From Black Students Campaign on Ednet.
At an NUS training event this week, Chris Mullan, President of Kings College London Students Union questioned encouraging more students from the local Black community to attend a university, as he thought the presence of such students would increase gun and knife crime and so require more security. He then went on to say that there should be thought put into whether they want such 'undesirables' at the university. In the same session another student officer, Craig Cox, Education Officer of the University of Nottingham, thought it would be funny to hold up a poster saying 'BRING BACK SLAVERY'!
It is unacceptable that Black students should have to put up with blatant racist stereotypes at NUS events. It is unacceptable that slavery can be treated as a joke; it is one of the greatest crimes in human history and the root cause of modern racism that has left us with a legacy that continues to mar the lives of Black people today.
Furthermore, it is unacceptable that nothing was done about this by the NUS NEC present, and it was only when the Black Students Officer was involved that action was taken. This only happened because a distressed Black Student who felt it hadn't been dealt with immediately contacted me. I advised her that the offending students must be made to leave as they had contravened the NUS Equal Opportunities policy. This whole process took nearly 3 hours, and included me having to contact the NUS President again. Some Black students were so upset that they left and others intend to boycott future NUS events. I urged them to stay – no Black Students should ever feel so ostracized and insulted by comments and actions that they should have to leave an event. Incidents of racism should be dealt with immediately.
Last term Black students were enraged to hear that the NUS VP Welfare had been told by a member of the NUS NEC that her brother's name was 'too foreign sounding' to be used in promotional materials for the NUS discount card. The National President expressed regret for these comments and his own failure to challenge them at the time. And yet on Thursday, no action was taken until a series of complaints, including my own, were made. This is simply not good enough!
Unfortunately this is not the first time that the needs and concerns of Black students have been ignored. I have already called on the National Secretary and President to ensure that Muslim students are not excluded from training following an event earlier in the summer, where practising Muslim students were forced to eat their dinner behind a screen, separated from other delegates, as a non-alcoholic venue had not been provided. One Muslim student accidentally ate a dessert unaware that it contained alcohol. At NUS 'Liberation' training I was told by the National Secretary that no action could be taken against a student advocating support for the fascist BNP because the NUS 'no platform' policy did not apply to training events! Only when I insisted he leave, was any action taken on this. What do we have to say or do before the needs of Black students are addressed?
These incidents send out an alarming message to Black students and are part of a wider culture where our needs are sidelined. Following the offensive comments regarding the discount card last term, NUS agreed to demands from the Black Students' Campaign for compulsory equality training to be given to NEC members. We have now been in office for nearly two months and it is only now that this is being arranged. Black students have had to fight for years for proper representation in NUS. But clearly we still have a long way to go. It is not good enough for officers of NUS to pay lip service to anti-racism while they pander to racism in practice.
The NUS Black Students Campaign will to continue to fight every manifestation of racism in society, in our colleges and universities, our students' unions and in NUS. We are not taking these incidents lightly. Discrimination requires immediate action. I encourage all Black students to get active in the Campaign and all those genuinely committed to driving back racism to join us in this fight.
I urge you to join us in calling for the following :
1. Support for Black students to holding officers to account Sabbatical Officers who make racist comments.
2. All NUS events to have a clear statement against racism made clear to all participants.
3. Compulsory Equality training for NEC - including how to deal with incidents of racism amongst NUS members and officers - for this to be an a part of the induction for all new members of the NEC.
4. Equality training at sabbatical training events.
5. Call on the National Secretary and President to ensure that no event is organised to the exclusion of Muslim students, as happened earlier this summer with a training event.
6. All students to join our campaign for 3 minutes silence to remember the brutal legacy of slavery and colonialism.
3. Compulsory Equality training for NEC - including how to deal with incidents of racism amongst NUS members and officers - for this to be an a part of the induction for all new members of the NEC.
4. Equality training at sabbatical training events.
5. Call on the National Secretary and President to ensure that no event is organised to the exclusion of Muslim students, as happened earlier this summer with a training event.
6. All students to join our campaign for 3 minutes silence to remember the brutal legacy of slavery and colonialism.
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