‘Does racism really exist?’: Course in Lisbon halted over all-white staff

A prominent university in Portugal’s capital Lisbon has hit pause on its postgraduate course on racism and xenophobia after drawing widespread confusion over its all-white teaching staff.

The programme’s content also raised eyebrows, especially a session titled, “Does racism really exist?” taught by white instructors.

While the session may have aimed to spark a lively academic debate, some felt that, in 2024, such questions might already have rather definitive answers.

“The promotional message for the course was laden with questions,” Paula Cardoso, founder of the Afrolink online platform for Black professionals in Portugal, was quoted as saying.

“As if we still need to defend the existence of racism and its profound impact on the lives of Black individuals and other marginalised communities.”

Cardoso added that the course seemed more poised to sow "doubt and misunderstanding" than offer solutions.

Writing separately on the website of her organisation, Cardoso added: "It's absurd to have a 'post-graduate course on racism and xenophobia' coordinated entirely by white people and, so far, taught without a single non-white person."

Her concerns were shared by Kilombo, an anti-racism platform, which described it as "incomprehensible" that no one questioned the absence of Black representation in the teaching staff of a course focused on racism.

Following the backlash, the university removed the course's advertisement from its website and suspended the programme altogether.

Margarida Lima Rego, dean of the law school, acknowledged the situation as an "internal failure" and assured that measures were being taken to prevent similar issues in the future.

“The faculty and the observatory had no intention of minimising issues that are important and relevant to any society, nor discriminating against people,” she said.