The vast majority of people in higher education would vehemently deny that they or those close to them oppose institutional equity, justice, and inclusion. Yet many of the most common understandings of discrimination and bias are highly problematic. “If you meant no harm, then that comment to a student can’t be racist.” Yes, it can. “There are equal opportunity laws in education now, so racism no longer occurs.” Incorrect.

In a new book, The Fallacies of Racism (Polity 2024), sociologist Jennifer Patrice Sims builds on academic theories from multiple social science disciplines and her own cross-national research, two decades of teaching, and analyses of contemporary issues to examine a dozen common perceptions about racism. Far from being conscious ideas that overtly reject equity, justice, or inclusion, fallacies are instead unexamined general patterns of thinking about racism that, if not interrogated, quietly function to justify and uphold white supremacy (inadvertently or otherwise).

In this guest lecture, Dr. Sims introduces her fallacies framework, highlights three of the fallacies which are often found in higher education, and explains how the thinking which underlays them is rooted in what scholars call an "epistemology of ignorance." Sims’ book talk concludes by describing the types of personal, interpersonal, and institutional work that is needed to improve the efficacy of antiracist pedagogy and efforts to counter discrimination and bias.