The Political Psychology of Perception
Is this the world map we would know if the world history portrayed in ‘Noughts and Crosses’ had taken place? (cf books by Malorie Blackman and series on BBC iplayer). You will be used to seeing the Mercator Projection, which shows countries incorrectly in proportion to each other, to the advantage of European colonial powers.
Our age is typified by the ongoing dominance of white European culture and interests in what we recognise as science. The interdependence of all people’s and the natural world was understood by our ancestors, but in recent Centuries we have lost our way and our humanity has been diminished. Either by being subject to systematic racism or being complicit within it.
Prof Kehinde Andrews is the UK’s first Professor of Black Studies. And he led the establishment of the first Black Studies university programme in Europe. You can access a quick and powerful introduction to his scholarship by watching “The West was built on racism. It is time we faced that” in the Guardian’s video Series “In My Opinion” available on Youtube. Let Professor Andrew’s ‘shake us out of our progressive delusions and shape the world anew”!
He has written books including “The New Age of Empire: How racism and colonialism still rule the world”. Professor Andrews has quoted Deepa Naik who said that “The University is not racist, the university is racism” – delve deeper in a Guardian article on Andrew’s from 2016: “Universities Do Not Challenge Racism”.
Dr Guilaine Kinouani is a UK based Clinical Psychologist who has developed Racereflections.co.uk. For a quick introduction to Guilaine’s work watch her powerful and thought provoking Tedtalk on "Epistemic Homelessness". Dr Kinouani is an award-winning radical psychologist and group analyst, scholar, activist and writer. Her books include:
White Minds (2023) A psychosocial exploration of how psychic and social structures intersect to reproduce whiteness and consequent everyday race dynamics, inequality and violence. Dr Kinouani uses her group analytic expertise to think about racialisation and associated group dynamics.
These young academics and psychologists have the potential to have sweeping society wide impacts, and walk in the footsteps of these psychologist-heroes:
Mamie and Kenneth Clarke
Mamie and Kenneth Clark developed The Doll Test in the 1940’s that demonstrated the negative psychological consequences of segregated schooling in the US. Their research was pivotal in the landmark Supreme Court case that brought an end to one form of government-mandated white supremacy: racial segregation in American schools. So psychologists really can change the world for the better!
Báyò Akómoláfé
Bayo Akomolafe has described himself as ‘a recovering Clinical Psychologist’. He writes beautifully poetic prose. His bio describes him as ‘a descendant of Yoruba fields of archetypal becomings and mythopoeic landscapes. He is an author, celebrated speaker, teacher, and self-styled trans-public intellectual (a concept imagined together with and inspired by the shamanic priesthood of the Yoruba healer-trickster)- whose vocation goes beyond justice and speaking truth to power to opening up other spaces of power-with, and queering fond formulations and configurations of hope.’ Bayo was born in 1983 into a Christian home, and to Yoruba parents in western Nigeria, he now lives between the US and India. ‘As Visionary Founder and Elder of The Emergence Network and Chief Host of the widely popular festival series, We Will Dance with Mountains, Bayo curates an earth-wide project for the re-calibration of our ability to respond to civilizational crisis – a project framed within a material feminist/posthumanist/postactivist ethos and inspired by Yoruba indigenous cosmologies.’
Back to the UK, (for we have much work to do on ourselves)...
A few hours can be very well spent on Diversity and Inclusion webinars that have been developed by the BPS. Go here to learn from UK based scholars on topics including “Decolonising the Curriculum”, “Tackling Racism across the Psychological Professions” and “How to implement antiracist practice”
You can also explore articles and videos on the topic of Examining Whiteness on the Power Threat Meaning Framework section of the BPS website.
Some Socials to follow for local changemakers: United Against Racism Belfast, Tura Arutura (dancer and EDI consultant), Nandi Jola (poet), Craic NI and Anaka Women’s collective.
The time is now to become actively anti-racist in your work and life. The photo above captures the moment when local woman Maureen Hamblin spoke powerfully at Belfast City Hall. Showing inspirational courage in the wake of racist violence on our streets in 2025. She spoke about Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome and how most of that trauma happens at middle-class dinner tables and through our institutions and groups. She urged us to speak up when we witness white-collar racism and discrimination, in our homes and all the spaces we frequent.