Social sirens
Amid spiralling racist violence, dangerous media narratives and degrading academic debates, the concerns of Black and racially minoritised communities are being met with deafening silence, writes Runnymede Trust CEO Dr Shabna Begum.
It feels like those of us who work in the racial justice sector are suffering from the Cassandra curse.
We keep pointing to the emergency ‘social sirens’ blaring around us: successive years of racist riots, record hate crime statistics, attacks on even the softest equality initiatives and a resurgence of white ethno-nationalist discourse.
But those around us with power and influence appear unable or unwilling to hear, let alone react to, these perilous warnings.
‘A discredited eugenicist ideology’
Nathan Cofnas looks likely to speak at an Oriel College society event at Oxford University on Tuesday despite widespread concern and outrage about his publicly held views as a self-defined ‘race realist’ who believes genetic differences explain racialised differences in intellectual outcomes.
He promotes a discredited eugenicist ideology that underpins ‘scientific’ racism. His blog post started the media circus that caused the death of Professor Jason Arday this summer.
Cofnas’ ‘scholarship’ argues that without the auspices of DEI initiatives Black people would largely disappear from most intellectual spheres and be mainly confined to the arenas of sport and entertainment. This form of racism has a long lineage and was foundational to the development of slavery.
In recent weeks, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has suggested the UK would consider a formal apology for its role in enslaving millions of Black Africans. But we must recognise the cognitive dissonance between finally moving to this position and being apparently unable to see that the same ideological apparatus used to enable slavery is now being deployed under the guise of ‘academic free speech’.
Academic free speech should never extend to permission to dehumanise a group of people.
‘No debate to be had’
Let’s be clear: Cofnas’ scholarship is weak. It is not the strength of his writing or speech that poses the problem; it is the implicit institutional validation that presents the threat and inflicts the deepest injury. Black students are expected to treat this as just another topic of ‘legitimate debate’ – part of the ‘pluralism of ideas’ that we must embrace in academia. But this is a deeply fraudulent invitation, for there is no debate to be had here.
It also comes in a higher education environment where there is increasing concern about the silencing of dissenting voices on issues related to Palestine. This seems to expose a selective application of ‘free speech’ rights and privileges, which often seems to work against students of colour.
In fact there is wider evidence that students of colour generally feel less well protected at university than their peers when it comes to questions of their safety versus the protection of ‘free speech’.
‘Degrading political, media and academic conversations’
The last three years have witnessed the worst racist riots for generations. Just last week, a large cache of weapons and explosives connected to the far right was discovered in Northern Ireland, where there has been escalating organised violence and rioting.
Powerful actors promote ideas that would have Britons believe they are subject to ‘invasions’ of immigrants and a ‘cultural takeover’, conjuring up an existential ‘fight’ for survival. The auditory environment has no balance.
This refusal to see the interconnection between these degrading political, media and academic conversations and the violence they encourage is deeply worrying.
‘Deafening silence’
This week we saw Russell Brand and David Walliams in the spotlight. At no point did the political or media conversation stray into an analysis of their shared ‘whiteness’; had they been Muslim men, their race and religion would have been front and centre of the coverage.
What we had was a swift and welcome response from ministers saying ‘time is up’ on sexual abuse in media spaces. Most importantly, this response signalled governmental attention and care. It demonstrated that ministers hear the pain and fear revealed by horrific accounts of sexual violence. It expressed solidarity with victims and survivors, and promised to listen, learn and take action.
As Cofnas prepares to speak at Oriel College, the concerns of Black and racially minoritised communities in the UK continue to be met with nothing but deafening silence.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Runnymede Trust.
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Photo: Oriel College © davidionut/iStock
