University in Lisbon suspends plans for course on racism taught by all-white staff

A top university in Lisbon has suspended plans to launch a postgraduate programme on racism and xenophobia after the course was criticised for hiring only white instructors.

The programme, offered by the faculty of law at Nova university in tandem with the government-backed Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia, was also condemned for some of its content, such as a session entitled: “Does racism really exist?”

Among the first to sound the alarm was Paula Cardoso, the founder of the Afrolink online platform for Black professionals in Portugal.

“It’s absurd to have a ‘postgraduate course on racism and xenophobia’ coordinated entirely by white people and, so far, taught without a single non-white person,” Cardoso wrote on her organisation’s website.

As a result, she told the Guardian, the programme seemed poised to sow doubt and misunderstanding over racism rather offer a knowledge-based approach aimed at tackling the issue.

She cited the session questioning the existence of racism as an example. “The promotional message for the course was laden with questions,” she said. “As if we still need to defend the existence of racism and its profound impact on the lives of Black individuals and other marginalised communities.”

The Portuguese anti-racism platform Kilombo described it as “absolutely incomprehensible” that one wouldn’t question the absence of Black people when it comes to the teaching staff of a postgraduate course on racism.

On Tuesday, after days of backlash, the university removed its advertising for the programme from its website. The dean of the law school later confirmed that the programme had been suspended.

It was the “least we could expect”, said Cardoso. However she noted that, days after Afrolink had spoken out about the programme, nobody from the observatory had been in touch to address her concerns.

Cardoso described the issue as being more deeply rooted than simply the programme, given that the government-backed Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia was also not being led by people from diverse backgrounds.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “It’s like an organisation that fights discrimination against women but would be made up only of men.”

The observatory was formed after a national plan against racism highlighted the stark under-representation of Black people and other racialised minorities in positions of power. Now it seemed to be reinforcing the very power structures it was meant to combat, Cardoso said.

“How can we accept that, instead of dismantling inequality, the observatory might inadvertently reinforce racist practices?” Cardoso asked. To her, the contradiction was nothing short of a “call to action”, one aimed at ensuring “that the voices of those affected are at the forefront of this vital conversation.”

The observatory did not reply to a request for comment.

Margarida Lima Rego, the law school’s dean, told Portuguese news agency Lusa that the school had worked to recruit teachers from diverse backgrounds but that by the time the programme was implemented, no one was available.

“This was an internal failure and Nova school of law is already taking measures to ensure this does not happen again,” she said. She added that “the faculty and the observatory had no intention of minimising issues that are important and relevant to any society, nor discriminating against people”.

With reporting by Reuters