'Experts' claim milk is 'racist,' linked to 'colonialism' in UK taxpayer-funded study

Academics at the History of Science Museum in Oxford will be researching if milk is racist in a UK taxpayer-funded project that was revealed last Saturday.

These "experts" will be exploring the "political nature" of milk and its "colonial legacies," per Daily Mail, in a new project called "Milking it: colonialism, heritage & everyday engagement with dairy." It was awarded funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which is funded by the UK government through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It grants around £110 million to researchers at universities and independent organizations, the outlet reports.

The museum announced it had received funding for its racist milk research, however, the size of the grant has not yet been revealed. It said in a statement: "By focusing on communities intersecting industry, aid and government regulation, the project aims to centre on heritage as a vital framework for understanding how colonial legacies influence contemporary issues and affect people's lives.

"Through milk diaries, archival research and participatory podcasting, it will investigate historical engagement with milk, building networks with consumers and producers in Britain and Kenya. The project will question both the imagined and real aspects of milk, revealing the intimate and political nature of this everyday substance."

The project will be led by Dr. Johanna Zetterstrom-Sharp, a University College London associate professor at the Institute of Archaeology, and Dr JC Niala, head of research at the History of Science Museum. Zetterstrom-Sharp notably participated in a 2022 Wellcome Trust exhibition on milk breakout session called "Milk and Whiteness" during which she said milk was a "Northern European obsession" and that the understanding that it is an essential part of the human diet "may be understood as a white supremacist one" because populations outside Europe and North America experience high levels of lactose intolerance.