On 24 May, a member of the Question Time audience asked an important question. But viewers were quick to point out that there was a serious problem with the panel answering it.
An audience member asked the panel:
Do you think [the] bastion of white, middle-class, southern privilege spreads beyond just Oxford University?
Labour MP David Lammy nailed the problem:
Being discussed by an all-white middle class panel on the bbc’s flagship current affairs show as we speak. Thanks, you’ve proved my point perfectly! #bbcqt https://t.co/CirZhhwI5G
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) May 24, 2018
“White, middle-class, southern privilege”
The question related to a tweet that Lammy himself posted on 23 May regarding a report released by Oxford University into its admission statistics:
My response to Oxford University access data published today. (This thread will be long, and will include facts and figures).
Oxford is still a bastion of entrenched, wealthy, upper class, white, southern privilege. We need systemic change, not more spin and PR exercises.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) May 23, 2018
Lammy also tweeted some of the problems the report highlighted:
You are twice as likely to get into @UniofOxford as a white applicant (24%) than a black applicant (12%). Why? 1/4 Oxford colleges did not admit a single black student in a whole year group at least once between 2015-17. 8 colleges less than 1% black. Why?
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) May 23, 2018
For four of the biggest courses – Law, PPE, Medicine, Geography – you are twice as likely to get in if you are white compared to if you are BAME. Oxford need to address these institutional failings instead of spinning the figures and blaming the schools or applicants.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) May 23, 2018
The regional bias is shocking. When we take into account how many straight A students in each region, then a straight A student from London (30%) is twice as likely to get into @UniofOxford than a straight A student from the North West or Yorkshire (15%). Explain this bias?
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) May 23, 2018
Viewers were not impressed
Lammy was not alone in calling out Question Time over its panel, which consisted of Anna Soubry MP, Anneliese Dodds MP, Daily Mail journalist Dominic Lawson, academic Sarah Churchwell, and writer Lionel Shriver:
https://twitter.com/mowords/status/999795694985793536
And as others pointed out, the absence of a single person of colour involved in a debate over racism is a real problem:
https://twitter.com/TOMSHARMANWEB/status/999778167492694017
Erghh @ #BBCQT all white middle panel taking about BAME access to university. pic.twitter.com/HEx68FnGiB
— Tinkerbell 🧚🏾♀️✨️| r-WNC (@BlobWithAGob) May 24, 2018
It gets worse
If the all-white panel wasn’t bad enough, it got worse. Firstly, when Oxford-educated Lawson was asked if the country as a whole was a “bastion of white middle-class privilege”, he responded: “No, I don’t think it is”:
Bumbling idiocy from Dominic Lawson on white privilege #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/72nBxmR6b8
— Lester Holloway (@LesterJHolloway) May 24, 2018
But it was host David Dimbleby who managed to drag the debate down even further. A member of the audience raised the issue of the panel directly:
We’ve got an all-white panel tonight
Dimbleby responded:
So?
Viewers were not impressed:
https://twitter.com/jacobsebdiamond/status/999780096998281217
Audience member; "We've got an all white panel tonight"
Dimbleby; "So?"
Thick or deliberately disingenuous? #bbcqt
— Trickytaylors (@trickytaylors) May 24, 2018
Time for change
As Lammy pointed out, the Question Time panel “proved [his] point perfectly”. All our institutions, whether we’re talking about the media, universities or our police force, need to take a long hard look at how privilege and discrimination permeate through all sectors of society.
Because unless we start recognising and taking action against this entrenched inequality, it will only continue and get worse.
Get Involved!
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Featured image via screengrab
