Kehinde Andrews

Kehinde Nkosi Andrews is a British academic and author specialising in Black studies. He was the first Black studies professor in the United Kingdom.

Early life and education

Andrews is of British African-Caribbean heritage. He grew up in Birmingham, the son of a half-white English, half-Jamaican mother who was a university graduate and was born in Britain, and a Jamaican father who had come to the UK in his early teens. Andrews earned a PhD in sociology and cultural studies from the University of Birmingham in 2011. His thesis was entitled Back to Black: Black Radicalism and the Supplementary School Movement.

Academic career

Andrews is a professor of Black studies in the School of Social Sciences at Birmingham City University. He is the director of the Centre for Critical Social Research, founder of the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity, and co-chair of the UK Black Studies Association. Andrews is the first Black Studies professor in the UK and led the establishment of the first Black Studies programme in Europe at Birmingham City University.

Journalism, media appearances, and personal views

Andrews regularly appears in the media discussing issues of race and racism, colonialism and slavery, and British nationalism. He contributes to The Guardian, The Independent, New Statesman, CNN, OpenDemocracy, and often appears as a guest on the BBC and Good Morning Britain.
In 2016, Andrews criticized universities in [the United Kingdom] for institutional racism, specifically the lack of diversity in students' assigned readings.
In 2019, Andrews appeared on Good Morning Britain, where he argued that the Royal Air Force bombing of Nazi Germany constituted a war crime and equated the racial views of Winston Churchill to those of Adolf Hitler.
Andrews narrated the 2018 film The Psychosis of Whiteness, which explores race and racism through cinematic representations of the slave trade.
In July 2019, Andrews criticized the idea that prominent non-white members of the Conservative Party automatically represent racial progress, saying that a "cabinet packed with ministers with brown skin wearing Tory masks represents the opposition of racial progress".
In 2020, he was interviewed by the Los Angeles Review of Books discussing Malcolm X and the question of violence in Black radicalism.
In June 2021, Andrews described Elizabeth II as "the number one symbol of white supremacy in the entire world". Following her death in September 2022, he called for the abolition of the monarchy.
In September 2024, Andrews was investigated by police for using a racial slur against the Black political commenter Calvin Robinson.
While critiquing books written by academics as a "con", Andrews said the work of many academics is "devastatingly bad" and stated one of his peers had written something so bad that "he writes like he has a brain injury".

Selected works

The Psychosis of Whiteness: Surviving the Insanity of a Racist World. Penguin Books. 2023. ISBN 9780141992396.
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