1. Foluke Ifejola Adebisi
Embracing the Discomfort and Complexities of Race Theories in legal education
Foluke Ifejola Adebisi

2. what is the problem? 
Underrepresentation of staff: only 24* BME female professors
BME students negative experiences in education: spaces + content
42% believe education non-reflective of their experiences
Despite getting higher grades in schools, BME students are:
Less likely to be admitted to top universities
Less likely to get high marks at university
Less likely to be employed after graduation
Diversity measures focus on the numbers + correction 

3. More than numbers: voices of female Bme law students
‘This kind of [behaviour] has a psychological effect on students. And from students going through this, they think, ’What’s the point if I go to university and get a degree? I might face the same racism I faced at university when I get a job’.’
‘When teaching staff do not address the racist attitudes of White students, the only conclusion Black students can draw from this is that staff are complicit.’
‘Minority students are not considered when making the syllabus, I think’
‘As a Black student, you can feel a sense of isolation. As a Black international student that isolation is worse than alienation. You feel like an alien. You are treated like an alien … sometimes like a fool.’
‘Well, you dread going into class every morning. And you can’t wait until it’s all over’
‘I think you’ll find that Black students in Russell Group institutions probably have a worse experience than Black students in other institutions’

4. Important for internationalisation
Theorizing pain
POSTCOLONIAL THEORY/coloniality/subalternity – ‘long-standing patterns of power … that define knowledge production … survives colonialism.’
Recognises human existence is an uninterrupted continuum & disparate uses of law
Important for internationalisation
Race is intimately/historically linked with coloniality

5. Theorizing pain ii
CRITICAL RACE THEORY – explores absence of race from US legal education
'Our social world, with its rules, practices, and assignments of prestige and power, is not fixed; rather, we construct with it words, stories and silence.' Delgado & Stefancic
Racism is systemic, normalised, constructed = we don’t see it
CRT elevates counter-narratives; pain precedes theory
Intersectionality – the experience of black women & multiple identity approaches
 Interrogating the social to achieve justice, ending silence

6. why is it the Law school’s problem?
Law as the study of social order has political implications
We do more than educate solicitors & barristers. About % go into professions
GDL and other entry points into professions
Law schools are public spaces with social responsibility of inquiry
We are wordsmiths – critical thinkers 

7. the Law school’s problem?
Curriculum focused on private law - value
Black, female, ‘other’ issues left out
The ‘social’ in the order is distorted
Where there is disadvantage, neutrality fosters not cures
Democracy, justice, equality, current affairs – misunderstood/unanticipated e.g. Rise of populism
Interrogating the possibility of social change

8. Dialogue – Fricker, hooks, Freire, Spivak
Ending the pain
Dialogue – Fricker, hooks, Freire, Spivak
Sensitive hearing = acquiring knowledge to understand
Giving voice to the voiceless (Spivak, Freire)
Reflection – unveiling the structure of disadvantage 
What is adaptational epistemological accessibility? Understanding how disadvantage is created and being willing to change ourselves to remove it

9. Specific Recommendations
Radical curriculum changes – race, colonialism, slavery, apartheid: legally supported, + Criminal law should address race and gender
Race unit/module
Diverse student representations
Educational research into the law curriculum – pedagogy
Citation policies and reading lists
Equality/inclusion committee that has race on its agenda
Bias training

10. Questions for reflection
Do I reflect or acknowledge the existing global power structures and their historical origins?
Do I acknowledge the race and gender constructs that inform my curriculum delivery?
Are my reading lists inclusive of researchers of colour with diverse ideologies?
Do I always treat race, gender, class, empire as permanently separate issues?