In the shadow of white privilege… making the invisible visible

In the shadow of white privilege…
making the invisible visible
A case study of the University of Suffolk’s
handling of racism/discrimination
Jason Haye

“If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress”
-Frederick Douglass

• Over the past four months of my last year in university,
I have seen my 1- degree proposal turned into a 3+.
Over the past four months of my last year in university,
I have seen my learning environment changed from
place equality to a place of inequality. Over the past
four months of my last year in university I have seen my
friendships dissolve and new friendship evolve. Over
the past four months of my last year in university, I
have seen my projected overall grade of a 2-1 end up
being an overall grade of a 2-2. Over the past four
months of my last year in university I have seen my
work has grow, but my surroundings did not grow with
me.
Jason Haye

The title of this presentation stems from the
challenges that people of non-Caucasian
backgrounds have to face in a Caucasian
dominated system.
Why are Britain's universities still failing black and Asian students?

What is White Privilege?
“White Privilege is the other side of racism. Unless we name it, we are in
danger of wallowing in guilt or moral outrage with no idea of how to move
beyond them. It is often easier to deplore racism and its effects than to take
responsibility for the privileges some of us receive as a result of it… once we
understand how white privilege operates, we can begin addressing it on an
individual and institutional basis.”
~Paula Rothenberg
For a greater understanding of what white Privilege is see
Tim Wise, "White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son"
Tim Wise is an American anti-racism activist and writer. He is coming to
Google to talk to us about addressing and deconstructing racism in
institutions.

In the shadow of white privilege
The reason why I have created this presentation
is because despite U.C.S showing they do not
understand the true notion of diversity. They
will use my cultural background via statistics and
images to promote to potential customers, a
surface level of diversity… which is a weak
notion of diversity.

Taken from the complete university guide

University Campus Suffolk (UCS) is an educational institution located in the English county of
Suffolk.
UCS is a collaboration between the University of Essex and the University of East Anglia
which sponsor its formation and validate its degrees.
UCS accepted its first students in September 2007.
Until then Suffolk was one of only four countries in England which did not have a University
campus.

Sent to the students and staff
of the
fine art department
17th Feb:-
Dear All,
Maggi Hambling will be coming into discuss her work on March 3rd at
3pm. This talk will be in Lecture Theatre 5 in the West Building and you
should all consider it as a mandatory event. As part of this I would like
to ask you, as students (and staff), to let me have well thought out and
intelligent questions that will be used as a basis for my conversation
with her. Please let me have these by email as soon as possible so I can
select the best ones.
Best regards,
(fine art course leader)

Precursor to the talk
• Maggi Hambling C.B.E is a British contemporary painter and sculptor.
• Maggie Hambling is a regular donator to fine art auctions.
• Hambling turned down an honorary degree from U.C.S
• Hambling is friends with the fine art course leader
• The fine art course leader was my tutor for the final year of my degree
• I was asked on the day to film the talk
• I was the only black person in the room

Transcript from the Hambling talk at UCS 03/03/14
DAVID
What’s all that about? Do you go to
those sorts of things, like the
Oscars, or the Brit Awards, or the
um...
MAGGI
Course I don’t! I don’t go to any
of those things, no. No. Did Cate Blanchett
get Best Actress?
DAVID
Yes
MAGGI
WHA!
DAVID
(continuing)
Good for her...

MAGGI
That’s good. Did that frightful
boring slave film get Best Film?
FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER
Yes.
(The audience respond to this question. First one female
audience member answers “Yes” which is then echoed by several
other members of the audience, male and female.)
DAVID
Yes (laughs)
Audience laughter
DAVID (CONT’D)
(laughs)
FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER
And Gravity

MAGGI
I’ve never been so bored as I was
in that Twelve Years A Slave.
The audience laughs
DAVID
Made by an artist though. Some nice
visual moments, didn’t you think?
MAGGI
Well of course you see he is a
great follower of Derek Jarman, my
friend Derek Jarman. I was always
telling Derek Jarman ‘You have no
sense of timing, Derek. All your
films are very beautiful, but they
all trundle along at the same rate
and pace ...’
DAVID
Too long ...

MAGGI
You know there’s never a climax,
you know, oo-er. In the end I
didn’t care about the fucking
slave. I didn’t care what ...
The audience laughs heartily
MAGGI (CONT’D)
Of course it was all very
beautiful, but ... you know ...
bloody ... I would more enjoy Wolf
of Wall Street
DAVID
Oh, I know
The audience chuckles and a ripple of comment is heard.

DAVID (CONT’D)
Um. Yeah, so. Um ... Moving moving
(laughs) Moving on ...
MAGGI
Anyway, slaves would be very handy.
I wouldn’t mind a few.
The audience laughs heartily.
David
I’m sure you have got a few

In the days after the talk
• I asked students and lectures about what they thought about
Hamblings remarks and the responses I got back were:
• “She is just an old lady”
• “Get over it”!
• “What has slavery got to do with you and your family ?”
• “Your surname is the same as my surname”

I created an art video inspired by Ralph
Ellison’s book Invisible man
• To show the people who laughed in the audience
what it feels like hear remarks made by Hambling
and the crowds response from another point of view.
• To make them aware of their own actions.
• To break up old patterns of thought in order to be
open to new patterns of thought.

The Invisible Man – Project 5am

A letter from one of the students who attended
the talk 7/3/14
Dear David
Re: Maggie Hambling
Like many public speakers, Ms Hambling uses unexpected statements
to elicit laughter in her audience. She is the catalyst for people’s
responses and we each have to take responsibility for how we
respond.
Personally, I regret not standing up in silent demonstration of my
profound disagreement with Ms Hambling’s desire to have slaves in
her studio.
I feel that on Monday the audience was at best passive; we did not
have an automatic and appropriate response when we heard someone
using what amounts to inhuman acts of violence against others as
material thought suitable for our collective amusement.

Monday 24th March……3 weeks after the talk
The arts desk Q&A with Maggi Hambling in 2010
Hambling’s painting sold for
£650

I believe that the response to Miss
Hambling’s remarks were not
addressed earlier because of:
• The commodity that the artist in question brings to
the fine art department via reputation.
• The artist had work at the degree auction which took
place on the 25th March.
• The bias of the fine art course leaders friendship with
Miss Hambling.

It is for those reasons why I felt that the money
from Hambling’s painting should not be
associated with the degree show fund.

Examples:
• Setting up a hierarchical framework for the talk which gave an
over importance’s to the artist e.g. sending e-mails asking for
intelligent questions limiting the space to challenge the artist
opinions.
• Not sending a simple apology to the group for her remarks
that would of showed that he was aware of what had taken
place.
• A letters of complaint referred to as people "jumping on the
band wagon"
• Censoring my work by mentioning legal action and saying I
needed permission and calling it a private talk when there
were members of the public in attendance.
• Advising the fine art student rep not to mention the incident
at an upcoming committee meeting.

March 11th
• I met the fine art course leader the day after he sent me an
e-mail demanding to take the invisible man video down
from the internet or face possible legal action despite the
talk being held in a public setting
• He asked me if people were so offended by Hambling’s
remarks then why didn’t they say something at the time ?
• I asked him why didn’t he say something at the time ?
• He said “I was going by the crowds response”

Praxis
Banking education
Understanding the oppressor
Neoliberalism in universities
Setting up social movements for agency
“Power must learn how to tremble”
Making the invisible visible
Pushing against the grain

• When I found out the title of the debate I decided to create a petition for
the students and outside voices to not have the money from the sale of
the Hambling painting not to be included in the degree show fund as it
represented inequality over equality and commodity over student well
being.
Are their any limits to freedom of speech ?............8 weeks after the incident took place

http://gardenoffreedom.org/tag/maggi-hambling/

April 22nd
It was only when the petition and video went
viral that the Provost of the university and the
student union started to take action….7 weeks
later!

Provost investigation findings
Point 3
I do have some sympathy with Jason’s view that his concern was
not initially taken as seriously as he had would have liked by the
department. I think this is largely due to the face the department
believed that his concerns related to issues around freedom of
speech. While freedom of speech is an essential cornerstone of
higher education debate it was not the central issue here and I
think the department response was largely due to this
misunderstanding. Indeed Jason’s view that the department’s
suggestion by way of an debate on free speech would not be
particularly helpful is one I share.

May 9th
• This statement was sent on the day of the red room
talk
• During that week the students had voted to give the
money to a charity which I announced during the
public talk.
• No students or staff from the fine art department
attended the red room talk

http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/the-r-word/

The majority of Students voted twice in favor of the money going to charity in May
The majority of Students voted twice in favor of the money going to charity in May.
No feedback was given back to the students via student union or the fine art department.
In July after being prompted the Dean mentioned that the money had been held back for
next years students. During this time period, I boycotted the degree show catalogue
because the matter had not been resolved. Students had finished the course and many
of them had left the are without knowing the result of the vote and the conclusion to the
decision.
May 13th
May 13th
July

• During the meeting with the fine art course leader, he offered me
mitigating circumstance despite my work being more than strong
enough for assessment.
• This was offer was made along statements saying how he was close
to quitting his job after reading the newspaper coverage.
• Telling me to say “well done to my friends” adding that they have
“broken” Maggie Hambling over this incident.
• Saying that he didn’t want attend the redroom event about racism
that he was forced to create the freedom of speech debate.

The work that I have created over the
four months has shown:
• Institutional racism within the university in the fact that racism is seen only as
a problem for non white people.
• The lack of critical thinking being taught to art students keeping them docile to
react to incidents of this nature.
• The lack of control that the fine art students had in their degree show.
• The lack of acknowledgement toward Socially engaged art in fine art.
• The disconnection between parts of the town and the university.
• The power of providing civic value to help a cause.

The process of making this work has
made:
• People more aware of their frameworks and
showing that they can make a change.
• Changed some peoples mind-sets towards the
awareness of the other
• Provided the opportunity for the fine art course
to grow by exposing the flaw’s that are there
within the department

• I have attached the minutes from the meeting where the fine art department
mention the key points addressed. What is excluded from the key points are
• My conformation of material and information, which the examiners clamed was
absent from my assessment piece.
• The misunderstanding of items in my assessment piece, which was explained in
my work blogs.
• The clarity of the understanding in the knowledge of my work and how it relates
to my past on future work.
• My explanation to the markers of the term “floating signifier” which is a key
aspect in understanding my work.
• The feedback of one of the fine art course leader, who is one of the subject
matters in my work who used non-academic personal language in their feedback
and was only marker to give me a referral.
Despite the change of subject matter due to the lack of control within my
environment , my degree project captured the themes of my degree proposal, which
was marked as a 1-.

An example of the marking process which gave me a 3+
Degree Project Assessment Feedback 1.3
It was noted that selection and curating of work in line with the assessment criteria had brought
down the grading. It was noted that assessors had felt the work had been difficult to access. The
physical barrier of the tape created a conflict.
Taken from my A.N Blog which a hard copy was included in my assessment piece.
Pierre Bourdieu field theory explains my decision to use my studio space as an assessment for my
final work.
The biggest casualty of having this experience was that it derailed my ideas for my degree show
plus over the 2 months
because of the tension with the group my space was a very awkward place to being in almost like
a scene of a crime where ideas have been killed.
So I will be using police styled tape off my space, three strips will be used to capture the three
Boundaries that I have had to face in understanding my surroundings which are:
*The artist comments
*The reaction to the comments
*The failure of my environment to take this matter seriously

Conclusion
• Despite the provost releasing a statement UCS have
shown no form of action in displaying equality over
inequality .
• This is mainly due to the failure seeing the comments
made by Hambling as discriminatory.
• The two opportunities that have arisen in a debate and
vote to move thing forward have shown a false sense
of democracy and has displayed a large volume of
symbolic violence by those involved in the incident to
maintain their control of power.

To explore why how this incident occurred I will use the French sociologist
Pierre Bourdieu theories of cultural capital and field theory.
Glossary of terms
• Habitus – “A structuring structure, which organizes practices and the
perception of practices. e.g. people
• Doxa
“Universe of tacit presuppositions that organize action within the field” e.g
university guidelines
• Cultural capital
For Bourdieu, cultural capital which is part of the habitus acts as a social
relation within a social system of knowledge that confers power and status.
Displaying cultural capital can lead to benefits, such as gaining status or
acceptance, therefore this can also transfer into social capital
Displaying cultural capital can bring rewards or incur costs, depending on the
cultural/social situation.

• Symbolic capital – can be referred to as the resources
available to an individual on the basis of honor, prestige or
recognition, and serves as value that one holds within a
culture- a well respected artist
The meeting of various habitus produces a social capital (cultural
environment)

• So when applying those terms to the this incident the social capital of my
university environment was changed when Maggie Hambling abused her
position as someone with symbolic capital and the acceptance of the
white audience went against the doxa of the university guidelines.
My challenging of these views has led to the people in power resulting in
symbolic violence against myself and my fellow students by using willful
ignorance and technicalities in proving their point despite providing minimal
surface level apologies to please outside voices.

Final letter to the Provost
Dear Richard
I am concerned about the statement that you wrote on the 9th of May being not followed through.
The matters arising from your statement on May 9th is of deep concern for me because despite the
students voting twice for the money to go to a charity as an statement of equality, nothing has
happened and I found out by Simon that the money is being rolled over for next years students. This is a
very serious matter as this environment over the past 4 months has cost a black student a projected
degree show 1-grade to a 3+ because of the failure for this situation to be resolved as soon as possible.
The students were forced to choose a second option after the fine art course leader said that the money
had to stay within the university, but he has shown over the past four months that he feels that there
was nothing wrong with Miss Hambling comments, something he has stated to me weeks after your
statement. Plus the course leader and the Dean have openly expressed that the money should not be
taken out of the university.
Keeping the money within the university is not making a statement of equality it is just displaying a
power of control.

Examples of White privilege ?
Why did the fine art department misunderstand the reaction about the Hambling
incident as a matter about freedom of speech despite receiving letters of complaint
about slavery ?
Why did no students or staff from the fine art department attend the End Racism
event despite creating a debate about freedom of speech weeks earlier from the
same subject matter?
Why would next years students want to use money generated from a incident of
discrimination that created an hostel environment that eventually denied a black
student a overall 2-1 grade ?
After finding out about the Hambling incident 7 weeks later, why did the Provost
delegate the handling of this subject matter to people who had already shown their
lack of judgment resolving this incident?
Why did the university prevent the social work department from using the invisible
man video as an case study in discrimination?

The biggest example that I came across which captures the notion of white
privilege was on the day of the second vote for the students to find out if the
Hambling money should be kept in the fund.
I came across one student and asked them if they were attending the vote.
They replied “ I don’t think I am going…..I am getting bored of this now”
To hear someone (not in a malicious way) say that after carrying a weight of
negativity within my surroundings for the past 3 months was infuriating to
hear but at the same time was very profound as it showed me the student felt
like they could dip in or out of the subject matter and for me that was the
definition of being in the shadow of White Privilege.

If there are traces of white privilege within the university how does that fit in
with the..
UNIVERSITY CAMPUS SUFFOLK EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY POLICY
3.4 Indirect Discrimination
Indirect discrimination occurs when a policy or practice applies to everybody,
but the policy or practice has a disproportionate impact on people with a
protected characteristic.
3.6 Victimization
Victimization occurs where a person is treated badly because they have made
or supported a complaint or raised a grievance under the Equality Act, or
because they are suspected of doing so. This protection does not apply to
anyone who has maliciously made or supported an untrue complaint.

Solutions
"Dare to be naïve.', 'You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model
that makes the existing model obsolete.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller
The most positive aspects of this experience has been seeing some people changing their point of view and they have
done that by questioning their own sense of agency within their own environment and other people who took part in
signing partitions, writing articles, or forming groups and the subject matter.
I believe if more people are aware of their own surroundings, they can reduce the mindsets of people are afraid to
change areas of discrimination because the fear of breaking out the comfortable frameworks that they are conditioned
to.
So if anybody who reads this presentation and feels that they can make a difference then this is an invitation to
compete that action. It takes courage but it is from only taking action, no matter how small that action is, that a sense
of equality be achieved.
In raising these issue, it has cost me a higher grade but I would rather have this grade than a higher grade without
taking any action.
Kind regards
Jason Haye
Attention: Project 5am

For more information
A.n Art magazine blog which describes my last 6 months a U.C.S
LinkedIn Jason Haye
Email. Jhaye@hotmail.com

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