When we talk about decolonizing the curriculum, that's actually coming from a position of default whiteness. It happens very badly. What Tamua described there is an absolutely superficial and quite ignorant and naive approach to fixing a problem which has wider parameters in that. You can't just take the optics of taking a black writer and putting them in the place of white writers and thinking you're doing something. This is actually a little bit deeper than that because what we're talking about is an entire system that's born of white supremacy.
In recent years movements to change school curricula have argued that all students at schools and universities should be able to see themselves reflected in the books they read. But others argue that moves to recolonise the curriculum to include more diverse authors should be based on the universal value of their work rather than the identity of the individual. So how do we best go about updating those reading lists that include some of the most well-established classics in literature and academia? Jeffrey Boakye, former English teacher and author of the acclaimed memoir I Heard What You Said, and journalist Tomiwa Owolade are our guests for this debate to discuss this timely topic. Our chair is the writer, academic and broadcaster, Shahidha Bari.
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