New chancellor of Oxford Brookes University on overcoming racism at school, ‘tedious’ drama school politics and ‘nonsense’ claims of ‘wokery’ over decolonisation of curricula
Jack Grove | THE
Paterson Joseph is an actor, writer and chancellor of Oxford Brookes University. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda) and later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) before featuring in films such as The Beach and Aeon Flux, plus TV shows including Peep Show, Green Wing and Vigil. He will shortly appear in Wonka, the prequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. His debut novel The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho, adapted from his one-man show about the British abolitionist born into slavery, was published in October.
Where and when were you born?
I was born in north-west London in the 1960s.
How has this shaped you?
We were a close-knit community and had a very strong sense of belonging to a wider Caribbean culture. Willesden Green was largely white and Irish and there were not many black families when we were growing up. The demographic began to change from the early 1970s. The hostility to us was clear, but we got on with our lives and dealt with each incident as it came. I developed a strong sense of who I was and knew that life would not be a breeze from the very start.
You’ve said you had a ‘rotten time’ at school and skipped class to go to the library. Was it an ambition to attend university or drama school?
My school life suffered from a system that was set against African-Caribbean kids from the outset. In the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s the educational structure in Britain was institutionally racist – as shown in the BBC documentary Subnormal. My old teacher, Mrs Bird, was from Goa and told me years later that the headteacher would urge her not to bother with the African Caribbean or Irish kids because we were educationally inferior to white English children. Playing truant was my way of opting out of the system, and thankfully my curiosity helped me find my own way of learning. Drama school came later, when I had learnt that I did have a brain that functioned well. I thought it would be a brilliant way to hone this gift I had discovered at 18.
Why did you choose Lamda?
It seemed to offer the broadest curriculum that would challenge the body as well as the mind. I loved anything that integrated our training with our performances: animal work and commedia dell’arte were my favourites because they used our technical skills well with performance. Our Alexander Technique classes were invaluable for rooting me in my body, connecting me with the way the body can be used to convey character. But I thought it would be a more integrated training and was disappointed to find that many of the courses were disjointed from the rehearsals for shows and presentations. I didn’t enjoy the strange politics of personality that developed around certain teachers and the pub culture that some of the faculty used to play their power games was tedious in the extreme.
What type of a student were you?
I was extremely conscientious. I took my training incredibly seriously. I was curious and would question things to understand them fully. This sometimes led to misinterpretation by some teachers: they accused me of arrogance or of questioning their methods or authority. I was never rude but had a strong sense of being able to ask legitimate questions when it was appropriate. Drama school can be a sensitive environment and this no doubt extends to the faculty too.
Last year a report by the Diversity School Initiative called out racism in British drama schools, including reduced roles for black students. As someone in the vanguard of colour-blind casting at the RSC what do you make of this?
This isn’t something that surprises me. I would take this report at face value. Its findings should be evidential to anyone who sees shows at most drama schools.
There are no black professors of Shakespeare studies in the UK. As an acclaimed Shakespearean actor and author of a book on the RSC’s 2012 all-black production of Julius Caesar, set in Africa, does this lack of black scholarship concern you?
It’s another area of obvious blindness. There should be more examination of the recruitment processes at higher education institutions. If they want to attract global majority people to study these subjects, we have to see the path to recruitment open up to this demographic. Why study something you’re unlikely to get a chance to teach?
Your book on Charles Ignatius Sancho highlighted a less well-known 18th-century anti-slavery campaigner. Do you welcome efforts to decolonise curricula in universities to consider such people, efforts that have, in some quarters, been criticised as ‘virtue-signalling wokery’?
“Wokery” is a nonsense term. All “virtue” is seen externally and is therefore “signalled” in some way. Virtues are good. If sensitivity and knowledge of other cultures than your own is framed in this way, we are never going to think outside of our own narrow boxes. Awareness of stories and histories that do not simply focus on European Caucasian narratives is a norm that should be unremarkable.
What are your goals as chancellor of Oxford Brookes?
I would like to promote outreach and to encourage Oxford Brookes and the schools in Britain that don’t traditionally get large numbers of pupils into higher education to prioritise this agenda. A diversity of ideas that come from students from diverse financial and cultural backgrounds will only enrich our nation.