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A case study of the University of Suffolk’s handling of racism/discrimination. The title of this presentation stems from the challenges that people of non-Caucasian backgrounds have to face in a Caucasian dominated system. The reason why I have created this presentation is because despite U.C.S showing they do not understand the true notion of diversity. They will use my cultural background via statistics and images to promote to potential customers, a surface level of diversity… which is a weak notion of diversity. “If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress” -Frederick Douglass
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In the shadow of white privilege… making the invisible visible
A case study of the University of Suffolk’s handling of racism/discrimination
Jason Haye
“If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress”
-Frederick Douglass
• Over the past four months of my last year in university, I have seen my 1- degree proposal turned into a 3+. Over the past four months of my last year in university, I have seen my learning environment changed from place equality to a place of inequality. Over the past four months of my last year in university I have seen my friendships dissolve and new friendship evolve. Over the past four months of my last year in university, I have seen my projected overall grade of a 2-1 end up being an overall grade of a 2-2. Over the past four months of my last year in university I have seen my work has grow, but my surroundings did not grow with me.
Jason Haye
The title of this presentation stems from the challenges that people of non-Caucasian backgrounds have to face in a Caucasian
dominated system.
Why are Britain's universities still failing black and Asian students?
What is White Privilege?“White Privilege is the other side of racism. Unless we name it, we are in danger of wallowing in guilt or moral outrage with no idea of how to move beyond them. It is often easier to deplore racism and its effects than to take responsibility for the privileges some of us receive as a result of it… once we understand how white privilege operates, we can begin addressing it on an individual and institutional basis.” ~Paula Rothenberg
For a greater understanding of what white Privilege is see
Tim Wise, "White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son"
Tim Wise is an American anti-racism activist and writer. He is coming to Google to talk to us about addressing and deconstructing racism in institutions.
In the shadow of white privilege
The reason why I have created this presentation is because despite U.C.S showing they do not understand the true notion of diversity. They will use my cultural background via statistics and images to promote to potential customers, a surface level of diversity… which is a weak notion of diversity.
University Campus Suffolk (UCS) is an educational institution located in the English county of Suffolk. UCS is a collaboration between the University of Essex and the University of East Anglia which sponsor its formation and validate its degrees. UCS accepted its first students in September 2007. Until then Suffolk was one of only four countries in England which did not have a University campus.
Sent to the students and staff of the
fine art department
17th Feb:-
Dear All,
Maggi Hambling will be coming into discuss her work on March 3rd at 3pm. This talk will be in Lecture Theatre 5 in the West Building and you should all consider it as a mandatory event. As part of this I would like to ask you, as students (and staff), to let me have well thought out and intelligent questions that will be used as a basis for my conversation with her. Please let me have these by email as soon as possible so I can select the best ones.
Best regards,
(fine art course leader)
Precursor to the talk
• Maggi Hambling C.B.E is a British contemporary painter and sculptor.
• Maggie Hambling is a regular donator to fine art auctions.
• Hambling turned down an honorary degree from U.C.S
• Hambling is friends with the fine art course leader
• The fine art course leader was my tutor for the final year of my degree
• I was asked on the day to film the talk
• I was the only black person in the room
Transcript from the Hambling talk at UCS 03/03/14
DAVIDWhat’s all that about? Do you go to
those sorts of things, like theOscars, or the Brit Awards, or the
um...
MAGGICourse I don’t! I don’t go to any
of those things, no. No. Did Cate Blanchettget Best Actress?
DAVIDYes
MAGGIWHA!
DAVID
(continuing)Good for her...
Transcript from the Hambling talk at UCS 03/03/14
MAGGIThat’s good. Did that frightful
boring slave film get Best Film?
FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBERYes.
(The audience respond to this question. First one female
audience member answers “Yes” which is then echoed by severalother members of the audience, male and female.)
DAVID
Yes (laughs)Audience laughter
DAVID (CONT’D)
(laughs)
FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBERAnd Gravity
Transcript from the Hambling talk at UCS 03/03/14
MAGGII’ve never been so bored as I was
in that Twelve Years A Slave.
The audience laughs
DAVIDMade by an artist though. Some nice
visual moments, didn’t you think?
MAGGIWell of course you see he is a
great follower of Derek Jarman, myfriend Derek Jarman. I was alwaystelling Derek Jarman ‘You have nosense of timing, Derek. All your
films are very beautiful, but theyall trundle along at the same rate
and pace ...’
DAVIDToo long ...
Transcript from the Hambling talk at UCS 03/03/14
MAGGIYou know there’s never a climax,
you know, oo-er. In the end Ididn’t care about the fuckingslave. I didn’t care what ...
The audience laughs heartily
MAGGI (CONT’D)Of course it was all very
beautiful, but ... you know ...bloody ... I would more enjoy Wolf
of Wall Street
DAVIDOh, I know
The audience chuckles and a ripple of comment is heard.
Transcript from the Hambling talk at UCS 03/03/14
DAVID (CONT’D)Um. Yeah, so. Um ... Moving moving
(laughs) Moving on ...
MAGGIAnyway, slaves would be very handy.
I wouldn’t mind a few.The audience laughs heartily.
David I’m sure you have got a few
In the days after the talk• I asked students and lectures about what they thought about
Hamblings remarks and the responses I got back were:
• “She is just an old lady”
• “Get over it”!
• “What has slavery got to do with you and your family ?”
• “Your surname is the same as my surname”
I created an art video inspired by Ralph Ellison’s book Invisible man
• To show the people who laughed in the audience what it feels like hear remarks made by Hambling and the crowds response from another point of view.
• To make them aware of their own actions.
• To break up old patterns of thought in order to be open to new patterns of thought.
A letter from one of the students who attended the talk 7/3/14
Dear DavidRe: Maggie HamblingLike many public speakers, Ms Hambling uses unexpected statements to elicit laughter in her audience. She is the catalyst for people’s responses and we each have to take responsibility for how we respond. Personally, I regret not standing up in silent demonstration of my profound disagreement with Ms Hambling’s desire to have slaves in her studio. I feel that on Monday the audience was at best passive; we did not have an automatic and appropriate response when we heard someone using what amounts to inhuman acts of violence against others as material thought suitable for our collective amusement.
Monday 24th March……3 weeks after the talk
The arts desk Q&A with Maggi Hambling in 2010
Hambling’s painting sold for
£650
I believe that the response to Miss Hambling’s remarks were not addressed earlier because of:
• The commodity that the artist in question brings to the fine art department via reputation.
• The artist had work at the degree auction which took
place on the 25th March.
• The bias of the fine art course leaders friendship with Miss Hambling.
It is for those reasons why I felt that the money from Hambling’s painting should not be associated with the degree show fund.
Examples:
• Setting up a hierarchical framework for the talk which gave an over importance’s to the artist e.g. sending e-mails asking for intelligent questions limiting the space to challenge the artist opinions.
• Not sending a simple apology to the group for her remarks that would of showed
that he was aware of what had taken place. • A letters of complaint referred to as people "jumping on the band wagon" • Censoring my work by mentioning legal action and saying I needed permission
and calling it a private talk when there were members of the public in attendance. • Advising the fine art student rep not to mention the incident at an upcoming
committee meeting.
March 11th
• I met the fine art course leader the day after he sent me an e-mail
demanding to take the invisible man video down from the internet or face possible legal action despite the talk being held in a public setting
• He asked me if people were so offended by Hambling’s remarks then why didn’t they say something at the time ?
• I asked him why didn’t he say something at the time ?
• He said “I was going by the crowds response”
Praxis
Banking education
Understanding the oppressor
Neoliberalism in universities
Setting up social movements for agency
“Power must learn how to tremble”
Making the invisible visible
Pushing against the grain
• When I found out the title of the debate I decided to create a petition for the students and outside voices to not have the money from the sale of the Hambling painting not to be included in the degree show fund as it represented inequality over equality and commodity over student well being.
Are their any limits to freedom of speech ?............8 weeks after the incident took place
Daily Mail
April 22nd
It was only when the petition and video went viral that the Provost of the university and the student union started to take action….7 weeks later!
Provost investigation findingsPoint 3I do have some sympathy with Jason’s view that his concern was not initially taken as seriously as he had would have liked by the department. I think this is largely due to the face the department believed that his concerns related to issues around freedom of speech. While freedom of speech is an essential cornerstone of higher education debate it was not the central issue here and I think the department response was largely due to this misunderstanding. Indeed Jason’s view that the department’s suggestion by way of an debate on free speech would not be particularly helpful is one I share.
May 9th
• This statement was sent on the day of the red room talk
• During that week the students had voted to give the money to a charity which I announced during the public talk.
• No students or staff from the fine art department attended the red room talk
The redroom interview
The majority of Students voted twice in favor of the money going to charity in May
The majority of Students voted twice in favor of the money going to charity in May.No feedback was given back to the students via student union or the fine art department. In July after being prompted the Dean mentioned that the money had been held back fornext years students. During this time period, I boycotted the degree show catalogue because the matter had not been resolved. Students had finished the course and many of them had left the are without knowing the result of the vote and the conclusion to thedecision.
May 13th
May 13th
July
• During the meeting with the fine art course leader, he offered me mitigating circumstance despite my work being more than strong enough for assessment.
• This was offer was made along statements saying how he was close to quitting his job after reading the newspaper coverage.
• Telling me to say “well done to my friends” adding that they have “broken” Maggie Hambling over this incident.
• Saying that he didn’t want attend the redroom event about racism that he was forced to create the freedom of speech debate.
The work that I have created over the four months has shown:
• Institutional racism within the university in the fact that racism is seen only as a
problem for non white people. • The lack of critical thinking being taught to art students keeping them docile to
react to incidents of this nature. • The lack of control that the fine art students had in their degree show. • The lack of acknowledgement toward Socially engaged art in fine art. • The disconnection between parts of the town and the university. • The power of providing civic value to help a cause.
The process of making this work has made:
• People more aware of their frameworks and showing that they can make a change.
• Changed some peoples mind-sets towards the
awareness of the other • Provided the opportunity for the fine art course to
grow by exposing the flaw’s that are there within the department
• I have attached the minutes from the meeting where the fine art department mention the key points addressed. What is excluded from the key points are
• My conformation of material and information, which the examiners clamed was absent from my assessment piece.
• The misunderstanding of items in my assessment piece, which was explained in my work blogs.
• The clarity of the understanding in the knowledge of my work and how it relates to my past on future work.
• My explanation to the markers of the term “floating signifier” which is a key aspect in understanding my work.
• The feedback of one of the fine art course leader, who is one of the subject matters in my work who used non-academic personal language in their feedback and was only marker to give me a referral.
Despite the change of subject matter due to the lack of control within my environment , my degree project captured the themes of my degree proposal, which was marked as a 1-.
An example of the marking process which gave me a 3+
Degree Project Assessment Feedback 1.3
It was noted that selection and curating of work in line with the assessment criteria had brought down the grading. It was noted that assessors had felt the work had been difficult to access. Thephysical barrier of the tape created a conflict.
Taken from my A.N Blog which a hard copy was included in my assessment piece.
Pierre Bourdieu field theory explains my decision to use my studio space as an assessment for myfinal work. The biggest casualty of having this experience was that it derailed my ideas for my degree showplus over the 2 monthsbecause of the tension with the group my space was a very awkward place to being in almost likea scene of a crime where ideas have been killed. So I will be using police styled tape off my space, three strips will be used to capture the threeBoundaries that I have had to face in understanding my surroundings which are:
*The artist comments*The reaction to the comments *The failure of my environment to take this matter seriously
Conclusion
• Despite the provost releasing a statement UCS have shown no form of action in displaying equality over inequality .
• This is mainly due to the failure seeing the comments made by Hambling as discriminatory.
• The two opportunities that have arisen in a debate and vote to move thing forward have shown a false sense of democracy and has displayed a large volume of symbolic violence by those involved in the incident to maintain their control of power.
To explore why how this incident occurred I will use the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu theories of cultural capital and field theory.
Glossary of terms
• Habitus – “A structuring structure, which organizes practices and the perception of practices. e.g. people
• Doxa
“Universe of tacit presuppositions that organize action within the field” e.g university guidelines
• Cultural capital For Bourdieu, cultural capital which is part of the habitus acts as a social relation within a social system of knowledge that confers power and status.Displaying cultural capital can lead to benefits, such as gaining status or acceptance, therefore this can also transfer into social capitalDisplaying cultural capital can bring rewards or incur costs, depending on the cultural/social situation.
• Symbolic capital – can be referred to as the resources available to an individual on the basis of honor, prestige or recognition, and serves as value that one holds within a culture- a well respected artist
The meeting of various habitus produces a social capital (cultural environment)
• So when applying those terms to the this incident the social capital of my university environment was changed when Maggie Hambling abused her position as someone with symbolic capital and the acceptance of the white audience went against the doxa of the university guidelines.
My challenging of these views has led to the people in power resulting in symbolic violence against myself and my fellow students by using willful ignorance and technicalities in proving their point despite providing minimal surface level apologies to please outside voices.
Final letter to the ProvostDear Richard
I am concerned about the statement that you wrote on the 9th of May being not followed through.
The matters arising from your statement on May 9th is of deep concern for me because despite the students voting twice for the money to go to a charity as an statement of equality, nothing has happened and I found out by Simon that the money is being rolled over for next years students. This is a very serious matter as this environment over the past 4 months has cost a black student a projected degree show 1-grade to a 3+ because of the failure for this situation to be resolved as soon as possible. The students were forced to choose a second option after the fine art course leader said that the money had to stay within the university, but he has shown over the past four months that he feels that there was nothing wrong with Miss Hambling comments, something he has stated to me weeks after your statement. Plus the course leader and the Dean have openly expressed that the money should not be taken out of the university.
Keeping the money within the university is not making a statement of equality it is just displaying a power of control.
Examples of White privilege ? Why did the fine art department misunderstand the reaction about the Hambling incident as a matter about freedom of speech despite receiving letters of complaint about slavery ?
Why did no students or staff from the fine art department attend the End Racism event despite creating a debate about freedom of speech weeks earlier from the same subject matter?
Why would next years students want to use money generated from a incident of discrimination that created an hostel environment that eventually denied a black student a overall 2-1 grade ?
After finding out about the Hambling incident 7 weeks later, why did the Provost delegate the handling of this subject matter to people who had already shown their lack of judgment resolving this incident?
Why did the university prevent the social work department from using the invisible man video as an case study in discrimination?
Examples of White privilege ? The biggest example that I came across which captures the notion of white privilege was on the day of the second vote for the students to find out if the Hambling money should be kept in the fund.
I came across one student and asked them if they were attending the vote.
They replied “ I don’t think I am going…..I am getting bored of this now”
To hear someone (not in a malicious way) say that after carrying a weight of negativity within my surroundings for the past 3 months was infuriating to hear but at the same time was very profound as it showed me the student felt like they could dip in or out of the subject matter and for me that was the definition of being in the shadow of White Privilege.
Examples of White privilege ? If there are traces of white privilege within the university how does that fit in with the.. UNIVERSITY CAMPUS SUFFOLK EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY POLICY
3.4 Indirect Discrimination Indirect discrimination occurs when a policy or practice applies to everybody, but the policy or practice has a disproportionate impact on people with a protected characteristic.
3.6 Victimization Victimization occurs where a person is treated badly because they have made or supported a complaint or raised a grievance under the Equality Act, or because they are suspected of doing so. This protection does not apply to anyone who has maliciously made or supported an untrue complaint.
Solutions "Dare to be naïve.', 'You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes
the existing model obsolete.” - R. Buckminster Fuller
The most positive aspects of this experience has been seeing some people changing their point of view and they have done that by questioning their own sense of agency within their own environment and other people who took part in signing partitions, writing articles, or forming groups and the subject matter.
I believe if more people are aware of their own surroundings, they can reduce the mindsets of people are afraid to change areas of discrimination because the fear of breaking out the comfortable frameworks that they are conditioned to.
So if anybody who reads this presentation and feels that they can make a difference then this is an invitation to compete that action. It takes courage but it is from only taking action, no matter how small that action is, that a sense of equality be achieved.
In raising these issue, it has cost me a higher grade but I would rather have this grade than a higher grade without taking any action.
Kind regardsJason Haye Attention: Project 5am
For more information
A.n Art magazine blog which describes my last 6 months a U.C.S
LinkedIn Jason Haye
Email. [email protected]
