Black students are failing to apply to Cambridge because there is a lack of Afro-Caribbean hairdressers in the city, the university’s pro-vice-Chancellor has said.I don't know what's dafter, that excuse or the idea of a 'pro-vice-Chancellor'...
But lest you hurt yourself laughing, apparently, this is not just some excuse dreamed up by wackademics:
“We have been doing some quite detailed research, particularly with black students, particularly in London, looking at obstacles to applying to Cambridge and thinking about Cambridge.
And number three on the list was hairdressers,” he said.I'm almost afraid to ask what numbers 1 and 2 were...
Universities are under pressure from the higher education regulator to admit more students from ethnic minorities and disadvantaged backgrounds.One of the single most defining choices you'll make in your life, and you worry about getting your hair done? You aren't worthy of university.
But some moron with a degree will make sure you get one, anyway.
ReplyDelete> because there is a lack of Afro-Caribbean hairdressers in the city
Indeed. Oh, wait...
https://i.imgur.com/dwgQ6UL.png
To be fair, it is a thing that people who don't have Afro-Caribbean type hair just don't realise. I really had no idea until the son of a friend (who is black, his parents are Jamaican) went to uni, and one of the big points of discussion was where he would get his hair cut at uni. Barbers who are used to cutting European hair just don't have the skills/techniques to do Afro-Caribbean hair, its entirely different. I think if I faced having my hair butchered every time it was cut, making me look like some sort of escapee from a lunatic asylum it might well put me off moving to an area as well.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that I'm sure that a place with as big an Afro-Caribbean community as Oxford cannot be lacking in barbers who specialise in that clientele, all the Uni need to do is go and find them, and make prospective students aware they exist. But as Oxford dons are 'hideously white' (as most of the liberal lefty types generally are) they will never have ventured to the more vibrant parts of Oxford where such barbers will be be located. They aren't going to be be in Summertown, more likely on the Blackbird Leys............
FFS! Talk about wrong priorities. There are many of us with different needs or requirements, some religious, some cultural and some related to ability or disability, but no sensible person should throw away the chance to study at an elite university just because of some minor issue, especially something as minor as a suitable hairdresser. If you have a religiously mandated diet then it's possible to get specialist food from mail order companies and are these wackademics really saying that students need to be able to get to a hairdresser every week? Yes I understand that black people's hair needs different products from the hair of those of other races but they can be mail ordered.
ReplyDeleteIf hairstyling is such a massive priority for the student and the lack of a Afro hairstylist is putting them off attending, then it suggests that the students don't care that much about going to an elite university in the first place. I would assume that a few 'bad hair days' is a small price to pay for getting a quality education.
In the name of equality, I want to ask if there is an anti-vice-Chancellor to counteract the pro-vice-Chancellor ?
ReplyDelete> anti-vice-Chancellor
ReplyDeleteNo - it's con-vice-cancellor. As in the opposite of "progress" being "congress"...
"Indeed. Oh, wait..."
ReplyDeleteIt takes an academic to be this dim and easily proved wrong...
"Barbers who are used to cutting European hair just don't have the skills/techniques to do Afro-Caribbean hair, its entirely different."
But they do indeed have them. See PJH's map!
"FFS! Talk about wrong priorities."
Yup!
"...I want to ask if there is an anti-vice-Chancellor to counteract the pro-vice-Chancellor ?"
LOL!