Category Archives: Race in education

Al Sharpton says ousted Harvard chief was ‘scapegoat’ in fight against diversity

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Civil rights leader hosts protest outside office of alumnus who spearheaded campaign to remove Claudine Gay and criticized DEI

The civil rights leader the Rev Al Sharpton hosted a protest outside the office of the Harvard alumnus Bill Ackman on Thursday after Ackman criticized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Harvard following the resignation of the former university president Claudine Gay.

“[Ackman] declared war on DEI. He declared war on affirmative action. He’s defining himself as a rightwinger in terms of dealing with racial equality,” Sharpton told the Guardian during the protest alongside his organization, National Action Network, outside Ackman’s office in New York City.

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Kamala Harris condemns Florida over curriculum claim of slavery ‘benefit’

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Vice-president decries ‘extremist so-called leaders’ and says new teaching standards will rob children of knowing true US history

Kamala Harris went to Florida on Friday to address the state board of education’s controversial new standards for Black history, which include the contention that some Black people benefited from being enslaved.

In an impassioned afternoon speech, the vice-president predicted the standards would rob children of knowing true US history that the rest of the world has been taught.

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Greg Abbott signs law banning diversity offices in Texas higher education

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The governor signed the bill prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion offices in addition to another codifying tenure restrictions

Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has signed a bill that will ban diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices and initiatives across higher education institutions in the state.

Under SB 17, DEI offices across state colleges will close starting in January 2024 and activities that seek to promote certain groups of individuals over others based on race, ethnicity and gender will also come to an end.

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High costs and discrimination: US study details obstacles for Black students

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Research finds that Black students have lowest completion rates for post-secondary education than any other group

Black students have lower six-year completion rates for any kind of degree or certificate program than students in any other racial or ethnic group, a new study has found.

According to the study by Gallup and Lumina Foundation, which was released on Thursday, Black students must contend with various challenges to completing post-secondary programs including high costs and racial discrimination.

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Affirmative action appears in jeopardy after US supreme court hearing

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Race-conscious admission programs, twice upheld by highest court, now under scrutiny by skeptical conservative supermajority

The survival of affirmative action in higher education appeared to be in serious trouble on Monday at a conservative-dominated US supreme court after hours of debate over difficult questions of race.

The court is weighing challenges to admissions programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard University that use race among many factors in seeking a diverse student body.

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UK school Latin course overhauled to reflect diversity of Roman world

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New edition of Cambridge Latin Course to include more prominent female characters and better reflect empire’s ethnic mix

A popular Latin course used to teach generations of British schoolchildren has undergone its biggest overhaul in 50 years to include more prominent female characters and better reflect ethnic diversity in the Roman world.

A fifth edition of the Cambridge Latin Course (CLC), a mainstay of mainly private schools since the 1970s, is being published later this month, in response to concerns from teachers, academics and students about the representation of women, minorities and enslaved people in earlier versions.

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UK’s ‘strictest headmistress’ fears schools will stop teaching Shakespeare

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Katharine Birbalsingh says move to decolonise English curriculum could mean Shakespeare replaced with black and female authors

The headteacher of a school described as the strictest in Britain has warned that William Shakespeare will disappear from classrooms as schools in England come under pressure to decolonise and diversify the curriculum.

Katharine Birbalsingh, the controversial headteacher at Michaela community school in north London, said Shakespeare had already been “lost” in many places in the US and cautioned: “We are following America in this way.”

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Oh my days: linguists lament slang ban in London school

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Exclusive: ‘like’, ‘bare’, ‘that’s long’ and ‘cut eyes at me’ among terms showing up in pupils’ work now vetoed in classroom

A London secondary school is trying to stop its pupils from using “basically” at the beginning of sentences and deploying phrases such as “oh my days” in a crackdown on “fillers” and “slang” in the classroom.

Ark All Saints academy has produced lists of “banned” language which includes “he cut his eyes at me”, which the Collins dictionary says originates in the Caribbean and means to look rudely at a person and then turn away sharply while closing one’s eyes dismissively.

Ermmm …

Because …

No …

Like …

Say …

You see …

You know …

Basically …

He cut his eyes at me (he shot me a withering sidelong glance)

Oh my days (my goodness)

Oh my God

That’s a neck (you need a slap for that)

Wow

That’s long (that’s boring, tough or tedious)

Bare (very, extremely)

Cuss (swear or abuse)

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UK academic sues university after losing role in critical race theory row

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Aysha Khanom claims discrimination after Leeds Beckett accused her of using ‘racist language’ in tweets

An academic is suing Leeds Beckett University after she was dropped from her advisory role over tweets calling a mixed-race man a “house negro”, alleging the decision was discriminatory because of her belief in critical race theory and Black radicalism.

The university ended its association with the academic adviser Aysha Khanom after accusing her of “racist language” in relation to tweets using the terms “house negro” and “coconut” – the former in a question.

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Historian David Olusoga joins academic criticism of No 10’s race report

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Broadcaster says report seems to want to brush history under the carpet, as others attack ‘distorted’ use of research

One of Britain’s foremost historians of slavery has accused the authors of a controversial racial disparities report commissioned by Downing Street of giving the impression they would prefer “history to be swept under the carpet”.

Broadcaster David Olusoga, professor of public history at Manchester University, made the comments in an article for the Guardian, as hundreds of experts on race, education, health and economics joined the criticism of the report for brazenly misrepresenting evidence of racism.

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‘I was shielded from my history’: the changes young black Britons are calling for

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Exclusive: from schools to policing, 50 people share their experiences of growing up in the UK

Following the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK and across the world, the Guardian interviewed 50 young black Britons, many of whom have been at the heart of the recent anti-racism protests, to ask what changes they would like to see in their lifetime.

Three demands came up repeatedly: decolonising the curriculum; divesting funds away from police forces in favour of a public health-focused approach to crime; and better representation of black Britons across a wider section of society.

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‘I was shocked’: mother of boy whose scalp was coloured by school speaks out

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‘It would not have happened to a white kid,’ Angela Washington said after staff used a marker pen on Juelz Trice’s banned haircut

Juelz Trice came home from school earlier this year with permanent marker ink scribbled on his scalp, but it was not a prank played by one of his fellow seventh-graders. It was a punishment enacted by some of the staff.

The boy’s parents filed a federal civil rights lawsuit this week and have told the Guardian they believe the act, a hapless attempt to hide a “fade” haircut with a design that violated the school district’s dress code, was rooted in racism and left him humiliated.

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White professor investigated for quoting James Baldwin’s use of N-word

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Laurie Sheck, who teaches at the New School, says inquiry followed a complaint that she had discussed Baldwin’s use of the slur

The Pulitzer-nominated poet Laurie Sheck, a professor at the New School in New York City, is being investigated by the university for using the N-word during a discussion about James Baldwin’s use of the racial slur.

The investigation has been condemned by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (Fire), which is calling on the New School to drop the “misguided” case because it “warns faculty and students that good-faith engagement with difficult political, social, and academic questions will result in investigation and possible discipline”.

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