‘Are You Supposed to Be in Here?’ Racial Microaggressions and Knowledge Production in Higher Education

Johnson, Azeezat; Joseph-Salisbury, Remi

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-60261-5_8

Cited by 66 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…In other words, am I performing as a modern‐day academic native informant (see Khan, ); going out into the “field” to record the clothing practices of Black Muslim women (and through that, my own body) for the consumption of these institutions that reproduce normative whiteness and confine our bodies to the racialised Other? Given that it was the knowledge shared among Black Muslim women that spurred my initial interest into conducting research, perpetuating the objectification of Black Muslim women (and myself as a part of this grouping) led to several anxious conversations with other scholars of colour about my/our role within academia (see Johnson & Joseph‐Salisbury, ; Pizarro, ).…”

Section: The White Background Of Academiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Throwing our bodies against the white background of academia

Johnson

2019

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Specifically, I examine how to conduct research without representing Black bodies as a fixed, exoticised Other that is oppositional to a disembodied white Self. To do so, I use double consciousness alongside Black feminist work on dialogues as a methodological framework to centre Black Muslim women as knowledge producers. This novel approach moves away from simply describing (and fixing) racialised bodies to a particular performance/experience, and instead explores how performances shift as we negotiate different bodies, objects, and spaces. The paper advances discussions in critical race studies and the ethics of geographical research by illustrating how the situated experiences of the researcher and the participant are embedded in processes of knowledge production: I look to subvert the fixing of racialised bodies as deviations from the normative white background of academia. K E Y W O R D SBlack feminism, dialogue, double consciousness, normative whiteness, race and higher education, research ethics 1 | THE WHITE BACKGROUND OF ACADEMIA I feel most coloured when I am thrown against a sharp white background. … Among the thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon, and overswept, but through it all, I remain myself. (Hurston, 2000, p. 96) I've often thought about the above quote by Zora Neale Hurston in relation to how knowledge is produced within academic institutions: her words expose an ethical quandary with developing research about persons racialised as non-white against the "sharp white background" of academia.This paper responds to my ethical concerns with conducting research about racialised minorities within academic institutions that perpetuate normative whiteness. In doing so, the rest of this introduction outlines the "sharp white background" that I struggled with through my work on the clothing practices of Black Muslim women in Britain. Second, I examine how the racialised Other has been constructed as oppositional to whiteness. Following this, I extend work on double consciousness and dialogue by bringing these concepts together and using them as methodological tools to explore the relationship that Black Muslim women have to this (white) Self/(black) Other binary.My research with 21 Black Muslim women in Manchester and Sheffield (ages 18-51) arose from the dearth of work about our experiences (Johnson, 2019). Research on British Muslims focused primarily on Muslims with South Asian heritage (e.g., Brown, 2006;Phillips, 2015), while research about Black communities and religion focused on the role of Christianity and Black churches (e.g., Harris, 2006;Knowles, 2012). By centring Black Muslim women, I focused on how ---

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Section: The White Background Of Academiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Throwing our bodies against the white background of academia

Johnson

2019

Area

Self Cite

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“…DiAngelo's theory of White fragility matters here because the behaviours she identified typically work to reinstate racist structures, even if unwittingly, that is, they seek to counteract anti‐racism (cf. Johnson & Joseph‐Salisbury, 2018; Tate & Page, 2018). We are aware that the papers in this special section hit several triggers of racial stress identified by DiAngelo (2011, p. 57); for example, the papers involve Black people talking directly about their racial perspectives (a challenge to white racial codes); problematise the idea that access and treatment in UK higher education is equal or equitable between racialised groups (challenge meritocracy); speak back to the discipline and wider academy to say that the behaviours Black people are encountering are racist and damaging (challenge to white liberalism and racial comfort); argue that group membership is significant to life chances (challenge to individualism).…”

Section: Disciplinary Fragilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Anti‐racist learning and teaching in British geography

Esson,

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2020

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This special section illustrates how learning and teaching in UK higher education reinforces, but can potentially also help to counteract, racism. This introduction provides some context for this intervention and provides an outline of key themes that emerge from the collection of papers. We use these themes to sketch out three guiding principles for the incorporation of explicitly anti‐racist praxis in our learning and teaching within British Geography: (1) Recognise each other's humanity, (2) Say the unsayable, and (3) Experiment with (y)our history. We call for explicitly anti‐racist praxis while conscious of the “disciplinary fragility” that moves to address racism might elicit. It is argued that an anti‐racist approach to learning and teaching in British Geography has the potential to equip staff and students with the tools to help make our discipline, and wider society, more equitable and just.

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“…Lately, I’ve been struggling with the tensions that arise when we attempt to expose the normative whiteness that structures UK higher education institutions (Johnson, 2018, 2019; Johnson & Joseph‐Salisbury, 2018). 1 This is particularly relevant through this commentary, as I have agreed to participate in the “revisiting” of a Classics that erases my existence.…”

Section: How the Other Half Lives But Ain't I A Woman?mentioning

confidence: 99%