Academic who criticised teaching white privilege in schools no-platformed from conference
An academic who has criticised the teaching of “white privilege” in schools has been no-platformed from an education conference over claims she would make other speakers feel “unsafe”.
Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert, 62, was told her panel discussion at the Rethinking Education conference on Saturday had been cancelled because of complaints from speakers and delegates about her attendance.
Dr Cuthbert, director of Don’t Divide Us, a campaign group which challenges the idea that Britain is systemically racist, had been invited to speak on a panel about “indoctrination within education” and “how we can avoid it”.
However, in an email from a conference organiser on Friday, she was told that the company had been contacted by seven speakers and delegates who said “they would not feel safe to appear at the conference alongside a representative of Don’t Divide Us”.
The organiser said: “In seeking to re-imagine an education system where all young people and adults can flourish and thrive, I strongly believe that we need to have difficult conversations and that people should be prepared to subject their ideas to scrutiny and challenge.
“However, psychological safety is a precursor to free and open debate and the need to subject ideas to scrutiny.”
Confirming the decision to cancel the panel discussion, he added: “I appreciate that the late notice of this decision is not ideal for any parties concerned but once the matter was brought to our attention, safety considerations needed to be our primary focus.”
Responding to the decision, Dr Cuthbert said: “The only person on a panel of three to be disinvited is myself – a woman of colour.” She said it “seems like my belief in colour-blind meritocratic approaches to race upset a few people who don’t have the courage to make their case publicly”.
Contesting Britian is systemically racist
Don’t Divide Us was set up in 2020 as a campaign group to contest the idea that Britain is systematically racist. The campaign group states on its website that it believes that protests which spread to the UK in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in America, did not reflect “the progress the UK has made towards being a largely cohesive and successful multi-racial society”.
Dr Cuthbert, who has a PhD in the sociology and philosophy of education from the University of Cambridge, recently wrote a report for the group which found that more than 100 schools are working with third-party organisations which are uncritically teaching contested political beliefs from critical race theory, including white privilege.
The report found that many schools and third-party providers refer to Black Lives Matter or George Floyd as a prompt for new policies and initiatives for both classrooms and teacher training. However, the campaign group argued that America “is over 4,000 miles away, with a very different history, and it is not at all clear that there is any causal connection between events there, and the curriculum and practices of schools in Britain”.
Prof Tim Luckhurst, associate pro vice chancellor, engagement, at the University of Durham, said: “Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert brings academic expertise, extensive experience and formidable intelligence to crucial questions about the teaching of race and identity in the UK.
“As director of the anti-racist campaign Don’t Divide Us, she teaches the crucial lesson that Britain is a successful multicultural society with a positive story to tell about race relations.”
Rethinking Education has been contacted for comment.
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