Upon suspension of the start of a postgraduate program related to racism and xenophobia on the part of an important university in Lisbon, as program managers were criticized for hiring only white professors.
The program, offered by the Nova University Faculty of Law in partnership with the government-supported Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia, was also condemned for some of its content, including a session titled: “Does racism really exist?”
Reactions
Among the first to sound the alarm was Paula Cardoso, founder of the Afrolink online platform for black professionals in Portugal. “It is absurd to have a ‘postgraduate course on racism and xenophobia’ coordinated entirely by white people and, until now, taught without a single non-white person,” Cardoso wrote on his organization’s website. As a result, he told the Guardian, the program seemed intent on sowing doubt and misunderstanding about racism rather than offering a knowledge-based approach aimed at resolving the issue. As an example, he cited the session that questioned the existence of racism. “The course promotional message was full of questions,” he said. “As if we still need to defend the existence of racism and its profound effects on the lives of black people and other marginalized communities.”
On Tuesday, after days of backlash, the university removed advertising for the program from its website. The dean of the law school later confirmed that the course had been suspended.
“The least we could expect”
It was the “least we could expect,” said Cardoso. However, she noted that, days after Afrolink spoke about the program, no one from the Observatory contacted her to respond to her concerns.
Cardoso described the issue as more deeply rooted than just the program, given that the government-backed Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia is also not run by people from diverse backgrounds. “It doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “It’s like an organization that fights discrimination against women, but it will only be made up of men.”
The Observatory was created after a national anti-racism project highlighted the dramatic underrepresentation of black people and other racial minorities in positions of power. It now appeared to be strengthening the very power structures it intended to combat, Cardoso said.
Source: Guardian