Race Me Too: Institutional Anti-Racist Declarations, but are they listening?
15 November 2021, 3:00 pm–4:00 pm

Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart, Dean, Oxford Law Faculty
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UCL Laws Events
Race Me Too: Institutional Anti-Racist Declarations, but are they listening?
Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart, Dean, Oxford Law Faculty.
Convenor: Ralph Wilde
About this talk
Educational institutions love to display people of colour in their websites and glossy brochures, as they loudly declare themselves anti-racist or non-racist. But such ‘colour-washing’ and self-declarations are cheap. Every person of colour can detail innumerable instances of racist treatment conscious or unconscious, small or large, that cumulatively inflict significant injuries to their persons and their circumstances; the axe forgets or doesn’t even notice what the tree remembers.
How can well-meaning institutions and individuals in the majority group go beyond empty self-certifications of virtue?
- The saying often deployed to oppose change is: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. But, whether something is ‘broke’, depends on who you ask. So, the first step must be to listen. Just listen. And, to do so without rationalizing, excusing, avoiding, defending, or gaslighting.
- The second is to validate people of colour; to be able to say: “I see you; I hear you; I respect you; I acknowledge your pain.”
- The third is critically to reflect, read, discuss, and action anti-racism measures.
- What is the nature of unconscious bias? How does it affect people of colour in educational settings? What can institutions and individuals do? How can we be good allies?
Do you care?
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