Oct
23
5:30 PM17:30

Decolonising Education: Is the Curriculum 'Too White'?

At Battle of Ideas in London, UK:

Oxford University’s #RhodesMustFall campaign calls for Oriel College to remove a statue of 19th century imperialist Cecil Rhodes. But for many campaigners, the goal is not just the symbolic removal of a statue, but a more fundamental transformation of the university. Sister student movements to #RhodesMustFall such as NUS backed ‘Why is My Curriculum White?’ and #DecoloniseEducation now promise to overturn ‘the “Whiteness”, Eurocentric domination and lack of diversity in the curricula…which frames the West as sole producers of universal knowledge’. There is growing support for making courses, faculties, reading lists and ‘core’ subjects more culturally diverse to take account of the diverse backgrounds of an expanded student population. It is argued that ‘White’ curricula are responsible for feelings of ‘isolation, marginalisation, alienation and exclusion’ among non-white students.

Critics note that while the decolonising ‘young Turks’ see themselves as more enlightened and progressive than their out-of-touch lecturers, they seem to be kicking an open door. Many academics have long been defensive about the politically incorrect history of their institutions and even their disciplines, and are quick to apologise and ditch classic texts. But at what cost? Black radical CLR James wrote that ‘the origins of my work and thought are to be found in Western European literature, Western European history and Western European thought’ and argued that black people could liberate themselves by embracing the universal legacy of Shakespeare and Hegel, Mozart and Melville. Might limiting students to knowledge deemed appropriate to their cultural background leave them without a grounding in major intellectual developments? Isn’t the point of learning to transcend one’s particular cultural background? Or does a curriculum dominated by the ‘pale, male and stale’ explain the attainment gap, whereby non-white students are 20% less likely to achieve a first or 2:1 degree, despite arriving at university with the same grades?

Should education, at school or university, be about reflecting students’ cultural identities? Or should education be about creating, even imposing, a different type of identity - not given by biological fact or social background – but that of the educated individual? Is the identity of the educated person really open to all, as supporters of liberal education have claimed in the past? Or is such an identity a mask that hides oppressive power relations as many of today’s student campaigns allege?

More details can be found here: http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11502#.WAOHU5MrKt8

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Oct
22
4:00 PM16:00

From Black Panthers to #BlackLivesMatter: Race in America

At Battle of Ideas in London, UK:

In the summer of 2014, anti-police protests, demonstrations and riots broke out in the city of Ferguson, Missouri, following the fatal shooting of black teenager Michael Brown. Since Ferguson, the unjust and often brutal treatment of African Americans at the hands of the authorities has rarely been out of the public eye. Police shootings of Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, 12-year old Tamir Rice and others grabbed the headlines. But if Ferguson catalysed the explosion, the fuse had been burning for some time. The #blacklivesmatter hashtag emerged early in Obama’s second administration in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer in 2012. Obama’s interventions in the Gates-gate fiasco the year before highlighted concern over issues of racial profiling and black incarceration rates. His conciliatory beer on the White House lawn signalled his view of the problem as relatively trivial and largely symbolic.

But America is not the post-racial nation some commentators claimed, and Obama hoped, when he took up office in 2008. Rather, racial division is more keenly felt than ever. #blacklivesmatter campaigners point to police brutality and the mass incarceration of young black men - in prison or in the alienating ‘hyperghetto’ - as cause for a new civil rights movement. Yet the nature of that movement has proven controversial amid claims that it heightens racial consciousness and fuels divisions among Americans. #blacklivesmatter does not take Martin Luther King’s universal ‘colour-blind’ ideal as its goal but, rather, references the Black Power movement of the late 1960s and 70s. A recent documentary film hails the community activism of the Black Panthers, reclaiming their image and their message of affirmative identity 50 years after the party’s founding. Pop megastar Beyoncé caused a stir with her ‘Formation’ video and Superbowl performance using Black Panther iconography. From college campuses to Oscar ceremonies, the United States is alight with anti-racist protest.

Does #blacklivesmatter retain any similarities with the civil rights movement or even the Black Panthers, beyond the choreographed donning of black berets? Does the widespread cultural promotion of the hashtag merely suggest technological enhancement, with social media allowing activists to increase their global reach? Or does the broad cultural approach ultimately trivialise the cause of racial equality? When #blacklivesmatterUK launched in August this year on the fifth anniversary of Michael Duggan’s shooting, did it represent a political intervention gone global? Or might it be understood as a badge of worthiness for protestors that does little but celebrate the victim status of black people? From the Black Panthers to #blacklivesmatter, how effective is the celebration of black identity as a means of challenging racism?

More details can  be found here: http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11502#.WAOHU5MrKt8

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Oct
22
1:30 PM13:30

Every Cook Can Govern

At Battle of Ideas in London, UK:

Every Cook Can Govern is the first feature length documentary to explore the life, writings and politics of the great Trinidad-born revolutionary CLR James, who died in Brixton in 1989. Epic in scope, the film interweaves exclusive, never-before-seen footage of CLR James with unique testimony from those he knew and the world’s most eminent scholars of his life, works and politics. From colonialism to cricket, from Marxism to the movies, from slavery to Shakespeare – James’ ideas, we learn, were shaped by a voracious love of reading and belief in mankind as history makers. Crowd-funded, crowd-featured and crowd-filmed, this unique production lifts the lid on the life of a tireless, fearless and uncompromising revolutionary.

Launched to great acclaim this year, comments include:
“I would encourage everyone to see Every Cook Can Govern. And let CLR James be your guide: you will have a world to discover, and there is no better source that I know of in doing so than this labour of love from the makers of what is truly a heroic, magnificent work of art!’ Professor Robert A Hill, Literary Executor of CLR James

“Every Cook Can Govern is a stunning contribution to the documentary genre; not just majestic in the breadth and depth of its portrayal of CLR’s political life and works, but also a refreshing testament to the power of the collective in the production and presentation of the film.” Eve Kay, Executive Producer, 7Wonder

The film was produced by the education charity WORLDwrite and its citizen TV station WORLDbytes with over 200 volunteers, and directed and edited by Ceri Dingle and Rob Harris. The film will be introduced by Selwyn R Cudjoe, Professor of Africana Studies, Wellesley College, Massachusetts and author of CLR James: His Intellectual Legacies.

A portal to accompany the film with reviews, timeline and rare archive including the security files on CLR James is available at www.clrjames.uk

More details can be found here: http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11496#.WAOHE5MrKt8

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