Mindy Chen-Wishart

Oxford joins initiative to create the collective case against racism

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Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey introduces event to help end everyday racism in Oxford

Everyday racism – no matter how apparently subtle, polite, or unintended – continues to have serious and long-lasting effects on the lives of racialised minority individuals and communities.

It is prevalent even in higher education institutions – including Oxford – that pride themselves on their diversity and inclusion practices, and ending it starts with listening to the people who have experienced it.

This was a key message of the launch of Help End Everyday Racism (HEER) at Oxford, introduced by Oxford University Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey at Saïd Business School on 8 February 2023 during Race Equality Week. The initiative is a collaboration between the medical and social sciences divisions that seeks to replicate and learn from End Everyday Racism, a witnessing platform and solidarity-building project led by Dr Mónica Moreno Figueroa, Associate Professor in Sociology, and Ella McPherson, Associate Professor in the Sociology of New Media and Digital Technology, both at the University of Cambridge.

‘What we want to create is a space of validation and of recognition,’ said Moreno Figueroa. ‘Although there are formal ways to complain and make reports, we wanted to create a place of validation where people can tell their story, collect their emotional landscape, and gather a communal experience to generate knowledge about how everyday racism works. And now we’re very excited to share that knowledge with Oxford and compare it as we continue this dialogue.’

Joining Moreno Figueroa and McPherson on the panel were Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart, Dean of the Faculty of Law at Oxford University, who started the #RaceMeToo hashtag as another means by which experiences of everyday racism are shared and heard, and Professor Kam Bhui, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, whose research looks at reducing ethnic inequalities in the experiences and outcomes of severe mental illnesses.

Diversity is not a zero-sum game; excellence is a multi-dimensional concept and, like the gene pool, diversity makes us stronger.

Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart

Professor of the Law of Contract and Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford

Amidst sharing some truly horrifying stories of overt racism that she and others had experienced in Oxford, Chen-Wishart emphasised how difficult everyday racism and unconscious bias are to talk about, partly because it challenges people’s visions of themselves as liberal and anti-racist. ‘Please listen to racialised minorities with humility, without rationalising, excusing, avoiding, defending, blaming or punishing. The proper response should be outrage that we live in a racist society that does not live by its rhetoric of equality in the pursuit of human flourishing and a sense of obligation to realise that aspiration,’ she said.

All the panellists urged action alongside continuing to collect stories and data. Bhui said that there was 60 years’ worth of data on unequal experience and outcomes in mental illness that was consistently placed in the ‘too hard’ box.  As Chen-Wishart concluded, ‘If being educated means anything it means we should not recoil from learning about things that make us uncomfortable, that make us see things in a different way: after all we teach our students to do that every day. Diversity is not a zero-sum game; excellence is a multi-dimensional concept and, like the gene pool, diversity makes us stronger.’

The HEER Project was initiated by a small team in the Medical Sciences Division, led by Professor Catherine Pope. The team successfully applied for funding through a Research Culture Enhancement bid, and the Project team was broadened to include the Social Sciences Division. The University's Chief Diversity Officer, Professor Tim Soutphommasane, was in the audience. This is a new, senior role which was created as a recommendation of the Race Equality Taskforce to deliver on the University's Race Equality Strategy and equality and diversity more broadly. The Vice-Chancellor confirmed her commitment to delivering on the recommendations of the Taskforce, saying, ‘I will absolutely be an advocate and a champion of this issue, and this is one which I very much hope will be carried forward as the university enters this new era of advancing equality diversity and inclusion.’

Watch the recording of this powerful event

Help end everyday racism in Oxford

Help end everyday racism Oxford
Ella MacPherson
Vice-Chancellor
Mindy Chen-Wishart
Professor Kam Bhui
Ella MacPherson
Ella MacPherson
Vice-Chancellor
Vice-Chancellor
Mindy Chen-Wishart
Mindy Chen-Wishart
Professor Kam Bhui
Professor Kam Bhui