Director of SOAS is temporarily off-duty after using racial slur
SOAS director, Professor Adam Habib, has temporarily resigned from the institution after using the N-word at a student meeting.
Source: Julian Walker on Flickr
The School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) director, Adam Habib, who joined the institution in January 2021, was condemned for his use of the N-word during a meeting that occurred on March 11. The meeting was held in response to lecturers at the university using the same racial slur during classes.
During the meeting, one student exclaimed that his use of the pejorative was “Absolutely unacceptable”, while another stated: “I’m sorry but you are not a black man, you can’t use that word.” Habib, who is from South Africa, replied with the justification:“You do [find it unacceptable], I don’t actually. I come from a part of the world where we actually do use the word.”
Since then, Habib has apologised to the Black student who condemned his use of the term, saying “I’m sorry I offended you” and explaining that he comes from a region where “the context matters” when using the word. However, the incident has continued to incite backlash and outrage.
The SOAS student community and Students’ Union have called for Habib’s potential resignation for his comments. The union issued a statement saying that what happened at the meeting was “unacceptable, disgusting and to be unequivocally rejected”. At the moment it is considering what steps to take, with one of the options being to launch a university-wide referendum on whether Habib should be removed as director.
Marie Staunton, Chair of SOAS Board of Trustees, has confirmed in an internal message sent to the SOAS community that Mr. Habib has temporarily stepped down from his role. Meanwhile, an external investigation into complaints of anti-Black racism is taking place at the university following Mr. Habib’s comments. Habib’s temporary departure was justified in the message on the grounds of not compromising the investigation.
Mr. Habib has been off-duty since March 18, and Professor Claire Ozanne (deputy director) has been serving as interim director, overseeing the institution’s day-to-day running.
Habib has repeatedly apologised for his behaviour, and said in his statement to the student body and SOAS community: “I am mortified that I made this mistake last week and apologise for this. I have fought racism my whole life, battling Apartheid in South Africa, but this has shown me that I still have more to learn and more work to do.”
Habib posted a series of tweets on March 12 that provide greater clarity on his standpoint, which largely conflicts with students’ views, especially those of students of colour. In these tweets, Habib justified his actions: “So why don’t I think it was problematic to use the word when I did. Well, because context matters and I was arguing for taking punitive action. You cannot impute maligned intention without understanding context. Do I believe that only blacks can verbalise the word. No, I don’t...I am aware that this is a common view among activists committed to an identitarian politics. I don’t identify with this political tradition. I grew up in a political tradition that is more cosmopolitan oriented and more focused on the class dimensions of structural problems.”
In response to Habib’s tweets, the union released a statement on the same day which mentioned that Habib’s “class reductionism”, by “claiming that his own position is instead informed by class dimensions”, is a reference to the wider “structural racism that pervades the British university sector of which SOAS is a part”.
The statement highlighted the “serious ongoing issues at SOAS” which require “unflinching commitment from everyone, including the leaders of the institution”. These include “Black students’ wellbeing”, “university fees”, the “awarding gap”, and “surveillance”.
At an Emergency General Meeting on March 23, staff belonging to the SOAS Unison backed a vote of no confidence in Habib. The motion was supported overwhelmingly, with 98 per cent of those present voting in favour, and the other 2 per cent abstaining from voting. Consequently, Habib has “apologised unreservedly”, but concerns over the “systemic racism” at SOAS have been raised by the union as a result of this incident.
As the external investigation into anti-Black racism at SOAS continues, it is still to be seen what the final outcome of Habib’s position as director will be. Taking into account the currently off-duty director’s recent response to The Guardian, however, it seems a prompt or simple resignation is unlikely from Habib’s side: “I am not sure why I should resign. No malevolent intention was behind my mention of the word. If anything, it was the opposite: a commitment to act if the word was used against another human being by anyone within our institutional community.”