Old white academics are ‘unable’ to teach black students because they’re potentially racist, complain students. (Which is to say they are less interested in learning anything (about anything) and more interested in causing havoc because that’s what they are genetically programmed to do.
See story below this one. –ed.)
Lecturers who are ’60 year old white men’ are unable to teach black and minority ethnic (BME) people, students have complained.
The students, who are studying at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), said under-representation of black people among the teaching staff, relative to the student body, made students feel ‘isolated’, unable to engage with their studies and lecturers.
The comments were taken from interviews with students by the SOAS Student Union, which is part of the University of London, and submitted in a report which was researching into why less black and minority ethnic (BME) students achieve 2:1 or first class degrees than their white peers.
The report, called Degrees of Racism, said BME students’ confidence and engagement during their studies is affected by ‘racial exclusion and discrimination in the learning and teaching environment at SOAS’.
It added that this is due to combination of many factors, including a ‘white curriculum’, BME students being ‘excluded’ from classroom discussions and both other students and teachers had said ‘explicitly racist comments’ to BME students.
When describing ‘barriers’ students face when they want to access support from lecturers and tutors, it said: ‘Non-white students were comparatively less likely than their peers to be able to access the advantages of cultural familiarity with their tutor.
]size=medium]’Some felt it unrealistic to expect their white tutors to be able to empathise with their problems, especially those who had experienced racial abuse in comparable settings in the past.
‘For non-white students from working-class backgrounds, the gap in life experience was sometimes compounded.’
This statement was followed by quotes from students who said:
• ‘Both of my tutors are white men. How can I really … have a rapport and feel comfortable talking to a 60 year old white man…’
• ‘I find it hard to tell a white teacher my problems.’
• ‘Most teachers come from privileged backgrounds which [some] BME students can’t relate to.’
(Note: ‘Privileged’ in this context really means the instructors are actually smarter than them. –ed.)
Continue….[/size]