Within the provided resources we encounter a range of perspectives on how institutions and their subjects are affected by policies designed to address systemic racism and inequality. In this post I hope to examine the resources and provide some reflective guidelines for the Fine Art Computational Art (FACA) technical team.
Analysing the Resources : Bradbury and Garrett.
In the two texts Bradbury (2020) and Garrett (2024) cover various policies informed by Critical Race Theory (CRT), across a range of pedagogical timelines. Bradbury focuses on assessment and early education, exposing the unseen inequalities present in perceivably ‘neutral’ systems. Garrett looks more at later education and PhD careers, focusing on the lived experiences of racialised scholars.
Analysing the Resources : Video Content.
In the Telegraph’s segment ‘Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke.’ James Orr takes us on the Cambridge campus to explore his deepening concerns with how ‘diversity bureaucracies’ are having a ‘corrosive effect’ upon UK educational institutions. In his opening argument he states that Universities have been ‘wracked with debates over statues, plaques, controversial visiting speakers and campaigns to rewrite curricula’, whilst in the edit we see clips of Jordan Peterson alongside imagery of various student protests. If not at least clear from it’s Click Bait title, this video is designed to posit Culture War talking points as evidence of excessive ‘woke’ influences upon University campuses.
Orr, who JD Vance once described as his ‘British Sherpa’ (McElvoy, 2024), interviews various groups of students on campus, all of whom speak positively about Racial Bias Training and dutifully answer questions such as ‘do you feel woke?’. He then brings on a few of his male colleagues to opine about the loss of free speech in universities and how there is no evidence of systemic racism at Cambridge because there has only been one official HR complaint of racism per year so far.
The video evidently reflects what Derrick Bell (1980) referred to as ‘Interest-Convergence.’ A defence of elite interests that dismisses Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policy – in this case represented by Advance HE’s Athena Swan and Race Equality Charters – as ‘Woke’. It is particularly chilling to view this video in light of the vast educational reforms and censorship currently taking place in America, perhaps even directly inspired by the participants of this film.
In the Ted talk, Sadiq (Tedx, 2020) critiques DEI practices as cookie cutter, one fits-all solutions. He champions experiential learning and outlines the need for more nuanced intersectional approaches to DEI implementation. This is in contrast to the previous video in which Orr’s interviewee Arif Ahmed apposes DEI altogether claiming it to be a waste of money and that anti racism training is ‘worse than a waste of money’ because it pushes ideological lies (such as white fragility).
There is further cross over in the sources as we view the channel 4 clip, involving group of young primary school students taking part in a ‘privilege walk’. The Privilege Walk (or Power Shuffle) is a workshop activity created by Sherova Macuse in the 80s to help high school students to ‘unlearn oppression’. It reveals unconscious biases by ranking students based on a series of questions based on their race and positionality within society.
The Privilege Walk and truly affecting responses of the child participants could also be seen as an in-practice example of the kinds of experiential learning that Sadiq touches upon in his Ted talk.
Responding to the Resources.
In response to the resources I’ve created a set of recommendations for the FACA Technical Team that could be incorporated into a broader intersectional action plan.
Navigating Competing Narratives.
- In the Telegraph video we encounter what CRT refers to as ‘Interest Convergence’ : defending the interests of elites by dismissing DEI as ‘woke’ etc.
- Technical staff may encounter students and staff influenced by anti-DEI or anti-woke media and it’s proponents. Maintaining an awareness of this discourse allows for better navigation of these perspectives.
CRT in Practice.
- Technicians should always ask who does and does not benefit from workshops content, studio layout/design, software choices and scheduling.
- Some examples would include a working class student that cannot afford a laptop powerful enough to run industry standard software or an international student that cannot navigate complex software in their second language.
Tailored DEI Responses.
- Ensure that we celebrate technical wins just as much as we critique certain technical choices or conceptual decisions.
- Viewing the departments’ DEI practices through an intersectional lens that is tailored for the needs of individuals.
- Avoiding ‘Tick-Box DEI’ (as described in the Ted Talk) by removing token representation from technical content and rejecting cookie cutter compliance materials (utilizing Moodle in our case).
Experiential and Embodied Learning.
- Exploring systemic issues via the workshops content and practical sessions.
- Understanding racial biases in technologies such as digital avatar and hair creation tools.
- Examining racial biases in AI tools and data sets.
- Simulating scenarios of privilege or dis-advantage using games design tools.
Intersectional Design.
- Identify how student’s converging identities (race, class, gender, disability, neurodivergence) affect how they navigate the technical workshops and spaces.
- Try to identify how the technical team can adapt their support strategies to better suit an individuals needs.
References.
Bradbury, A. (2020). A critical race theory framework for education policy analysis: The case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in England.
Garrett, R. (2024). Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education,
Orr, J. (2022) Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke. The Telegraph [Online]. Youtube. 5 August
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRM6vOPTjuU
Sadiq, A. (2023) Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right. TEDx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw
Channel 4. (2020) The School That Tried to End Racism. [Online}. Youtube. 30 June.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3wJ7pJUjg
Bell, Derrick A. “Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma.” Harvard Law Review, vol. 93, no. 3, 1980, JSTOR
McElvoy, Anne, Telegraph, 2024
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/09/29/jd-vance-mentor-james-orr-us-election-republicans/
Parenti. C, Nonsite, 2021
https://nonsite.org/the-first-privilege-walk/
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