We need to talk about whiteness podcast

Episode 4 - White psychosis - British academic Prof Kehinde Andrews is professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University, the director of the Centre for Critical Social Research, founder of the Organisation of Black Unity, and co-chair of the Black Studies Association. In this episode we discuss his recent narration of the film "The Psychosis of Whiteness", a study of society's perceptions of race and racism, directed by Eugene Nulman, as well as whiteness as a protective mechanism, global inequality as white supremacy, his upcoming book "Empire 2:0" and whether people identified as white can ever overcome the psychosis of whiteness...

Episode 3 - The Whiteness of History - You may know her from her legendary tweets and her powerful anti-racism stance - Dr Priyamvada Gopal is 'Reader in Anglophone and Related Literature' at the University of Cambridge - an academic and contributor to public debates over racial inequality and the legacy of empire, her latest book "Insurgent Empire" (Verso, 2019) presents how Britain’s enslaved and colonial subjects were - contrary to enduring depictions - active agents in their own liberation. In fact, she argues, they shaped British ideas of freedom and emancipation back in the United Kingdom.

Dr Gopal has previously discussed white fragility, stating that a "way of deflecting engagement with race is to personalise matters" and in October this year (2019), she criticised the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Report, 'Tackling racial harassment: universities challenged' for failing to address the systemic disadvantages faced by BME students or how whiteness dominates power structures and pedagogy. Here we we talk about the legacy of colonial modes of thinking, empire state of mind and just how helpful whiteness can be to the prickly conversations around racism in the UK.

Episode 2 - The whiteness of science - In this episode, I'm joined by science journalist and author Angela Saini, to discuss the cultural pillars of whiteness, off the back of her most recent book "Superior: The Return of Race Science" in which she tells the disturbing story of the persistent thread of belief in biological racial differences in the world of science. Many of the myths around the biological differences between humans along racial lines continue to inform people's world views today, including among some very 'imminent' scientists... so how does the science of whiteness contribute to the story of whiteness and what does the persistence of these myths tell us about the true state of 'progress' when it comes to equality...

Episode 1 - White fragility - She's an American academic, lecturer, and author working in the fields of critical discourse analysis and whiteness studies - her book "White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism" has been a US bestseller and provoked an uncomfortable conversation in the USA on what it means to be white. And for Episode No1 of the "We need to talk about Whiteness Podcast", Dr Robin DiAngelo joins me for a conversation about how the term is slowly gaining currency in the UK, whether it is transferable, from a US context and why these conversations continue to feel so thorny. Enjoy!