Birmingham professor claims ethnic minority academics are upholding ‘white supremacy’

A prominent University of Birmingham professor has claimed that many leading academics from ethnic minority backgrounds in UK universities are “complicit in upholding white supremacy.”

Kalwant Bhopal, a professor of education and social justice at the University of Birmingham, asserted in her article “Complicity and Conformity: perpetuating race and class hierarchies in UK higher education”, that many ethnic minority leaders achieve success by “performing whiteness” in their speech, behaviour, and attire.

Professor Bhopal, an expert on race in higher education, argued that many academics of colour are in senior roles due to universities’ virtue signalling.

She wrote in Education Review that a “token” few academics are elevated to higher positions to create the illusion of addressing racial injustices while racism continues to impact most ethnic minority employees.

According to Times Higher Education, Professor Bhopal said: “Those academics of colour who conform to white normative structures and behaviours protect their own individual interests within this process.“

Her statement has inspired some debate on the topic with Professor David Mba, vice chancellor of Birmingham City University, describing Professor Bhopal’s analysis as “divisive” and said that for him it “does not ring true.”

Professor Mba shared his view that ethnic minority academics play a role in achieving equality and that they are “most likely to implement the changes required to dismantle structures and practices that maintain inequalities.”

He said: “My own experience of working with other senior academic leaders from minority ethnic groups does not align with the notion that these leaders are complicit in upholding white supremacy or structural and systemic inequalities.”

34 academics, including pro-vice chancellors, executive deans, and professors, were interviewed for her article.

A British Pakistani interviewee mentioned that some academics minimise their ethnic backgrounds for careerism, citing Rishi Sunak as an example of “a darker shade of white.” He noted that successful academics at prestigious universities often behave like their white peers, and “that’s the reason they fit in.”

Several interviewees noted that sometimes ethnic minority leaders don’t support other scholars of colour.

One interviewee said: “When you see a non-white person who has a significant role that can change the way things go in academia, they seem to switch sides. So they become even more competitive with other non-white people and don’t want others to succeed like them, they want to be the only ones who occupy those roles.”

Professor Bhopal asserted that this was a systemic issue, telling Times Higher Education that the core issue was structural, and that while the situation is not the doing of ethnic minority leaders, they must also accept responsibility for their role in the problem.

She said: “If you are going to have academics of colour in powerful positions, they have to be critical, and they have to think about their own behaviours in terms of the performativity of whiteness.”

Featured image via YouTube

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