“We, the undersigned here, condemn the manner in which Black Studies is being mobilized and pressed into service at the University of Bremen. Our critique is specifically directed at the organization, handling, and planned implementation of a Creative UnitNew Black Diaspora Studies: Ethical and Aesthetic Challenges of the 21st Century. […]

Apart from an antiquated understanding of gender that certainly cannot be called intersectional, current hiring practices constitute blatant affirmative action for white academics, while the German academic enterprise systematically excludes Black scholars and scholars of color and can continue to do so due to nonexistent legal mechanisms that would ensure equal participation of underrepresented/marginalized groups in university life as students and as faculty members.”

As a first consequence to the demands, the research group Black Knowledges (formerly Black Studies) disbanded yesterday. The group writes that it accepts the criticism, stating, “It has become clear to us that the Black Knowledges research group is part of the problem of racism rather than part of its solution.”