English language reinforces ‘white superiority’, academics told

Open University course designed to counter unconscious bias is ‘ignorant’, says historian

THE English language upholds the notion of “white superiority”, an Open University training course informs academics.

The “anti-racist” Union Black course teaches university staff that the idea of “white hegemony” has been “covertly weaved” into people’s minds.

This sense of superiority is ingrained in the “cultural psychology of the English language”, according to course material studied by academics at almost 100 UK universities.

Material in a module entitled “What is whiteness?” states: “Along with religion, politics, laws and customs, white superiority is embedded in the linguistic and cultural psychology of the English language. Consequently, given the global reach of the English language, the assumption of white hegemony has been covertly weaved into the consciousness of white people, black people and people of colour.”

The programme of study was drawn up by Open University diversity experts, backed by a £500,000 investment from the Santander banking group. It has been taken up by universities including Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham, and Imperial College London.

The material does not advise how to address “white hegemony” upheld by the English language, but calls on university staff taking the course to address unconscious biases which people are either “unaware of ” or “in denial about”. The course, launched last year, argues that: “Historically, British politics has maintained white hegemony, making immigration an existential threat to white Britons.”

It adds the debated claim that: “In 1955, the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, won a general election with a ‘Keep England White’ theme.”

The Open University course defines “whiteness” as “the systemic and structural domination and oppression of ‘non-white’ peoples”, adding that “‘white’ people only exist in opposition to ‘black’ people, both of which are socially constructed ideologies”.

A module on the course titled “Who can be racist?” suggests that white European people have been the most successful in this regard.

It states: “No other ethnic or so-called racial group has so successfully ideologically and economically imposed racialised ideas and practices on the collective psyche of their own and other groups comparative to white Europeans.”

Dr Zareer Masani, a historian of the British Empire, said the Open University course’s claims about race and the English language were “ignorant”.

He said: “It is an alarming sign of how wokedom is taking over academia. It’s unhistorical, it’s ignorant, and it’s illiterate. It completely ignores non-white contributions to the English language and totally dismisses the role of people ranging from Achebe to Rushdie who have enriched English by writing in English.”

Santander has said the Union Black course was conceived in response to a report highlighting the racial inequality in higher education, and that feedback has been positive.