Abstract
This chapter is an autoethnographic account of the journey of the first Black university professor in Scotland. As Professor Sir Geoff Palmer portrays his experiences, he asserts that we are responsible for highlighting and attending to the injustices of our time, because a diverse society needs diverse solutions. Palmer highlights academic amnesia or excuses such as “Unconscious bias” and “Institutional ignorance” as factors that have caused racism to embed itself into attitudes which limit inclusion, diversity and progress in a society, where “Institutional ignorance” and “Unconscious bias” are also falsehoods which sustain racism. Palmer maintains that criticism is an important part of research activities because some history-based prejudices can sustain racism and should be challenged. Finally, Palmer maintains that we need to understand the system to negotiate it and the system needs to understand diversity and its importance.
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Notes
- 1.
Caledonian Mercury, February 21, 1776.
- 2.
Caledonian Mercury, February 21, 1776.
- 3.
Caledonian Mercury, January 17, 1778.
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Palmer, S.G. (2021). A Diverse Society Needs Diverse Solutions. In: Thomas, D.S.P., Arday, J. (eds) Doing Equity and Diversity for Success in Higher Education. Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65668-3_3
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