To be a professor is the pinnacle of an academic career. It's really for the absolutely outstanding candidates (unless it's honorary or a special chair). Are you saying that there is structural racism against black academics but not UK Asian or say UK Chinese applicants?
Yes, that is exactly how structural racism works, it is related to context, cultural representations, policies and other norms that have been perpetuated over years. A black man is subject to different cultural representations to those of a Chinese man. Both can, of course, be subject to racism in any form, but the basis of those structures can be entirely different. Young black men are subject to racist tropes that they are more likely to be involved in crime (look at stop and search stats for the UK), be less academically gifted and so on. Young Chinese men are generally not subject to similar tropes. Looking specifically at Jason Arday's case, it is more relevant to look at the macro picture of black academics which led to the singular case involving Arday. If, of the 23,000 Professors in the UK, 5000 were black, we would likely never have had the Arday case as there would have been no need for Cambridge to panic and make a misguided appointment to assuage their guilt as having barely any senior black academics. However, this is not really the fault of Cambridge, it is the fault of an entire system that fails to recognise and address the issues at stake for black people. You point to this being a result of low numbers of black post grads and this is largely an economic factor. I would argue against this being economic, it is largely structural. One of the biggest issues is representation and belonging, education generally is seen as excluding amongst black communities, and particularly at HE level, if you don't see people that look like you, you believe there isn't a place for you.
Structural racism is specific and changes, depending on which group or community is excluded. Look at sport, or football in particular. 40-50 years ago black players were viewed as not good enough and therefore had no access to professional football. Once black players were given access and the conditions to thrive they showed they were more than the equal of white players and it was simply racism that kept them out. However, other groups are still excluded. There are barely any Asian professional players and this is structural racism. Asian players are subject to exactly the same tropes that black players were 50 years ago, that they aren't good enough (how do you know if so few are ever given the chance?).
Do you think Jason Arday was appointed purely on academic merit on the basis of his research and teaching skills? And that his back story - mute as a child, couldn't read til he was 18 - wasn't seen by Cambridge as something they could milk for publicity and kudos? This is why I blame Cambridge in part
No, and I do agree that Cambridge, and Jason Arday both made mistakes, but they were both caught in a much larger system that creates and almost encourages such mistakes. Focussing on them is a mistake in my view. It was a system failure and the worst part is that the system failure then allows actual racists like Cofnas to exploit it. Well meaning arguments then get made around micro level infractions such as Cambridge appointing Arday, rather than attending to the bigger issue. It also allows bad faith actors to create smoke and mirrors that then perpetuate the racist tropes i.e. a black man can only get appointed to a Professorship through DEI initiatives As a society we are still very bad at acknowledging this and look for excuses or other reasons as we don't like to admit it is structural racism. As soon as the r word gets mentioned, white people take it as though we are individually being accused of being a racist. You can be a non-racist but still get caught up in a system which works against ethnic minorities. This does not make one racist in anyway.
I enjoyed neither your male privilege, nor your class privilege btw so I don't share your guilt too much.
To be honest, I feel absolutely no guilt about it. I am lucky and had no say over who I was born to or brought up to be. One thing I can do though is recognise that others do not share my good fortune, acknowledge this, and try to level the playing field in any small way that I can.
