Complicity and Conformity: perpetuating race and class hierarchies in UK higher education

Drawing on tenets of Critical Race Theory such as Whiteness, interest convergence, intersectionality and White supremacy this paper examines how some academics of colour are able to accelerate their success in higher education by performing Whiteness by using their privileges and capitals as a means by which they are able to identify with their White colleagues which enables them to perform Whiteness (albeit as outsiders). At the same time, by allowing privileged academics of colour entrance into the White space of higher education, White groups are able to perform inclusion. Drawing on interviews with 34 academics of colour, this paper argues that by performing and enacting Whiteness, some academics of colour mirror successful White behaviours within White normative frameworks. As a result, they are rewarded and gain entrance into the White space of higher education, but the main beneficiaries from this process are White groups, leaving the structures and institutions of racism intact. Consequently, they are complicit in upholding White supremacy, and by doing so protect the interests of White groups.