Prof Jason Arday - Being Young, Black and Male: Challenging the Dominant Discourse

How do stereotypes about Black masculinity influence the lives and aspirations of Black men and boys today? What impacts do they have on individuals and institutions - and how are people of colour challenging such prejudices? How should white people - and especially white men - respond, and what should they do to support the struggle against racism? We explore these questions and much more with Professor Jason Arday, who is based in Durham University’s Department of Sociology like Stephen and Sandy, and is about to move to the School of Education at the University of Glasgow.

Jason is a Trustee of the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading Race Equality Thinktank, and the British Sociological Association. He also sits on the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS) National Advisory Panel and the NHS Race and Health Observatory Academic Reference Group, as well as being a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). He holds Visiting Fellowships at several institutions including Ohio State University.

• You can find out more about Jason’s work at https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/jason-a-arday/. He has a book coming out soon through Palgrave Macmillan called ‘Being Young, Black and Male: Challenging the Dominant Discourse’.
• He has written the book ‘Cool Britannia and Multi-Ethnic Britain: Uncorking the Champagne Supernova’ (Routledge, 2019): https://www.routledge.com/Cool-Britannia-and-Multi-Ethnic-Britain-Uncorking-the-Champagne-Supernova/Arday/p/book/9781138217409.
• Jason and Prof Heidi Mirza have co-edited the book ‘Dismantling Race in Higher Education: Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018): https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-60261-5

We cover the following topics in this episode:

• The ‘Colston Four’ verdict and removing statues of colonial figures
• Responses to the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK
• How Black masculinities are viewed, and the effects this has
• Struggles around ‘talking to white people about race’
• Resisting racist stereotypes, and Jason’s upcoming book ‘Being Young, Black and Male: Challenging the dominant discourse’
• How Jason got involved in researching these issues
• Jason’s experience of growing up and dealing with disability as a Black man
• The role of the education system in tackling race inequality
• How Covid-19 has interacted with structural racism in the UK
• Principles for white people in becoming genuine allies 
• Music which reflects the challenges Jason has faced

Resources of interest:

• Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book ‘Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race’ (Bloomsbury, 2018): https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race-9781408870587/
• Lemn Sissay’s book ‘My Name Is Why’ (Canongate, 2019): https://www.waterstones.com/book/my-name-is-why/lemn-sissay/9781786892362
• Guardian documentary ‘The Circle’, directed by Lanre Malaolu, about masculinity, racism and brotherhood on a Hackney estate (2020): https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2020/jul/15/the-circle-masculinity-racism-and-brotherhood-on-a-hackney-estate-video
• Steve McQueen’s recent ‘Small Axe’ film series (2020): https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p08vxt33/small-axe

Explainers:

• The ‘Colston Four’ case: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/05/four-cleared-of-toppling-edward-colston-statute
• Priti Patel described taking the knee as ‘gesture politics’: https://inews.co.uk/news/priti-patel-taking-the-knee-what-say-tyrone-mings-stoking-fire-racism-explained-1100801
• More information about Kemi Badenoch’s comments on critical race theory: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/aug/11/kemi-badenoch-never-far-from-controversy-in-brief-political-career
• Glasgow was previously described as Europe’s ‘murder capital’ by the World Health Organization: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-45572691
• Professor Heidi Mirza: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2021/may/spotlight-professor-heidi-mirza
• Linto Kwesi Johnson: https://lintonkwesijohnson.com/linton-kwesi-johnson/
• Professor Paul Gilroy: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/aug/05/paul-gilroy-britain-scholar-race-humanism-vital-guide-age-of-crisis