The Heart of Whiteness: Racial gesture politics, equity and higher education

Rollock, Nicola. 2018. The Heart of Whiteness: Racial gesture politics, equity and higher education. In: Jason Arday and Heidi Safia Mirza, eds. Dismantling Race in Higher Education Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 313-330. ISBN 978-3-319-60260-8 [Book Section]

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Abstract or Description

This chapter considers how, despite legislation, policies and expressed commitment to ‘equality and diversity’, racial inequalities (such as the Black-white degree attainment gap and the low number of Professors of colour) are able to persist in UK higher education institutions. Drawing on composite examples from empirical research, personal communications from colleagues in the UK and overseas and, my experience advising on race equality, I posit that institutional directives to address race inequalities often fail to engage seriously with the fundamental aspects of race and racism. Instead, it is argued that universities tend to embrace a range of limited short-term strategies and initiatives, which give the appearance of serious engagement but, in effect, make little substantial, long-term difference to the experiences, outcomes and success of students and faculty of colour. The chapter closes by considering how these groups might work toward a humanizing, successful existence within spaces characterized by this contradiction.

Item Type:

Book Section

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60261-5

Keywords:

race inequalities; gesture politics; UK professors of colour

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Educational Studies

Dates:

DateEvent
19 September 2018Published

Item ID:

27817

Date Deposited:

06 Jan 2020 10:30

Last Modified:

09 Jun 2021 23:00

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/27817

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