Thammasat University students interested in law, political science, sociology, governance, human rights, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 27 September online Zoom Webinar on #RaceMeToo: Institutional Declarations of Anti-Racism, but Are They Listening, Do They Care?
The Zoom event, on Tuesday, 27 September 2022 at 3pm Bangkok time, is organized by the Faculty of Law and Centre for Comparative and Public Law of the Department of Law, University of Hong Kong (HKU).
The TU Library collection includes several books about different aspects of racism.
The speaker at the event will be Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart, Dean of the Faculty of Law at Oxford University, the United Kingdom. The TU Library collection includes books by Professor Chen-Wishart.
The moderators of the event will be Professor Marco Wan, Director of the Law and Literary Studies Programme, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong and Associate Professor Kelley Loper, Director of the Masters Degree in Law in Human Rights Programme, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong.
The event description follows:
After the murder of George Floyd, institutions around the world have been quick to self-certify as anti-racist. It’s easy to denounce the crassest forms of racism happening elsewhere; but much harder to see and address our own institutional and individual behaviours that perpetuate more subtle forms of racism. Every racialised minority can detail innumerable instances of racist treatment conscious or unconscious, small or large, that cumulatively inflict significant injuries to their persons and their circumstances. We all have unconscious biases; to deny it is an oxymoron. Will we do the uncomfortable work of listening to racialized minorities, transcending our subjectivity, and working towards justice and flourishing for all?
Students are invited to register at this link:
https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&UEID=84014
With any questions or for further information, please write to
pxto@hku.hk
Last year, British media reported:
Taiwanese Oxford professor says she is constantly challenged by college porters for looking ‘out of place’ because of her skin colour
Prof Mindy Chen-Wishart calls for anti-racism training across the university
Despite being dean of Oxford Law, she says she is often challenged by porters and facility managers who think she looks ‘out of place’ due to her skin colour
Renowned law specialist says her experiences are ‘alienating and exhausting’
The Taiwanese dean of Oxford University’s law department says it is ‘alienating’ and ‘exhausting’ to be constantly challenged by porters because of her skin colour.
Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart has called for anti-racism training across the esteemed university after revealing she is questioned by porters for ‘looking out of place’.
Prof Chen-Wishart, a renowned contract law specialist, told the Telegraph that it happens so ‘frequently I would normally not even register it.’
‘This happens a lot. Every time you get into a college you have to get past porters, facilities managers, people of colour are challenged or searched,’ she explained.
One instance last month prompted the professor to share her experiences more widely across social media.
As Prof Chen-Wishart entered the Law faculty, she was stopped and queried, despite being the head of the department, before being followed as she walked towards her office by a building manager.
The person said they ‘forgot’ she was the Dean and she assumed they followed her to ensure she had the correct key to her office.
Born in Taiwan, Prof Chen-Wishart previously worked at Otago University, New Zealand, as a senior lecturer.
Initially moving to Oxford as a Rhodes Visiting Fellow in 1992, the professor watched her three sons grow up in the United Kingdom.
Speaking in an interview with the Rhodes Project in 2015, Prof Chen-Wishart says Oxford and the university’s culture has changed significantly in the last 20 years.
She said: ‘The university is more transparent and accountable now, but it’s clear we still have a gender and other equality issues.
‘It’s more diverse and more equal, but we have a long way to go.’
But, the decorated academic says she still faces constant battles with university porters which are ‘alienating and exhausting’.
Sharing her experiences on social media with the hashtag RaceMeToo, Prof Chen-Wishart says she has received messages of support from within her faculty and academics from across the world.
‘People will say they are just doing their job,’ she told the Telegraph.
‘I would really like to understand why they are so good at doing their job when people of colour are concerned.’
Prof Chen-Wishart says she is eager to collaborate with her employer on more expansive diversity and inclusion training.
She says she has sent a series of plans, including anti-racist training, that she hopes will harbour an environment of inclusion to one of Oxford’s pro-vice-chancellors.
The new measures will work towards ensuring people of colour are not ‘constantly challenged and made to feel they don’t belong’ by porters and facility managers.
An Oxford University spokesman said: ‘The University does not tolerate any form of racial harassment or victimisation and expects all members of the University community to treat each other with respect, courtesy and consideration.
‘We have a robust policy which enables any member of the University community to make a complaint if they feel that they have been subject to harassment from a staff member.’
Last year Professor Chen-Wishart gave a previous version of this presentation at University College London (UCL). The description of that event follows:
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?
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)