Oxford University: Defending Racism and Inequality Since 1096

Oxford University has lately been on the news not for some significant scholarly output as one might expect but because of its desire to defend the rabid colonialist, Cecile Rhodes. Instead of recognizing that what Rhodes stood for should not be honored in the 21st century, the Oxford leadership has decided that it is better to part company with prospective students than to dispose of the statue of Rhodes which is gracing its campus. It was an eminent historian from the famed university, Hugh Trevor-Roper, who declared in the early 1960s that Africa has no history worth noting, because African history began with Europe. When the Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron, recently called out the University for privileging well to do students over the disadvantaged in its admissions policy, the University responded that it is just keeping up with the nature of society itself. Society is already unequal and so it is simply maintaining the societal inequality in Britain. Oxford University can therefore not go against the grain. It simply has to reflect society, maintaining societal racism and inequality. There is a long history of this at Oxford.