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

Tools

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]

Text
FINAL Rollock RT chapter The Heart of Whiteness Revised Dec16.docx
Permissions: Administrator Access Only
Download (61kB)

Preview

Text
FINAL Rollock RT chapter The Heart of Whiteness Revised Dec16.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.
Download (477kB) | Preview

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