A prestigious university in Lisbon has decided to put a pause on launching a postgraduate course focused on racism and xenophobia due to the criticism it faced for having an all-white teaching staff. The programme, which was supposed to be offered by the faculty of law at Nova University in collaboration with the government-supported Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia, received backlash for various reasons, including the fact that all the instructors were white and some of the course content, such as a session questioning the existence of racism.
The founder of Afrolink, an online platform for Black professionals in Portugal, Paula Cardoso, expressed her concerns about the lack of diversity in the teaching staff of the course. She emphasized that having a course on racism and xenophobia led and taught entirely by white individuals could potentially lead to a misunderstanding of the issues at hand. Cardoso pointed out that questioning the existence of racism in a course promoting knowledge on the topic was counterproductive and failed to address the real impact of racism on marginalized communities.
The Portuguese anti-racism platform Kilombo also criticized the absence of Black people in the teaching staff of a course meant to address racism. After facing days of backlash, the university decided to remove the programme’s advertisements from its website and the dean of the law school confirmed that the course was suspended. However, Cardoso highlighted that the underlying issue goes beyond just the programme itself, as even the Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia, which is supposed to combat racial discrimination, lacked diversity in its leadership.
Cardoso stressed the importance of having diverse voices leading conversations on racism and xenophobia to effectively address these issues. She questioned the integrity of an organization meant to fight discrimination while being represented solely by individuals from the dominant group. The observatory, established to address the under-representation of Black individuals and other minorities in positions of power, was now being criticized for perpetuating the very power structures it aimed to dismantle.
The lack of response from the observatory to these concerns raised further questions about their commitment to combating racism and promoting diversity. The dean of the law school acknowledged the failure in recruiting a diverse teaching staff for the programme and assured that measures would be taken to prevent such oversights in the future. She emphasized that the intention was never to downplay the importance of the issues addressed in the course or discriminate against any group of people.
As the conversation around racism and xenophobia continues, it is evident that representation and diversity play a crucial role in addressing these complex issues. The call for action to ensure that the voices of those affected by racism are at the forefront of these discussions remains essential in creating a more inclusive and equitable society.
