of color can only represent their race. Seeing ourselves as unracialised individuals, we take umbrage when generalizations are made about us as a group. This enables us to ignore systemic racial patterns. Entitlement to racial comfort: In the dominant position, whites are almost always racially comfortable and thus have developed unchallenged expectations to remain so; we have not had to build tolerance for racial discomfort and thus when racial discomfort arises, whites typically respond as if something is “wrong,” and blame the person or event that triggered the discomfort (usually a person of color). This blame results in a socially-sanctioned array of responses towards the perceived source of the discomfort, including: penalization; retaliation; isolation and; refusal to continue engagement. Since racism is necessarily uncomfortable in that it is oppressive, white insistence on racial 102 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
comfort guarantees racism will not be faced except in the most superficial of ways. Racial Arrogance: Because most whites have not been trained to think complexly about racism in schools or mainstream discourse, and because it benefits white dominance not to do so, we have a very limited understanding of racism. Yet we have no compunction about debating the knowledge of people who have thought complexly about race. Whites generally feel free to dismiss these informed perspectives rather than have the humility to acknowledge that they are unfamiliar, reflect on them further, or seek more information. Racial Belonging: White people enjoy a deeply internalized, largely unconscious sense of racial belonging in U.S. society. In virtually any situation or image deemed valuable in dominant society, whites belong. In dominant society interruption of racial belonging is rare and thus destabilizing and frightening to whites and usually avoided. Psychic freedom: Because race is constructed as residing in people of color, whites don’t bear the social burden of race. We move easily through our society without a sense of ourselves as racialized. Race is for people of color to think about – it is what happens to “them” – they can bring it up if it is an issue for them (although if they do, we can dismiss it as a personal problem, the race card, or the reason for their problems). This allows whites much more psychological energy to devote to other issues, and prevents us from developing the stamina to sustain attention on an issue as charged and uncomfortable as race. Constant messages that we are more valuable: Living in a white dominant context, we receive constant messages that we are better and more important than people of color. For example: our centrality in history textbooks, historical representations and perspectives; our centrality in media and advertising; our teachers, role-models, heroes and heroines;
everyday discourse on “good” neighborhoods and schools and who is in them; popular TV shows centered around friendship circles that are all white; religious iconography that depicts god, Adam and Eve, and other key figures as white. While one may explicitly reject the notion that one is inherently better than another, one cannot avoid internalizing the message of white superiority, as it is ubiquitous in mainstream culture.
• Being presented with a person of color in a position of leadership (challenge to white authority);
Racial stress results from an interruption to what is racially familiar:
In a white dominant environment, each of these challenges become exceptional. In turn, whites are often at a loss for how to respond in constructive ways. White fragility prevents us from listening to or comprehending the perspectives of people of color and bridging cross-racial divides. In fact, white fragility functions as a kind of racial bullying – we make it so miserable for people of color to call us in on our inevitable but often unaware racist patterns that they just don’t. In this way, white fragility is a form of everyday white racial control.
• Suggesting that a white person’s viewpoint comes from a racialized frame of reference (challenge to objectivity); • People of color talking directly about their racial perspectives (challenge to white taboos on speaking directly about race); • People of color choosing not to protect the racial feelings of white people in regards to race (challenge to white racial expectations and need/entitlement to racial comfort); • People of color not being willing to tell their stories or answer questions about their racial experiences (challenge to the expectation that people of color will serve us); • A fellow white not providing agreement with one’s interpretations (challenge to white solidarity); • Receiving feedback that one’s behavior had a racist impact (challenge to white liberalism); • Suggesting that group membership is significant (challenge to individualism);
• Being presented with information about other racial groups through, for example, movies in which people of color drive the action but are not in stereotypical roles, or multicultural education (challenge to white centrality).
The antidote to white fragility is ongoing and life-long, and includes sustained engagement, humility, and education. We can begin by: • Being willing to tolerate the discomfort associated with an honest appraisal and discussion of our internalized superiority and racial privilege. • Challenging our own racial reality by acknowledging ourselves as racial beings with a particular and limited perspective on race. • Attempting to understand the racial realities of people of color through authentic interaction rather than through the media or unequal relationships.
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• Taking action to address our own racism, the racism of other whites, and the racism embedded in our institutions — e.g., get educated and act. “Getting it” when it comes to race and racism challenges our very identities as good white people. It’s an ongoing and often painful process of seeking to uncover our socialization at its very roots. It asks us to rebuild this identity in new and often uncomfortable ways. But I can testify that it is also the most exciting, powerful, intellectually stimulating and emotionally fulfilling journey I have ever undertaken. It has impacted every aspect of my life — personal and professional. I have a much deeper and more complex understanding of how society works. I can challenge much more racism in my daily life, and I have developed cherished and fulfilling cross-racial friendships I did not have before. I do not expect racism to end in my lifetime, and I know that I continue to have problematic racist patterns and perspectives. Yet, I am also confident that I do less harm to people of color than I used to. This is not a minor point of growth, for it impacts my lived experience and that of the people of color who interact with me. If you are white I urge you to take the first step — let go of your racial certitude and reach for humility.
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INTERVIEWS: ROBIN J. DIANGELO. What actions do you take to practice anti racism?
How does creative expression combat racial inequality?
Speaking up; devoting my life to working with my fellow white people to interrupt our internalized superiority; contribute percentage of my income to racial justice causes; seek to build relationships across race.
It has the potential to expose whiteness. Whiteness stays centered through remaining unmarked and unnamed. To expose it is to interrupt it.
Where in the creative curriculum have you or would you consider topics surrounding whiteness or constructions of race? All of my work address and only addresses exposing and interrupting white supremacy
How does your work relate or explore this topic? My work is centered on the objective of exposing whiteness. This submission is a basic overview of white fragility, and has been published in The Good Men Project.
Have you either experienced or witnessed the effect of microaggressions, and how did you manage it? Racism is 24/7, 365 so yes, I have witnessed and perpetrated micro-aggressions. When I perpetrate them and am aware of that fact, I seek to repair them. When I witness others making them, I seek to work with the person perpetrating them and support the recipient. What activities already exist that transcend racial inequality? I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe anything does or can transcend racial inequality because it is the system we are all in; there is no space outside of it. The best we can do is continually seek to interrupt and hopefully transform the current system.
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ACTING WHITE: A BOOK IN 300 OR SO WORDS. WORDS BY A SHADES FRIEND
Carbado, D. W., & Gulati, M. (2015). Acting white?: Rethinking race in postracial America. Oxford University Press. First things first, this is not really a book but a critical thesis on race and equality in the workplace. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s central premise is how we all have a working identity but those of us who are in a minority within the working environment work harder, have greater dichotomies and with this additional requirement thrust upon us often compromise ourselves, our true identities or our race in order to fit in. 106 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
Although it uses a US legal basis for how it examines the issues of balancing these divergent requirements of self-identity and working identity the situations this creates are actually pertinent to all those who are within a typical working environment this side or the other of the Atlantic. Whilst exploring and defining a working identity it tries and occasionally fails to hit the mark by resorting to extremes when viable day to day scenarios can and do exist that would perfectly elaborate the point being made â&#x20AC;&#x201C; this may be the requirement
to not present information on the situation but frame it a legal context rather than fault of the matter covered and for those no fault should be laid at the writers but they could have asked the reader to go the extra mile to assign their own experiences to the subject / dichotomy being shown. For anyone of colour in a minority at work the examples are not simply theoretical legal cases to be examined but the environment that every day is fought through to obtain the outcome they can most live with a subject the book itself fails to deal with head on or provide solutions other than resorting to legal actions. I felt my head nodding when points were made and took some solace in the fact that at least the writers had an idea of what it means to be the work minority. The central premise of our working selves and our identities is and remains a subject highly worthy of exploration, and I devour any material on the subject but this book the ultimate crystallising of itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s point is that â&#x20AC;&#x201C; these things happen, the law does not allow protection from them, work out a way that works for you and good luck.
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INTERVIEWS: HEATHER SCHOLL. ARTIST AND ACTIVIST.
What actions do you take to practice anti racism? I co-facilitate a workshop, Confront White Womanhood. We examine the ways white women uphold and benefit from white supremacy through historical context, personal story sharing, and vulnerable discussion to empower attendees to disrupt white supremacy within themselves and community Have you either experienced or witnessed the effect of microaggressions, and how did you manage it? I witness micro aggressions regularly. It is always a negotiation of when and where I address them, but I find through the use of curiosity and naivete I am able to subtly bring light to the irrationality of microaggressions. How does your work relate or explore this topic? My primary body of work entitled “Whitework” is an examination of white women’s roles in the establishment and maintenance of white supremacy. The pieces range from home to wearable items and are things that we may surround ourselves
with every day or on special occasions. These handmade items are adorned with imagery and quotes and while having an innocuous intimate feeling at first glance; reveal harsh stories of racial injustice upon closer examination. This work utilizes different white on white techniques but is primarily stitched in whitework embroidery. The pieces included are “The Heroine’s Veil”, which explores the white savior complex and how white women are often hurting in their “aid” efforts. And “A (white) Woman’s Work”, a quilt that using a lyching scene to address the ways white women normalize the violence against black people and help to make it a family affair. How does creative expression combat racial inequality? Creative expression is one tool in combating inequality. Through our creativity we are able to imagine new futures and envision new solutions. It is through these methods that we are able help other discover and more deeply understand the reality of racial inequality.
A White Womans Work
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A White Womans Work detail.
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A Heroines Veil.
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I AM DROWNING. ANONYMOUS, PHD UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS LONDON
I am drowning in a sea of whiteness I switch on my TV There are several white models staring back at me With flowers in their hair The ad represents purity and innocence I should buy that perfume Perhaps then I can become part of that fantasy After, there is a white male model with his top off An array of girl’s faint when they see his naked flesh And I think of how beauty is being packaged Nothing has changed since I was a kid There is only one type of beauty that is Valued and sought after throughout the world Or at least that is what they would have you believe On the show the host is paid lots of money To talk to or cook for his friends Oh, it’s a nice job if you can get it I turn over looking for images of myself in something The drug dealer dies and the man is on deathrow He is begging for his life. Well that was depressing Representation hasn’t changed much in all these years I flick from channel to channel The black dancers in the background are providing a lovely brown silky canvas 112 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
To Iggy Azalea as she gyrates like a white dancehall queen Bursting into American rap she is from Australia She is No 1 in the charts Wouldn’t it be great if I were able to see the origins of where she took those dance moves from. On X factor this guy sings Marvin Gaye He is straining like his throat is gonna snap He sounds out of tune to me He gets a standing ovation A plus sized woman with an afro sings with such Conviction that it makes the hair on your neck stand up She gets voted off in the first round by the British public In between programmes there is a product advertised That gets rid of frizz like it’s a bad thing My hair is sometimes referred to as frizzy Am I a bad thing or is it just that I have no sense of humour On my TV there are bears with afro dreadlocks that are rapping This seems like racial stereotyping of the worst kind Yet again I fail to see the joke Question time is on again And the politician is avoiding questions With his public school etiquette They act like thugs in the House of Lords sometimes
But that’s ok because no-one says anything about this Because when you have money and privileges you can do what you want I am stupid for noticing such things I need help perhaps the way I look at things Is stopping me from getting a promotion But my boss doesn’t know me on this level So this is not true, I’m gonna straighten my frizzy hair And laugh it all off it is my failure to change that is holding me back I will get a therapist and work on myself Because this is all in my mind Right ?
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WOCI (WOMEN OF COLOUR INDEX) READING GROUP. SAMIA MALIK ACTIVIST/ARTIST/ACADEMIC.
In October 2016 I founded the WOCI Reading Group with Michelle Williams Gamaker and Rehana Zamen. Before I explain the journey of starting the WOCI Reading Group, I will first discuss initial history and background of WOCI. WOCI was collated in early 90’s by artist Rita Keegan, who has a lineage of documentation within her own art practice. WOCI index’s around 120 Afro-Caribbean and Asian diaspora female artists. Index documents art history between 80’s and early 90’s. Many of these female artists explicitly and boldly made artwork fighting against institutional racism, white supremacy and 114 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
patriarchal structures. WOCI is kept at WAL (Women’s Art Library) currently located at Goldsmiths University. In 2015, X Marks the Spot produced a publication called Human Endeavour, a series of projection displaying slides and artefacts from WOCI. Human Endeavour was an excellent, integral introduction and also functioned as a guide book to work through WOCI. My initial research with WOCI was followed by an artist residency at Morpeth Secondary school in Bethnal Green, igniting and raising urgent and alarming questions about censorship of Afro-Caribbean and
Asian diaspora female artists histories why have I never been taught about these female artists? Why are these art histories not taught in institutional art education? Where are the artists in the Index? Why are many artists collated in WOCI not alive? In early 2016, I ran two curatorial projects at WAL, inviting women of colour artist to look at and respond to WOCI. Both artists were hugely inspired by the index but also alarmingly disturbed and concerned about the hidden histories. From these two projects WOCI’s lack of visibility became more evident and the quest to improve WOCI’s visibility became imperative.
2016 - June 2017, we’ve had some excellent feedback. The Reading Group was also referred to by many BA Fine Art students as one of the most important, informative and inspiring parts of their arts education in the past year. Goldsmiths University has invited WOCI Reading Group to run a module, which we continue to work on as a long term plan. In the current academic year we’ve received Chase funding for research, development and support to continue to run reading groups. We will also invite artists from WOCI as guest speakers to the Reading Group, in an attempt to further expand WOCI and women of colour artists.
Since October 2016, with two other women of colour teachers and artists, Michelle Williams Gamaker and Rehana Zaman, we’ve been organising and facilitating WOCI Reading Group monthly in educational institutions and art galleries. WOCI Reading Group started at WAL, with the aim to make Afro-Caribbean and Asian diaspora art history a compulsory part of the art educational curriculum. WOCI Reading Group also focused on making visible WOCI’s rich and confrontational histories fighting for social justice. Institutional racism is a prevalent problem in art education, hence the censorship and non acknowledgement of black art history is not unexpected. To progress, develop and for more of a humanised civilisation to exist institutional racism needs to be eradicated. In the past year, through running WOCI Reading Group once a month at Goldsmiths University, during academic year October PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 115
I DON’T HATE WHITE PEOPLE, I JUST CAN’T STAND WHITE SUPREMACY.
JULIE WRIGHT, MA CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS GRADUATE.
Whiteness. Every time I try to critique it I’m asked: “Do you hate white people?” or worse “You’re racist!” I remember in Vienna whilst myself and Melodie were delivering a lecture, one student in the audience asked a question about reverse racism and something along the lines of when black students create a space for themselves and say no white people are allowed it can be seen as that. It took me a while to get my head around the question but as soon as it was my turn to answer I had to educate her in something white people never have to think about. My response was reverse racism isn’t real. When black people create spaces that’s for us and only us, it isn’t about racism or even excluding white people. It’s about creating a space where we can support, uplift each other and be ourselves without having to worry about the white gaze, the microscope as I like to call it. We don’t need to think about performing under it or being scrutinized, feeling uncomfortable etc. because I’m sure every black person knows about that feeling of being the only black person in a room filled with white people (you can refer to Jordan Peele’s film get out to get a glimpse of what I’m talking about). I can remember my most recent experience was being the only black person in an entire building of white people in London’s Belgravia interning for this eyewear company 116 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
where I would consistently find myself listening to Kojey Radicals - 22 winters album to and from the office because the subtle and sometimes not so subtle micro aggression had my blackness being glared at from 10am – 6pm, 5 days a week. The pressure of being under the white gaze and not living up to any stereotypes such as the angry black women wore thin on my mental and emotional health as it almost felt like I was being antagonised and goaded into falling into that stereotype. If I say nothing it will continue, if I say something this justifies why they were treating me in that way. “See, I knew she was like that. That’s why I didn’t want to give her the job in the first place” or “This is why I didn’t like her and knew she wasn’t the right fit for the job”. Damned if we do and damned if we don’t, a common tale that we experience under the white gaze. I don’t hate white people. I just hate white supremacy. White supremacy happens to only benefit white people and whenever a PoC critiques that, retaliating by accusing them of being racist or hating white people is a silencing tactic. A tactic used to oppress. White supremacy makes room for white people to oppress people of colour thus the cycle continues. Another example of this was again in Vienna, a White male lecturer approached Melodie asking the
question of why don’t black people be more vocal about their experiences, if they don’t say anything nobody will know. I tried to inform him that the information is already out their, a simple Google search, scan of social media or even listening to our lecture/ workshop he would have learnt something but of course before I could even get past the word Google he started talking over me and ignored my very existence. And that’s the problem right there, clear as day. Racism is about a group of people in power exercising that power to oppress another group of people. How much power do PoC have compared to white people? Think about it, what does a black person saying to a white person they can’t come into this space, do to their life? White people can travel to any country on this beautiful planet and be welcomed with open arms, including Africa, the Caribbean etc. This is not the same for everyone else. White people can find work virtually anywhere yet for some PoC they have great difficulty getting jobs in countries they were born in because of their race. The media itself portrays white people in the greatest light whilst doing the complete opposite to black people i.e. Serena Williams and Sharapova who has been proven to take performance enhancing drugs yet still lose
to Serena. The media and commentators have referred to Serena as a man and gorilla all in an attempt to downplay her achievements. Edward Enninful became the first black person in history to become the Editor-in-chief of British Vogue and on the exact day of his appointment, 1st August, the BBC published an article asking the question “Is Vogue still relevant today?”. Those are examples of microaggressions. There are places in England I wouldn’t even dare to travel to because I know my brown skin could make me a target. So next time you hear one of us ask you to sit this one event out, as Solange Knowles says: “Just be glad you got the whole wide world This us This sh*t is from us Some sh*t you can’t touch.”
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VISIBLE FACE IN WHITE SPACES. ‘Visible Faces in White Spaces’ is an exhibition inspired by Rhian Spencer’s work ‘Black Faces in White Spaces’ (Fine Art, Camberwell College of Art, 2016). Spencer’s work features a series of illustrated portraits of black staff subjects and was displayed on iPads which were integrated throughout the Camberwell campus. During his study at Camberwell College of the Arts, Spencer often felt like a representative for his entire race as he was the only black person in many of his classes, leading him to feel excluded and isolated. Spencer’s work serves as an act of activism to create an enhanced black presence within his academic community. Shades of Noir (SoN) echoes this activism by proudly showcasing the contributions of students and staff of colour, working within the University of Arts, London (UAL). These portraits, taken by SoN photographer, Jay Lee, are put front and center as a celebration of their contributions and recognition of their collective significant presence within the institution. These people are the driving force for change within UAL and are bringing cultural currency to the table everyday which enriches our communities. We Salute them!
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INTERVIEW: RAYVENN SHALEIGHA Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;CLARK.
What actions do you take to practice anti racism? Speaking up; devoting my life to working with my fellow white people to interrupt our internalized superiority; contribute percentage of my income to racial justice causes; seek to build relationships across race. Where in the creative curriculum have you or would you consider topics surrounding whiteness or constructions of race? All of my work addresses and only addresses exposing and interrupting white supremacy Have you either experienced or witnessed the effect of micro-aggressions, and how did you manage it?
are all in; there is no space outside of it. The best we can do is continually seek to interrupt and hopefully transform the current system. How does creative expression combat racial inequality? It has the potential to expose whiteness. Whiteness stays centered through remaining unmarked and unnamed. To expose it is to interrupt it. How does your work relate or explore this topic? My work is centered on the objective of exposing whiteness. This submission is a basic overview of white fragility, and has been published in The Good Men Project.
Racism is 24/7, 365 so yes, I have witnessed and perpetrated micro-aggressions. When I perpetrate them and am aware of that fact, I seek to repair them. When I witness others making them, I seek to work with the person perpetrating them and support the recipient. What activities already exist that transcend racial inequality? I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe anything does or can transcend racial inequality because it is the system we PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 125
Y’ALL BETTER QUIET DOWN.
ANONYMOUS, MA UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS LONDON.
Y’all better quiet down Yells Sylvia Rivera To a crescendo of boos and jeers in New York City 1973 No love from the “overwhelmingly” white Gay Community or Women’s liberation movement She’s standing in her Puerto Rican transgender finery This brave LGBT civil rights pioneer white washed out of history Who formed Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries AKA STAR with her friend Marsha P. Johnson You can hear the fatigue in her voice 126 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
as she addresses the crowd After the rally she went home and tried to commit suicide Watching her confront an already oppressed group is draining Within the marginalised group is further marginalisation But you say those were different times I am reminded of my black gay male friend Who has been turned away from prominent gay clubs Because They think that he may be a drug dealer or he is mistaken for a security
guard while on a night out His body is fetishized and has been touched inappropriately And he is often expected to fit a stereotype Where is the black lesbian contribution to history? Where is the part I play in activism being documented? Have I been written out of my own story again? This time by well-intentioned white lesbians Am I to be shouted down just like Sylvia Rivera When I tell you how it is in here for me Is there room for me and my narrative at the table Even if that means there is no space for you? Y’all better quiet down Yells Sylvia Rivera To a crescendo of boos and jeers in New York City 1973 No love from the “overwhelmingly” white Gay Community or Women’s liberation movement She’s standing in her Puerto Rican transgender finery This brave LGBT civil rights pioneer white washed out of history Who formed Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries AKA STAR with her friend Marsha P. Johnson You can hear the fatigue in her voice as she addresses the crowd After the rally she went home and tried to commit suicide Watching her confront an already oppressed group is draining Within the marginalised group is further marginalisation
But you say those were different times I say Rainbow Racism is rife Transcription of activist Sylvia Rivera’s speech at New York City’s Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally in 1973. Sylvia Rivera: Crowd: [booing] Sylvia Rivera: Y’all better quiet down. I’ve been trying to get up here all day for your gay brothers and your gay sisters in jail that write me every motherfucking week and ask for your help and you all don’t do a goddamn thing for them. Have you ever been beaten up and raped and jailed? Now think about it. They’ve been beaten up and raped after they’ve had to spend much of their money in jail to get their [inaudible], and try to get their sex changes. The women have tried to fight for their sex changes or to become women. On the women’s liberation and they write ‘STAR,’ not to the women’s groups, they do not write women, they do not write men, they write ‘STAR’ because we’re trying to do something for them. I have been to jail. I have been raped. And beaten. Many times! By men, heterosexual men that do not belong in the homosexual shelter. But, do you do anything for me? No. You tell me to go and hide my tail between my legs. I will not put up with this shit. I have been beaten. I have had my nose broken. I have been thrown in jail. I have lost my job. PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 127
I have lost my apartment for gay liberation and you all treat me this way? What the fuck’s wrong with you all? Think about that!
a ‘P’! Gimme an ‘O’! Gimme a ‘W’! Gimme an ‘E! Gim me an ‘R’! [crying] Gay power! Louder! GAY POWER!
I do not believe in a revolution, but you all do. I believe in the gay power. I believe in us getting our rights, or else I would not be out there fighting for our rights. That’s all I wanted to say to you people. If you all want to know about the people in jail and do not forget Bambi L’amour, and Dora Mark, Kenny Metzner, and other gay people in jail, come and see the people at Star House on Twelfth Street on 640 East Twelfth Street between B and C apartment 14.
Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QiigzZCEtQ
The people are trying to do something for all of us, and not men and women that belong to a white middle class white club. And that’s what you all belong to! REVOLUTION NOW! Gimme a ‘G’! Gimme an ‘A’! Gimme a ‘Y’! Gimme 128 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
INTERVIEWS: PATRICIA TUITT. What actions do you take to practice anti racism?
How does your work relate or explore this topic?
Through published works.
The work is a review of Inside the Ivory Tower. It fully engages the work of the contributors to the volume, and highlights the ways that discrimination laws are being rendered impotent by certain cultures within the university.
Where in the creative curriculum have you or would you consider topics surrounding whiteness or constructions of race? Across the entire Law curriculum. Have you either experienced or witnessed the effect of micro aggressions, and how did you manage it? I held a senior management role for several years. I was in a position to develop and implement inclusive policies - mainly affecting students. What activities already exist that transcend racial inequality? Activities challenge rather than transcend. An example would be developing core and optional subjects which attend to the question of race - for example by ensuring that reading lists represent the work of black academics. How does creative expression combat racial inequality? Creative works tend to engage a broader range of people than evident in other discourses, such as law. Consequently, the opportunities for challenging racial inequality are greater.
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FURTHER RESOURCES.
KEY TERMS. Ally
A person of one social identity group who stands up in support of members of another group; typically a member of a dominant group standing beside member(s) of a group being discriminated against or treated unjustly.
Alt-Right
The “alt-right,” an abbreviation for “alternative right,” is a broad descriptive term used by current members of the racist farright to identify themselves and their movement.
Anti-Racism
The policy or practice of opposing racism and promoting racial equality.
Attainment
A thing achieved, especially a skill or educational achievement.
BAME
Acroynm for: Black And Minority Ethnic
BME
Acroynm for: Black Minority Ethnic
Binary
The classification of sex and gender into two distinct, opposite and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine.
Biracial
Having parents of two different races
Black
A term used in certain countries, often in socially based systems of racial classification or of ethnicity to name people, especially one of African, Australian Aboriginal and/or Melanisian ancestry.
Black Feminism
The belief that sexism, class oppression, gender identity and racism are impossible to separate. These concepts relate to each other through intersectionality
Body politics
The term refers to the practices and policies through which powers of society regulate the human body, as well as the struggle over the degree of individual and social control of the body. The powers at play in body politics include institutional power expressed in government and laws, disciplinary power exacted in economic production, discretionary power exercised in consumption, and personal power negotiated in intimate relations
Caste
Any class or group of society sharing common cultural features
Cisgender
A person who identifies with the gender that was assigned for them at birth
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Coolie
A term now regarded as derogatory and/or a racial slur in the Caribbean, Africa, Oceania, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in reference to people from Asia
Cognative Dissonance
Refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance.
Colourism
A term coined by Alice Walker in 1982. Describes the ideology and practice that dark skinned people are lesser than light skinned people. This ideology is indigenous to many cultures outside of the West but is one of the main foundations of racism and white supremacy.
Colonialism
The control or governing influence of a nation over another country, territory, or people. The process manifests through different forms of violence.
Colour-Blind
Showing or characterized by the percieved freedom from racial bias; the idea of not being influenced by skin color.
Democracy
A form of government, tied strongly to Anceint Greek political systems, wherein citizens of a state elect representatives to govern them and potentially have the power to remove such representatives from their position.
Desi
A Person of the indian subcontinent or South Asian diaspora. Desi countries include; Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Diaspora
Scattered population whose origin lies within a different geographic locale. Diaspora can also refer to the movement of the population from its original homeland.
East-Asian
In general terms, consists of China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Japan,South Korea and North Korea; sometimes, Mongolia and Vietnam are included in the definition.
Empire
A group of nations or peoples ruled over by a supreme power in governing; imperial power; sovereignty. Usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom.
Ethnicity
A group of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared historical, social, cultural experiences, ancestry which distinguish them from other groups.
Femininity
A set of behaviours, presentations and roles which are culturally associated with being a woman and/or possessing female sex characteristics. People of any gender identity or sexual orientation can be feminine, but women and those who are assigned female at birth often experience societal pressure to be so.
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Femme
Femme is a feminine gender role which is sometimes used as a gender identity. The term femme originated in communities of lesbian and bi women. This term has been increasingly adopted by people who do not identify as women. Those who identify as femme may simply identify as women, have a feminine gender expression, and/or use femme as a non-binary gender identity aligned with femininity.
Gender
Gender is an expression of the reenactment of certain roles. it may differ from time to time.
Gender Queer
Gender queer is an umbrella term with a similar meaning to nonbinary. It can be used to describe any gender identities other than man and woman, thus outside of the gender binary.
Heteronormative
The belief that people can only fall into distinct and complementary genders (man and woman) with fixed traditional gender roles. It assumes that heterosexuality is the only sexual orientation or the only norm.
Homophobia
Prejudice against same gender sexual and/or romantic relationships. This hatred extends to the cultures of LGBT/queer people.
Internalised Racism Internalised racism is loosely defined as the internalisation by people of racist attitudes towards members of their own ethnic group. Intersectional Feminism
A perspective within feminism that doesn't exclude people from the movement based on their Gender, Race and Class.
Intersectionality
A term coined by KimberlĂŠ Crenshaw which examines how social identities are used as a way to discriminate against marginalised groups who experience multiple forms of oppression simultaneously. Specifically women of colour who suffer from both gender and racial discrimination.
Intersex
An intersex person is has sex characteristics e.g.sexual anatomy, reproductive organs, and/or chromosome patterns that do not fit the typical definition of male or female. This may be apparent at birth or become so later in life.
Institutional racism
Racial discrimination that has become established as normal behaviour within an institution or organization. Institutional racism leads to inequality
Imperialism
The extension of a nation's imperial government authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political dominance over other nations.
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan is a white supremacist group in the U.S. founded in 1865.
Light Skin Privilege
Within the context of the Black Community, this defines as a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to black people of lighter skin tone and complexion. PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 133
Marginalise
To relegate to the fringes, out of the mainstream; make seem unimportant:to place in a position of marginal importance, influence, or power.
Masculinity
A set of behaviours, presentations and roles which are culturally associated with being a man and/or possessing male sex characteristics. People of any gender identity or sexual orientation can be masculine, but those who are assigned male at birth often experience societal pressure to be so.
Matriarchy
A social system in which females hold primary power, predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property at the specific exclusion of men, at least to a large degree. An example of a matriarchal society is Moja village in Northern Kenya founded by Rebecca Lolosoli.
Microaggressions
A subtle but offensive comment or action directed at a minority or other nondominant group that is often unintentional or unconsciously reinforces a stereotype
Misogynoir
A term referring to misogyny directed towards Black women, where race and gender both play roles in bias.
Mixed Race
Denoting or relating to to a person whose parents belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
Mulata/o - Mulatto/a A term used to refer to persons born of one white parent and one black parent or to persons born of a mulatto parent or parents. In English, the term is today generally confined to historical contexts. English speakers of mixed white and black ancestry seldom choose to identify themselves as "mulatto." Multi-ethnic
Of, or relating to, or including several ethnic groups.
Multi-racial
Relating to people of many/multiple races.
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism, the modern iteration of the ideology that first took hold in Germany under Adolf Hitler, is a racist faction that primarily targets those who are Jewish
Non-Binary
Non-binary gender describes any gender identity which does not fit within the binary of male and female.
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One-drop Rule
The one-drop rule is a social and legal principle of racial classification that was historically prominent in the United States asserting that any person with even one ancestor of sub-Saharan-African ancestry ("one drop" of black blood) is considered black. This concept evolved over the course of the 19th century and became codified into law in the 20th century. It was associated with the principle of "invisible blackness" and is an example of hypodescent, the automatic assignment of children of a mixed union between different socioeconomic or ethnic groups to the group with the lower status. The social and legal concept of the "one-drop rule" does not exist outside of the United States. The "one-drop rule" rule is frequently compared and contrasted with the racial concepts of Latin America.
Oppression
When a person or a group of people are subjected to unjust, and usually violent treatment by those in position of power.
Orientalism
The representation of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and East Asian in a stereotyped way that is regarded as embodying a colonialist attitude. [See: Edward Said]
Patriarchy
A social system in which cis-men hold primary power, predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property at the specific exclusion of women and non gender conforming people, at least to a large degree.
Pedagogy
The method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept.
POC
Person/People of colour, has been used and taken up at different points in history in different places to describe non-white, European people.
Postcolonialism
A theoretical approach in various disciplines that is concerned with the lasting impact of colonization in former colonies.
Poststructural feminism
Poststructural feminism is a branch of feminism that engages with insights from post-structuralist thought. Poststructural feminism emphasizes "the contingent and discursive nature of all identities", and in particular the social construction of gendered subjectivities
Prejudice
Hatred towards someone based on their identity. Example: An oppressed person of colour can be prejudiced against privileged races but cannot be racist. One can be prejudice but with no power to oppress or effect another perons life.
Privilege
A special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a individuals in particular groups by institutions.
Pronouns
A word that can function as a noun phrase used by itself and that refers either to the participants in the discourse. People with various gender identities choose pronouns they feel comfortable with; some people may have more than one pronoun.
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QTIPOC
Queer, Trans and Intersex People of Colour
Queer
An umbrella term for sexual and gender minorities that are not heterosexual and/or cisgender
Queer Phobia
Similar to Homophobia, describes a fear or hatred of queer folk (any one who is not heterosexual)
Race
A socially constructed system of classification of the human population into distinct, unequal, discontinuous groups, based, from the 17th century onwards, on physical features and ancestry. Though the concept existed long before this time, in many different forms, it was used by European scholars, scientists, merchants and nobility to legitimise and justify their genocide and dispossession of the peoples of America and enslavement of Sub-Saharan Africans.
Racial ambiguity
Unable to pinpoint one's racial background just by looking at them. Being racially unidentifiable.
Racism
Acts of prejudice, bigotry, and/or discrimination of individuals of one race against members of other races. These acts do not count as racism if they are coming from members of a marginalised race, i.e. black people, as they do not have the social, political or economic power to make their actions opressive and effective. Racism also refers to institutional, systemic, linguistic and economic structures that perpetuate the idea of racial superiority and inferiority, allowing for a wide range of effects, e.g. skin-bleaching, overrepresentation of PoC in prisons, underrepsentation of PoC in media, the poverty of Africa and its Diaspora community.
Radical feminism
Radical feminism suggests that the answer to social problems can be a complete restructuring of how society defines human experience.
Representation
Refers to equality in opportunity and visibility. For example, representative media is media that is reflective of the variety of races, cultures, genders or religions that its entire readership belongs to.
Scientific Racism
Propaganda with the veneer of science which was fabricated to support a racist paradigm.
Self Defining women A person who identifies as a woman, regardless of what gender was assigned for them at birth Sex
Denotation of human females and males depending on biological features (chromosomes, sex organs, hormones and other physical features)
Sexual Orientations A person&rsquo;s sexual identity in relation to the gender to which they are attracted Sexuality
Refers to a person's sexual orientation/preferences in terms of sexual activities
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Structural Racism
In comparison to institutional racism, structural racism speaks of a broader spaces made by group of people, from dozens, hundreds, or thousands that all have the same biases and personal prejudices joining together to make up one organisation and acting accordingly.
Subversion
To undermine the power, authority and logic of an established system, culture or institution with the aim of overthrowing or causing a significant transformation.
Systemic Racism
Systemic racism accounts for individual, institutional, and structural forms of racism.
TERF
Transexclusionary radical feminism. A well known branch of radical feminism, known for it's adoption of biological essentialism that is used to exclude transwomen from womanhood and to justify attacks on transwomen.
Trans Man
Trans man is a term which describes someone who is both a man and transgender. Trans men were assigned female at birth, and their gender identity is male. They also may be referred to as transmasculine. Trans men can have any sexual orientation.
Trans Masculine
A term used to describe transgender people who were assigned female at birth, but identify with masculinity to a greater extent than with femininity.
Trans Sexual
The term transsexual predates the term transgender, but has become less popular and savoury as it may imply that sex characteristics are more important than gender identity.
Trans Woman
A term which describes someone who is both a woman and transgender/transsexual. Trans women were assigned male at birth but their gender identity is female. They may also be referred to as transfeminine. Trans women can have any sexual orientation.
Transgender
The term transgender is an umbrella term for anyone whose internal experience of gender does not match the gender they were assigned at birth .
Transphobia
Prejudice and/or fear towards the Trans folk
Transmisogyny
A term referring to misogyny directed towards trans women.
Whiteness
Defined as a set of characteristics and experiences that are attached to the white race and white skin. In the U.S. and European contexts, whiteness marks ones as normal and the default. While people in other racial categories are perceived as and treated as 'other'. whiteness comes with a wide variety of privileges.
White Anxiety
Paranoia amongst white individuals of all classes of alienation or loss and/or threat to their identity. One of the leading causes to ideologies such as white nationalism.
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White Denial
The tendency for most white folks to reject the notion that racism is still a significant obstacle.
Whiteness studies
An interdisciplinary arena of inquiry that has developed beginning in the United States, particularly since the late 20th century, and is focused on what proponents describe as the cultural, historical and sociological aspects of people identified as white, and the social construction of "whiteness" as an ideology tied to social status.
White Extremism
Views, actions, thoughts carried out or shared amognst white supremacists and nationalists. [See:White Supremacy, White Nationalism]
White Feminism
A feminism that does not take into consideration non-white women, often even partaking in the oppression of non-white people.
"White Fragility"
The term “white fragility,” was coined by Dr. Robin DiAngelo, a multicutural education professor at Westfield State University, who described the term as, “-a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves.”
White Guilt
"Refers to the concept of individual or collective guilt often said to be felt by some white people for the racist treatment of people of color by white people and/or systemic both historically and presently. Also associated to the revelation of being complicant to structural racism and realising their own unconscious bias that they’ve been conditioned to practice, due to our current structurally racist sociopolitical framework. "
White Nationalism
White nationalism is a version of white supremacy or white separatism that defends “country by white racial identity,”.
White Privilege
White privilege (or white skin privilege) is a term for societal privileges that benefit people identified as white in some countries, beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances.
White Tears
“White Tears” is phrase to describe what happens when certain types of White people either complain about a nonexistent racial injustice or are upset by a non-White person’s success at the expense of a White person. It encompasses (and makes fun of) the performative struggle to acknowledge the existence of White privilege, and the reality that it aint always gonna go unchecked.
White Victimhood
Term used to describe the vicitmisation of white folk that feel as though they are being discrimated against, they may also belive that they are at the recieving end of 'reverse racism'.
White Separatism
White separatism is a form of white supremacy that believes white people “should exist separately from all inferior, non-white races,”.
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White Supremacy
White supremacy is an ideology centered upon the promotion of the belief, that white people are superior. It is argued by critical race theorist that all white people have a level of white supremacy values because of the media, education and politics have embedded whiteness as superior in society.
White Washing
A term used to describe white actors or actress playing non-fictional and historical non-white character roles. Therefore writing and disconnecting historical events and achievements to the non-white community.
WoC
Women of Colour
Womanism
Because mainstream feminism goals and ideologies differed to that of the needs of Black women, Alice Walker coined the term womanism where Black Women were at the center of the ideology without the need to racialise how gender plays an important role in the life of Black Women.
Xenophobia
Fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY. Buckley-Irvine, N. (2017). ‘Universities’ shame – unpicking the black attainment gap’ http://wonkhe.com/blogs/analysis-universitiesshame-black-attainment-gap/ (Accessed 23/08/2017 12:34) Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford law review, 1241-1299. DiAngelo, R, (2011). White fragility. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 3(3). Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) www.ecu.ac.uk/ (Accessed 23/08/2017 12:42) Henry, F, & Tator, C. (2006). The colour of democracy: Racism in Canadian society . 3rd Ed. Toronto: Nelson Higher Education Academy (HEA) www.heacademy.ac.uk (Accessed 23/08/2017 12:56) Jones. M, (2015) 4 Reasons People of Color Can’t Cater to White People’s Guilt – Or Their Tears [Accessed 3/12/17] [Availabe at]: https:// everydayfeminism.com/2015/11/poc-cant-cater-white-guilt/ Kivel, P. (1996). Uprooting racism: How white people can work for racial justice . Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Press McIntosh, P. (1988). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Mirza, H.S. ed. (1997). Black British feminism: A reader. Psychology Press. Moreton-Robinson, A. (Ed.). (2004). Whitening race: Essays in social and cultural criticism (No. 1). Aboriginal Studies Press. Richards, A., & Finnigan, T. (2015). Embedding equality and diversity in the curriculum: an art and design practitioner’s guide. Higher Education Academy and University of the Arts London. https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/ug_ retention_and_attainment_in_art_and_design2.pdf (Accessed 23/08/2017 11:30) Twine, F. W. (1998). Racism in a racial democracy: The maintenance of white supremacy in Brazil. Rutgers University Press.
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FURTHER READING. Books: Alcoff, L. M. 2015, The future of whiteness. John Wiley & Sons. Allen, theodore W., The Invention of the White Race, Volume 1: Racial Oppression and Social Control, London: Verso 1994 Alexander, C. E. 1996, The Art of Being Black: The Creation of Black British Youth Identities: The Creation of Black British Youth Identities. Clarendon Press. Bell, C. M. (Ed.). 2011, Blackness and disability: Critical examinations and cultural interventions (Vol. 21). LIT Verlag Münster. Bernardi, D. (Ed.). 1996, The Birth of Whiteness: Race and the Emergence of US Cinema. Rutgers University Press. Bérubé, A. 2001, How gay stays white and what kind of white it stays. The making and unmaking of whiteness, 234-265. Blanden, J., & Machin, S. 2004, Educational inequality and the expansion of UK higher education. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 51(2), 230-249. [Available at]: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/17497/1/__lse.ac.uk_storage_LIBRARY_Secondary_ libfile_shared_repository_Content_Blanden%2CJ%26Machin%2CS_ Educational%20inequality_Blanden_Educational%20Inequality_2014.pdf Bonnett, A. 1996, Anti‐racism and the critique of ‘white’ identities. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 22(1), 97-110. [Available at]: https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/5998251/newcommunitywhite. pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1503539329& Signature=4U89oRa62P%2B89KOd%2BKkzeicuELU%3D&response-contentdisposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DAnti-racism_and_the_critique_of_white_id.pdf Cowden, S., & Singh, G. 2013, Acts of Knowing: Critical Pedagogy in, against and beyond the University. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. Canaan, J. E., Amsler, S. S., Cowden, S., Motta, S., & Singh, G. 2010, Why critical pedagogy and popular education matter today. [Available at]: http://publications.aston.ac.uk/9145/1/Critical_Pedagogy_Popular_Education.pdf Clarke, S., & Garner, S. 2009, White identities: A critical sociological approach. Pluto Press. PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 141
Cousin, G. 2012, Global citizenship: climbing out of the box. AISHE-J: The All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 4(1). [Available at]: http://ojs.aishe.org/index.php/aishe-j/article/download/76/61 Cousin, G. 2009, Researching learning in higher education: An introduction to contemporary methods and approaches. Routledge. Currans, E. G. 2007, Performing gender, enacting community: women, whiteness, and belief in contemporary public demonstrations. University of California, Santa Barbara. DiAngelo, R. J., & DiAngelo, R. J. (2006). White Fragility in Racial Dialogues. Inclusion in urban educational environments: Addressing issues of diversity, equity, and social justice, 213. Dines, G., & Humez, J. M. (2003). Gender, race, and class in media: A text-reader. Sage. Dumont, L. (1980). Homo hierarchicus: The caste system and its implications. University of Chicago Press. Finnigan T. Richards, A (2016). Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design. Higher Education Academy. [Available at]: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/ug_retention_ and_attainment_in_art_and_design2.pdf Francis, M. (2011). Creative subversions: Whiteness, indigeneity, and the national imaginary. UBC Press. Frankenberg, R. (1993). White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness. University of Minnesota Press. Frankenberg, R. (Ed.). (1997). Displacing whiteness: Essays in social and cultural criticism. Duke University Press. Fanon, F. (1967) Black Skin White Masks, New York:Grove Press Gillborn, D. (2005). Education policy as an act of white supremacy: Whiteness, critical race theory and education reform. Journal of Education Policy, 20(4), 485-505. [Available at]: http://eprints.ioe.ac.uk/1654/1/gillborn2005education485text.pdf Gilroy P. ( 1987) There Ainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t No Black in the Union Jack. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Han, C. S. (2007). They donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to cruise your type: Gay men of color and the racial politics of exclusion. Social Identities, 13(1), 51-67. Hatton, K. (2016). In what ways are theories derived from postcolonialism, whiteness and poststructural feminism implicated in matters of intercultural arts research?. The Routledge International Handbook of Intercultural Arts Research, 46. 142 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
Jensen, R. (2005). The heart of whiteness: Confronting race, racism and white privilege. City Lights Books. Kannen, V. (2008). Identity treason: Race, disability, queerness, and the ethics of (post) identity practices. Culture, Theory & Critique, 49(2), 149-163. Katz, J. H. (2003). White awareness: Handbook for antiracism training. University of Oklahoma Press. Lee, J. (2002). Racial and ethnic achievement gap trends: Reversing the progress toward equity?. Educational researcher, 31(1), 3-12. [Available at]: http://gse.buffalo.edu/gsefiles/images/Lee’s%20ER%20 article%20racial%20achievement%20gap.pdf Leonardo, Z., & Broderick, A. (2011). Smartness as property: A critical exploration of intersections between whiteness and disability studies. Teachers College Record, 113(10), 2206-2232. Lewis, A. E. (2004). What Group?” Studying Whites and Whiteness in the Era of “Color‐Blindness. Sociological theory, 22(4), 623-646. [Available at]: http://www.csun.edu/~snk1966/Lewis%20Whites%20and%20 Whiteness%20in%20the%20Era%20of%20Color-Blindness.pdf Lipsitz, G. (2006). The possessive investment in whiteness: How white people profit from identity politics. Temple University Press. Lloréns, H., & Carrasquillo, R. E. (2008). Sculpting Blackness: Representations of Black‐Puerto Ricans in Public Art. Visual Anthropology Review, 24(2), 103-116. MacPhee, G., & Poddar, P. (Eds.). (2007). Empire and after: Englishness in postcolonial perspective. Berghahn Books. McRuer, R. (2006). Crip theory: Cultural signs of queerness and disability. NYU press. Martineau, J., & Ritskes, E. (2014). Fugitive indigeneity: Reclaiming the terrain of decolonial struggle through Indigenous art. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 3(1). Mirza, H. S. (Ed.). (1997). Black British feminism: A reader. Psychology Press. Montserrat, J. What will white culture have to do? Presented at The What Should White Culture Do? Art, Politics, Race symposium, Royal College of Art, 2017 [Accessed at: 28 Nov 2018] [Available at:] www.jademontserrat.com/2017/11/13/what-will-white-culture-have-to-do/ Moreton-Robinson, A. (2004). Whiteness, epistemology and Indigenous representation. Whitening race: Essays in social and cultural criticism, 75-88. PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 143
Munro, B. M. (2012). South Africa and the Dream of Love to Come: Queer Sexuality and the Struggle for Freedom. U of Minnesota Press. Nelson, A., Jones, K., Smethurst, J., Walters, W., Pollard, C., Duganne, E., ... & Wilkinson, M. J. (2006). New thoughts on the Black arts movement. Rutgers University Press. Pearce, S. (2003). Compiling the white inventory: the practice of whiteness in a British primary school. Cambridge Journal of Education, 33(2), 273-288. [Available at]: http://research.gold.ac.uk/6545/1/CCJE_33_2_07.pdf Puar, J. K. (2007). Terrorist assemblages: Homonationalism in queer times. Duke University Press. Richards, A., & Finnigan, T. (2015). Embedding equality and diversity in the curriculum: an art and design practitioner’s guide. Higher Education Academy and University of the Arts London. [Available at]: http://www.theboxroom.com/clients/davis-bonnick/eedc_art_and_design_online.pdf Roediger, D. R. (2006). Working toward whiteness: How America’s immigrants became white: The strange journey from Ellis Island to the suburbs. Basic Books. Schech, S., & Haggis, J. (2004). 13. Terrains of migrancy and whiteness: how British migrants locate themselves in Australia. Whitening Race, p176. Sleeter, C. E. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and the overwhelming presence of whiteness. Journal of teacher education, 52(2), 94-106. Steyn, M. (2001). Whiteness just isn’t what it used to be: White identity in a changing South Africa. Suny Press. Stokes, M. (2001). The color of sex: Whiteness, heterosexuality, and the fictions of white supremacy. Duke University Press. Wise, T. (2007) White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son. Soft Skull Press Wray, M. (2006). Not quite white: White trash and the boundaries of whiteness. Duke University Press. Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving. (Elephant Room Press, 2014) What Does it Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy by Robin DiAngelo. (Peter Lang Inc., 2012) “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” and Other Conversations about Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum (Perseus, 2003) Witnessing Whiteness: The Need to Talk about Race and How 144 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
to Do It by Shelly Tochluk (R&L Education, 2010)
Articles, Essays & Journals: Airaksinen, T (2017) Feminist prof to teach class lamenting ‘American Whiteness’ [online] Campus Reform. Available at: https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9576 Wong, R. (2018). A Syllabus for Making Work About Race as a White Artist in America. [online] Hyperallergic. Available at: https://hyperallergic.com/369762/asyllabus-for-making-work-about-race-as-a-white-artist-in-america/ BBC (2017) Naomi Campbell shames Vogue over diversity [online] BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/entertainment-arts-41022264 Brown, M. (2017) Ready to Ditch White Feminism? 6 Black Feminist Concepts You Need to Know [online]. Everyday Feminism. Available at: http://everydayfeminism.com/2017/01/ready-ditch-white-feminism/ ClearyPR, (2016) Huffington Post causes diversity storm on social media [online] ClearlyPr. Available at: http://www.clearlypr.co.uk/huffington-post-diversity-storm/ Clifton, D (2015) Black Women Are Getting Killed by Police Too — So Why Aren’t More People Discussing It? [online] Mic. Available at: https://m.mic.com/articles/117228/black-women-continue-getting-killedby-police-why-aren-t-more-people-discussing-it#.T5RHzwZjd Cima, R. (2015) How Photography Was Optimized for White Skin Color [online] Priceonomics. Available at: https://priceonomics.com/how-photography-was-optimized-for-white-skin/ Coates, T. (2017) The First White President [online] The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-firstwhite-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/?utm_source=atltw Daniel, M. (2014) The history white people need to learn [online] Salon. Available at: http://www.salon.com/2014/02/07/the_history_white_people_need_to_learn/ Davis, J. (2016) Piers Morgan, you don’t like Beyonce in Lemonade because her blackness isn’t white enough for you any more [online]. Independent. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/beyonce-lemonade-piersmorgan-jamelia-open-letter-a7001261.html?amp Dyer, S. (2017) Questions asked but answers avoided at ‘What Should White Culture Do?’ symposium.[online] A-N. Available at: https://www.a-n.co.uk/news/questions-asked-answers-avoidedwhite-culture-symposium [Accessed at: 28 Nov 2018] PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 145
Fritz, S. (2017) I Used To Be Ashamed Of My Blackness [online] Huffpost. Available at: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_59304935e4b09e93d796484e/amp?ncid =fcbklnkushpmg00000047&section=us_contributor&utm_campaign=hp_ fb_pages&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=bv_fb&zwc= Grant, C. (2017) Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge review – ‘racism is a white problem’ [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/03/why-no-longtalking-white-people-review-race-reni-eddo-lodge-racism Greenberg, J. (2016) How White Americans’ Hatred of Racism Actually Supports Racism Instead of Solves It [online] Everyday Feminism. Available at: http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/08/hatred-of-racism-supportsracism/?utm_content=buffere9d2a&utm_medium=social&utm_ source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer Harker, J. (2017) The highest paid BBC stars are all white. Where’s the outrage? [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/20/highestpaid-bbc-stars-white-black-ethnic-minority-top-20-rich-list Jackson, P. (2017) How trump ruined my relationship with my white mother [online] VSB. Available at: http://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/how-trump-ruined-myrelationship-with-my-white-mother-1797935049/amp Kegler, A. (2016) The Sugarcoated Language Of White Fragility [online] HuffingtonPost. Available at: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/10909350?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004 Michaels, S. (2015) It’s Incredibly Scary to Be a Transgender Woman of Color Right Now [online] Mother Jones, Available at: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/06/transgender-womendisproportionately-targeted-violent-hate-crimes/ Rage Against The Minivan (2012) how to talk to kids about race and racism [online] Available at: http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2012/01/how-to-talk-to-kids-about-race-and.html?m=1 Roberts, K. (2017) Why Gucci’s newest campaign features all black models and dancers [online] PBS. Available at: www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/art/guccis-newest-campaign-features-black-models-dancers Tutt, P. (2016) How White Privilege Affects 8 People of Color On A Day-To-Day Basis [online] Bustle. Available at: https://www.bustle.com/articles/146867-how-white-privilegeaffects-8-people-of-color-on-a-day-to-day-basis 146 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
Williams, K (2015) To My White Friends Who See Tragedy in the Black Community and Say Nothing, Make it Personal [online] Huffington Post. Available at: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7666594?utm_hp_ref=black-voices&utm_ source=everydayfeminism.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_article Workman, A. Di Stefano, M. (2017) 21 Things White Politicians Said During Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Racism Debate [online] Buzzfeed. Available at: https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/markdistefano/18-c-town Zamurd-Butt, H. (2017) Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happening to British Asian culture? Media Diversified. Available at: https://mediadiversified.org/2017/08/21/whats-happening-to-british-asian-culture/amp/
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DIGITAL RESOURCES. Websites: Whiteness Project www.whitenessproject.org/ Whiteness Project is conducting interviews with people from all walks of life and localities in which they are asked about their relationship to, and their understanding of, their own whiteness. Each video interview is paired with a statistic that provides a greater societal context and offers an opportunity for self-reflection by the audience on their own thoughts about race. The Racial Imaginary www.theracialimaginary.org/ Our name “racial imaginary” is meant to capture the enduring truth of race: it is an invented concept that nevertheless operates with extraordinary force in our daily lives, limiting our movements and imaginations. We understand that perceptions, resources, rights, and lives themselves flow along racial lines that confront some of us with restrictions and give others uninterrogated power. These lines are drawn and maintained by white dominance even as individuals and communities alike continually challenge them. Beyond Whiteness www.beyondwhiteness.com/ Website with resources and training on Whiteness. The Department of Chicana/o Studies www.chicst.ucsb.edu The Chicana/o Studies Department engages students in the interdisciplinary study of Chicana and Chicano history, culture, and politics. Our students explore Chicana/o experiences in their most broad, comprehensive sense, informed by several philosophical and theoretical schools, historical and political scholarship, literary and religious traditions, artistic movements, mass media, and video and film. In partnership with affiliated faculty across campus and feminist and Black Studies Ph.D. emphasis programs, the B.A./ Honors/M.A./Ph.D. programs in Chicana and Chicano Studies challenge students to link theory with practice, scholarship with teaching, and the academy with the community. Racial Equality Tools www.racialequitytools.org/fundamentals/core-concepts/whiteness-and-white-privilege Racial Equity Tools is designed to support individuals and groups working to achieve racial equity. This site offers tools, research, tips, curricula and ideas for people who want to increase their own understanding and to help those working toward justice at every level – in systems, organizations, communities and the culture at large. 148 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
On Being www.onbeing.org/about/ On Being is a Peabody Award-winning public radio conversation and podcast, a Webby Award-winning website and online exploration, a publisher and public event convener. On Being opens up the animating questions at the center of human life: What does it mean to be human, and how do we want to live? We explore these questions in their richness and complexity in 21st-century lives and endeavors. We pursue wisdom and moral imagination as much as knowledge; we esteem nuance and poetry as much as fact. Under Our Skin https://projects.seattletimes.com/2016/under-our-skin/ Under Our Skin grew out of conversations about how we at The Seattle Times cover race at a time when national and local events — the furor over police shootings, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, protests on college campuses and charged campaign rhetoric — dominate headlines. In our newsroom, we’ve found ourselves talking more candidly about race and racism, subjects that simmer beneath the surface even when they’re not on the front page. [..] White Noise Collective www.conspireforchange.org/?page_id=2#where-is [..] We are informed and inspired by the intersectional analyses of influential Black feminist theorists as well as the work of our antiracist white ancestors. We share a vision of working toward a world free of white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity and other oppressive ideologies. [..]
Podcasts: Seeing White www.podcast.cdsporch.org/seeing-white/ A 14-part documentary series exploring whiteness in America— where it came from, what it means, and how it works. Code Switch: Race and Identity, Remixed www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/05/31/479733094/the-codeswitch-podcast-episode-1-can-we-talk-about-whiteness [..] ‘The first episode of the Code Switch podcast! We decided to start off with a question we’ve been fixated on over the past few months: Why is it so hard to talk about whiteness?’[..] The Atlantic PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 149
www.soundcloud.com/user-154380542 Soundcloud Account to The Atlantic. The Atlantic covers news and analysis on politics, business, culture, technology, national, international and life on the official site of The Atlantic Magazine. IRJ – White Privilege Podcast Ep16 – UUAGA 2017: Fighting white supremacy in us www.interracialjawn.com/podcast/irj-white-privilege-podcastep17-pulling-down-monuments-bad-satire/ Interracial Jawn presents Episode 17 of White Privilege Podcast “Pulling down monuments & bad satire” cohosts @VeryWhiteGuy & @UnrulyRev discuss Charlottesville, taking down of confederate monuments, more myth of the good white people, white supremacy is the foundation of our society, Tina Fey’s mess and more. Citedpodcast www.citedpodcast.com/26-commodifying-diversity/ The people clamour for more talk on university applications; virtual counselling is probably better than nothing; and Donald Trump had a good idea? Plus, Natasha Warikoo on meritocracy, diversity, and college applications. Indian Independence and British Decolonisation By Dr Christopher Prior https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/indian-independenceand-british-decolonisation/id699625708?mt=2 The Student Union Lecture Series 5: Unsettling Whiteness www.soasradio.org/tags/decolonising-our-minds The Decolonising Our Minds Society is delighted to host renowned academic Barnor Hesse from Northwestern University.
Video: The Grapevine www.youtube.com/channel/UCPf55sis3jNICWi3K1NsJMQ The Grapevine is a fresh and innovative take on the panel style discussion. The show places the topics of today in the hands and minds of young game changers, artists, cultural innovators, and professionals to dissect what the impact is for this generation. Sensei Aishitemasu www.youtube.com/channel/UCzTTM7g6KJ1lFF9wuJCdvTg/about [..] ‘Also: Black Judy Funnie, Stat Queen, Black Business Plug, Anti-YouTube YouTuber. Writer for Nylon Magazine and Riot Material literary website. Yes, all white people are racist.’ [..] Marinashutup www.youtube.com/user/marinashutup/featured My videos have been described as “mildly entertaining” and “the worst editing I have ever seen”. Here we vlog about feminism and my bio professor. I put up videos weekly and I’ve been told that I take sarcasm to the point of making people sick. Let’s have some good times. 150 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
Kat Blaque www.youtube.com/user/TransDIYer/featured Opinion Vlogger, Children’s Illustrator and Thrift Store Addict Riley J. Dennis www.youtube.com/user/JustinDennisYT/search?query=white Just a queer girl making videos about intersectional feminism, politics, and whatever else she feels like. :) Jazmyne Drakeford www.youtube.com/channel/UCcLlQ JRyD3CmCIAfDlinokQ/featured Hey fam and future subscribers! I’m Jazmyne, I’m 23 years old, and from Oakland, CA (yee!) but currently living in Brooklyn. My channel is all about self-empowerment, social justice, building the Black community, and whatever else I feel like, including fashion/thrift lookbooks and hauls, DIY’s, random thoughts, rants, a tutorial every now and then, and much, much more. I will also be sharing some of my business ventures with you guys so stay tuned! Abantu May www.youtube.com/channel/UCcpq7s8fsHxOrn1MOSP1-iQ/featured ‘Hi there! There is nothing perfect here, just life and the curiosity of it. I´m currently in a process of a lot of reflection on the things in my daily life that I think are “normal”. Seeking to explore learning, relearning and unlearning as an act of selfempowerment, decolonization and self-liberation. If I resonate with you, stay tuned for more and don´t hesitate to become a part of the ABANTU (people) tribe’.
Films/Documentaries/Talks THE GRAPEVINE | Whitewashing | S3EP9 (1/2) [Available at:] www.youtube.com/watch?v=02bhV6lntUc What Should White Culture Do? Part 1 of 3. Art on the Underground [Available at:] www.youtube.com/watch?v=10vaV4dNpDQ&feature=youtu.be The Color of Fear (1994) Directed by Lee Mun Wah. [Available at:] www. diversitytrainingfilms.com/films-2/films/the-color-of-fear-sample/ Within Our Gates (1920) by Oscar Micheaux Raça (2013) by Joel Zito Araújo Yvone Kane (2014) by Margarida Cardoso The Murmuring Coast (2004) by Margarida Cardoso The Human Pyramid (1961) by Jean Rouch PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 151
Amreeka (2009) by Cherien Dabis Battle of Alergers (1966) by Gillo Pontecorvo Imitation of Life (1934) by John M. Stahl Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) by Stanley Kramer Glory (1989) by Edward Zwick Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible (2006) Rabbit Proof fence (2002) by Phillip Noyce Rendition (2007) by Gavin Hood The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012) by Mira Nair White Like Me (2013) Directed by Scott Morris Whitewashed: Unmasking the World of Whiteness (2013) by Mark Patrick George [Available at]: www.filmsforaction.org/watch/whitewashed-documentary/ Zulu (1967) by Cy Endfield I’m not racist but…(2012) SBS[Available at:] www.sbs. com.au/news/insight/tvepisode/im-not-racist
Key Organisations: UAL SO White www.facebook.com/groups/549743741868185/?ref=group_browse_new Facebook Group created during the campaign of #UALSOWHITE Tell MAMA UK www.tellmamauk.org/ Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks (MAMA) is a secure and reliable service that allows people from across England to report any form of Anti-Muslim abuse. We have created a unique portal where you may address your concerns and record any incident that you experience as a result of your Muslim faith or someone perceiving you to be Muslim. By using our ‘Submit a Report‘ section, you can describe the details of the abuse you suffered, whether verbal or physical, and then add in the location of the attack so that we can effectively map incidents across England. We can also refer you for support through partner agencies if you have been a victim of an Anti-Muslim incident. Stand Up To Racism 152 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
http://www.standuptoracism.org.uk/ A racist offensive is sweeping Europe, with governments and the right-wing media using migrants, refugees and Muslims as scapegoats for an economic crisis and wars they did not create. The racist tide will only be driven back by anti- racists standing up and confronting it. From Germany to Greece to the USA, people who want a society free from racism are saying no more. People are taking to the streets in large numbers to oppose racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and to say migrants and refugees are welcome here. [..] Whiteness and Anti-Racism Learning Group www.facebook.com/groups/411020965758440/?ref=gs&fref=gs&hc_location=group This is an anti-racist discussion group where white people can learn about white supremacy culture, whiteness and how to take action as an effective white ally. The group is moderated by Sofa, Noelle, Camille and Katie and is part of The Collective Liberation Project The Collective Liberation Project https://www.thecollectiveliberationproject.com/ The Collective Liberation Project creates positive change by teaching people about oppression, racism and sexism, and how to dismantle it within themselves and their communities. This knowledge provides people with a toolkit to understand and interpret interactions that reproduce oppression. We believe that racism and sexism are systemic issues that we are taught to reproduce as individuals in our daily behaviour, thoughts and interactions. These behaviours are deeply rooted in our emotions therefore, it is important to acknowledge the feelings that arise when we think about oppression, how it relates to our lives and how to create a society free from it. The White Privilege Project www.facebook.com/groups/316492321880512/?ref=br_rs What is white privilege? Why do we use the term? How does it affect us? Alongside students from UCL and Cambridge University we will be creating a short film discussing these very questions. Indy Media www.indymedia.org.uk/en/topics/anti-racism/ Anti-racist and anti-fascist news. A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues. Unite Against Fascism www.uaf.org.uk Organising together We believe that these dangers require a strong and united response from all those dedicated to freedom and democracy. We must combine our forces and unite in a broad and common front against this common threat. The Red Card www.theredcard.org/ Show Racism the Red Card is the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s anti-racism educational charity and was established in January 1996. The organisation utilises the high-profile status of PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS // 153
football and football players to help tackle racism in society. The majority of the campaign’s output is the delivery of education to young people and adults in their schools, their workplaces and at events held in football stadiums. Across Britain, Show Racism the Red Card delivers training to more than 50,000 individuals per year. NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AGAINST RACISM www.naar.org.uk/ Racism is not something many of us would like to speak about in polite conversation, let alone in public, but unfortunately not addressing the very real problem facing our society only gives strength to its perpetrators. So let’s say you yourself, as not only a citizen of the UK but a human being, firmly stand against racism and are able recognise the very real danger it poses to not only your neighbours but yourself as well. Racism does not only tragically effect those that have to face the uglier side of humanity, but all of us, as a society that allows racism to persist is not beneficial to any member. [..] Stop Hate UK www.stophateuk.org/ Stop Hate UK is one of the leading national organisations working to challenge all forms of Hate Crime and discrimination, based on any aspect of an individual’s identity. Stop Hate UK provides independent, confidential and accessible reporting and support for victims, witnesses and third parties.
Twitter Users to Follow: @actforchangehq The campaign for greater diversity in the live & recorded arts. Founded 2014. RT is not necessarily endorsement. We provoke debate & challenge towards CHANGE @BAMNOLA2016 Black Arts Movement, Dillard Univ. September 9-11-16. A celebration of the history, culture, literature and art of the Black Arts Movement with movement icons. @BB_Bloggers Community for Black British bloggers, podcasters & YouTubers @chaedria Words: @ellemagazine, @nymag@refinery29. State violence, White supremacy, art & fashion. Creator of Basquiat’s Defacement: The Project @CLAWabolition CLAW Chicago League of Abolitionist Whites. Mobilizing white people to abolish white supremacy through education, solidarity fundraising and turnout to actions. @DearWhitePeople Welcome to Winchester University. Check your privilege at the door. @decolonisefest Annual DIY punk fest celebrating punx of colour. 154 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
@Diversehistory2 Online hub - Share your BAME history events (exhibitions, conferences, festivals, film screening) & job opp Check out @diversehistory for educational resources. @DW_UCT Speaking to white people on white privilege, whiteness and institutional racism. Allyship to black-led anti-racist and decolonial actions. @endwhitesilence WHAT’S UP?! is a Pittsburgh based collective working to create a world that is free of destructive white privilege and oppression. @got_privilege WPC examines challenging concepts of power, privilege & oppression. It offers solutions and action-building strategies to work towards a more equitable world. @IjeomaOluo Editor at Large: www.theestablishment.co @kat_blaque Youtuber//Illustrator//Animator//Writer @MunroeBergdorf Model - DJ - Activist @PrivilegedCheck CHECKING YOUR PRIVILEGE SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO. @PrivilegeGrant The Privilege Grant is available exclusively to white men, in support of their post-secondary education. @renireni Author of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race (@bloomsburybooks). @seren_sensei ‘So, About That’ on YT. Writer @riotmaterial, @nylonmag #TheGrapevine @STOPNORMALIZING I change ‘alt-right’ back to ‘white supremacy’ one tweet at a time (I’m part bot part human) Alt-Right = White Supremacy - D/L the Chrome Extension.
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We salute you!
Peekaboo We See You: Whiteness © Shades Of Noir 2018