Whiteness in academia, time to listen, and moving beyond White fragility

The months since society observed the horrific, real time murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis have the potential to be transformational in so many areas, including the academy. Many White academics renewed their wokeness, born out of tragedy and pledged to do better. Yet, Dar et al. (2020), in a provoking essay, aptly points to how the academy in general, and business schools in particular, reproduce ideologies that reinforce White supremacy and subordinate people of colour. Although the academy is considered to be an arena where progressive views are fostered (Haynes, 2017), we tend to overlook the performance, networks and power structures of White academics and their White hegemony on a profession that is often held up as steward for racial justice and social change (Hikido and Murray, 2016; Melaku and Beeman, 2020).