An ex-University of York student has revealed the extent of the racist abuse and bullying that they received during their time at the University.
Speaking exclusively to Vision, the student recalled three years of what she described as “continuing and cumulative racism”, and how she had to “endure inhumane and degrading treatment” and how she was “treated like an alien on campus.”
The student told Vision how, during her time living in Halifax College and off-campus in York, she was repeatedly referred to as “the nigger” by housemates and other students when they believed she was out of earshot.
She also described how, when dealing with a query, a porter at Halifax College asked her: “Is the University just letting anyone in nowadays?” in 2009.
Although international students make up 23% of York’s student population, which presently stands at 15,782, with international students coming to the University from over 120 different countries, these shocking revelations display a racist attitude that most would believe that a highly educated group would not hold.
In addition to her ill treatment at the hands of students, whilst studying Law at the University, the student described how she felt: “it was assumed that my bad performance was normal, the best that I could do, and that I was underperforming because I was black and that somehow as a black person low standards were acceptable to me.”
“Ultimately, I was written off quite early on because I was black.”
The Law School said, in a statement: “The issues that this student has raised have been the subject of a full investigation at a University level as they were not raised with the Law School directly.”
The student also criticised the University’s Open Door Team, and university staff members for the subsequent handling of her case, claiming that they didn’t take her claims seriously and failed to recognise tell-tale signs of depression and serious post-traumatic stress disorder caused by her experiences.
The University has already undertaken three stages of investigation into the case of the students claims and provided the following statement:
“This case was fully investigated in accordance with our standard procedures. We are satisfied that the University, including the Open Door Team, acted correctly and that the complaint is unfounded.”
The claims follow on from Vision‘s article last month regarding racist abuse allegations against academic staff at the University of York.
YUSU Racial Equalities Officer Asiya Elgady told Vision, “It is first important to clarify that we, at the university, do not take racism lightly and I would like to urge anyone feeling that they are experiencing any kind of prejudice to come forward so that we can deal with it in the fullest capacity.”
“Ensuring a feeling of safety and security, in which students can discuss such issues is a high priority for us. As for this case, it has been through three separate complaints processes and is now a closed case. Beyond this I have no more details, and therefore nothing more to say.”
Black students are merely tolerated on campus. Tolerance or toleration is the practice of permitting a thing of which one disapproves.
Don’t mistake patronizing tolerance with actually being valued as a human entity.
All those black students coming to our University and taking away our education…
Quite suspicious of her claims; seems like this under-performing student was just desperate to give herself an excuse as to why she did badly. Also in regards to what the porter said that time, the full context of the situation wasn’t given and also maybe it was to do with what she was wearing.
I’ve not seen or heard of any racism whatsoever, hopefully this is a rare complaint!
Sometimes the denial of racism gets downright silly.
I commend the student for making an official complaint.
Not surprising to be honest. Many locals never leave the street they are born in so they hold these outdated dinosaur views. There is a lot of ignorance and xenophobia. Reminds me of the time I was in a taxi and the cab driver called my friends ‘coloured’ – saying there were a lot of coloured people about. Sometimes the locals who are from low income backgrounds get jealous of ‘foreigners’ who are traveling freely and gaining new experiences in life. There is really no excuse for this behaviour in the Internet age. It’s quite pitiful really.
I have been a witness to racism on campus. When a black student has put up a student election poster near Goodricke College bus stop some students have graffitied it with slogans such as “go back to where you came from” and “Don’t vote for her, she will bring all her family to the UK”.
Its people like you with your generic sweeping comments about “locals” that give students a bad name.
There is no doubt that a student’s overall experience at university would be dramatically influenced by a personal space plagued by discriminatory behaviours. Students need to be made confident in reporting discriminatory and intimidating behaviour and reassured that this behaviour will be addressed.
Failure to prevent, eliminate and respond appropriately to racist incidents gives the Uni a very poor reputation in some circles. Students talk, and students who experience harassment talk a lot. If the University does not respond swiftly students take action alone – I know one Indian student who put urine in the orange juice and apple juice of a fellow student who bullied him.
Negative student experiences may also have long term consequences, such as: lack of alumni support in the future, including financial support donated to the Uni or active blacklisting of York students and graduates during recruitment practices from students who have experienced discrimination at York uni. Life is long and you never know what a person will become. The bullied student of today may be the billionaire of tomorrow.
Treating students as human beings is rarely a factor in the student consumer experience. This is where the University errs.
From an international student’s perspective (non Caucasian):[/U]
Racism – Ever pervasive. Both overt and covert racism are rampant. International students are considered inferior and treated with contempt. A large number of international students face racial abuse on a regular basis. Complaints lead to university ‘investigations’ which always exonerate the culprits because of endemic tribalism. In all its years of existence not one university academic has ever been fired or punished for wrong doing. Students and staff at all levels are racist be it undergraduates or postgraduates, lecturers, administrators, college porters or temporary staff.
Tribalism – Most of the teaching and administrative staff has been at the university for decades. Tribalism is endemic to such an extent that the laws of the land and of the university code of practice are merely tools to torment anyone who dares to question or complain.
Mediocrity – Most of the teaching is of poor quality. No department is immune as the rotten standards transcends departmental boundaries. Many departments obtain highest rankings in national research assessment exercises but that is merely on the basis of their research outputs. Teaching quality is horrendous in most courses.
Narrow mindedness – Most academics and administrators are narrow minded and totally unreceptive of criticism about any shortcomings in their way of functioning. Those complaining are ‘punished’ which scares everyone else from coming forward with complaints.
My sincere advice to international students is to stay away from this university at all costs. If you have no other option then don’t be foolish enough to try and fight the system. All you will get for your efforts is pain and suffering.
“Students and staff at all levels are racist be it undergraduates or postgraduates, lecturers, administrators, college porters or temporary staff.”
That’s a very sweeping and wholly inaccurate statement. Very, very bitter individual posting above…
It seems like the normal reaction of someone who has experienced racial abuse. Do you expect students experiencing racism to be pliant? Do you think that racism has a positive effect on students on the receiving end of it? Do you think that a student will be sweet, glad and pleasant after experiencing racism? What do you think the effects of abuse are over a long term period or over a lifetime?
Racial abuse has a negative impact on people who experience it. Bitterness is perhaps one of the more *positive* effects of racism. Suicide and murder are the more unsavoury effects of racism.
@behave
Are you angry because a person seems bitter about living in a racist society?
It does seem like most of them, like at least 60% of people in the University of York, do act in certain common ways, ways that support racism.
Before I came to York, I was scared that a racist culture was prevalent here- as an ethnic minority, from Asia, and originally living in a passively racist town in England, this fear wasn’t irrational.
Yet, in my 2 years at York, only once have I been confronted for something bordering on racism- and that was from a drunken 50 year old man at around 3am in York City Centre. On campus, not I, nor any of my ethnic minority friends, have ever been attacked or confronted on racial or religious grounds. In fact, I find at York a culture that is very accepting of pretty much everyone here- which is why I feel I have flourished here both academically and socially.
Admittedly, there are few black students in York compared to other institutions, which is a shame- but I don’t feel that this inherently ‘displays’ a racist attitude. The black friends I do have here have settled well, despite coming from poor backgrounds in places like tower hamlets and inner city areas in south london- what did strike me was that they feel more in place at York, than they do back at their home residences!
But secondly, there are students in every department that don’t perform well- but the assumption that this was ‘normal’ because the staff thought that it was a ‘black’ thing is absurd. The staff at York have duties beyond making sure everyone is at a high 2.1 average- they have research, teaching, marking, and other stuff that their positions entail- in this case, its likely that they probably don’t care so long as each student actually passes. If a student dosen’t work hard enough to get a 2.1 , or chooses not to consult staff at the YLS about problems they are having, why should the staff be blamed for this, or worse, be labelled ‘racist’ because of this? It’s a very lazy action that is inaccurate at best, and ridiculous overall. For example, when I started at York, my first set of essays were all at 2.2 level- it was only when I went to see my professors that I was able to realise where I went wrong and to improve them. It wasn’t up to my professors to ensure I was consistently achieving high marks.
So i do think that the claim of ‘institutional racism’ is extremely silly to make- considering that this article has no real structural basis to make such claims, alongside dismissing certain realities of performance. If her housemates were calling her ‘nigger’ etc, then she should have reported this either to the racial equality comittee, or other senior boards, such as that of her college.
I am greatly saddened by the main article and by many of the comments here, particularly that posted by ‘xianxo’. Its trenchant and exhaustive well-writtenness -save for the extraordinary ‘sweeping generalisations’ -renders it all the more damning. I did my BA here in the mid-late 1990s, and am here again as a ‘mature’ PhD student, in the Department of English. I am English-born, but of (fairly visibly, I presume) Indian descent – olive-skinned, dark hair, dark eyes – and now a beard. I want to state here that I have NEVER, NEVER EVER, encountered, witnessed, overheard, discerned, even the least, paranoid, whiff of suspicion of racism towards me from any member of the York University’s academic, or administrative, staff, and have only encountered racism in the city once (drunken passer-by made an opprobrious comment). As for the academic standards in my department! – there are I think intrinsic hence ubiquitously prevailing limitations and frustrations to contemporary institutional education, but the tutors are not ‘mediocre’, and the teaching not ‘horrendous’. International students have to be aware, I suggest, of cultural differences in interaction, and of the expectation of high, ‘Oxbridge’-British standards of work.
Denying racism is the new racism.
This complaint&criticism is exceptional. She is a legend! She is really sticking it to the man. Students everywhere salute you.
I had to read this article twice and consider my opinion heavily prior to posting this comment.
I am a black, female student in York and I must admit I had concerns prior to moving here. Many have said York is an extremely intolerant city to ethnic minority groups, lgbt’s and different religious groups.
I kept to myself for the first semester and looking back all I can say is I regret having have wasted that time. I have NEVER and I repeat NEVER been subject to racial abuse (not in the city centre or on campus). As a matter of fact I settled in quite well and have flourished since getting over my irrational fear, my peers and lecturers treat me as they would any other student.
Although I can’t speak for the girl in question, I find it highly unlikely that the result of her grade was due to racial discrimination. I feel the term “race card” would be appropriate to use here, it is people who can’t be condemned for their short fallings which make it hard for the rest of us who just want to get on with our lives and be treated with the same courtesy, dignity and respect we pay other people regardless of race, religious beliefs, gender or sexuality.
I empathise with the girl for interpreting things in that manner, however in my experience with the staff, students and locals of York, this city is by far one of the friendliest I have had the pleasure of visiting. Some of the comments from people who are festering anger and resentment need to let it go, there are ignorant people everywhere you go. You simply cannot continue living your life thinking everyone who is different from you is passively racist…don’t you think that is just as bad as racism? Learn to forgive and forget, after all, that is what our ancestors did.
There was an article similar to this complaint on the THES website: “Is a whiter-than-white academy blind to the racial inequality in its midst?”:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=418200
Professor Pilkington’s recent book, “Institutional Racism in the Academy: A Case Study” discusses the issue in quite a bit of detail. I am reading it for my thesis.
York University is a controlled environment – so it’s a choice to minimise, trivialise and tolerate racism or to adopt a zero tolerance policy that would benefit the whole University community. I only hope that lessons are learnt by the University, or they will be repeated again when the new students paying £9000 arrive. It seems quite a bad predicament for the University to be in and kind of casts a suspicious shadow over the University.
I think the racism denial card is being played by the university again. The race card is not much of a card to play, sort of like playing the two of diamonds.
I am white and I have never experienced racism on campus, but I can’t speak for anybody else. The uni should definitely do more to be more inclusive and less discriminatory. It makes me quite sad to see that not everyone is having the same uni experience as me. I love York. I have had an awesome two years and I am looking forward to third year. What can the uni do to make it better? Or will the same mistakes be repeated next year?
There is a wealth of evidence going back at least two decades to demonstrate conclusively the existence, in many differently faceted forms, of race discrimination in higher education affecting staff (recruitment, promotion, treatment) and students.
We can discuss whether such race discrimination is deliberate (much of it is not) and can disagree over how to tackle it, but I find it truly astonishing that the a few contributors to this comment stream are dismissive towards its very existence.
No wonder progress is slow and no wonder so much talent is wasted.
Racism is a reality in the lives of black middle-class families.
To be a black student means every day having to assume you may be judged according to some negative stereotype.
For the black professional, there’s always the lingering doubt as to whether their acceptance in “polite society” is genuine. The focus is sharper for black parents: how do you protect your children from negative assumptions in the classroom, knowing they could be written off as a low achiever no matter how motivated they are, or how much educational support you have given them?
The last two comments, I agree (to a point) but I think it is unfair to single York out, as these are more general statements
Impressed at the level of debate here. York evidently, as a Uni which isn’t particularly ethnically diverse when compared to others, and perhaps hand in hand with that comes issues of race, which the article highlights. However there’s also a big group seemingly looking to do something about it., led by our racial equalities officer, which is really impressive and a step forward for our Uni.
For those who say there’s no racism here? Stop pulling my leg. My Asian housemate got beaten up on his way home from Willow in Week 9 after a group of York students shouted racist expletives at him that I won’t even repeat here. It’s a problem that we have, that whilst you may think is not widespread, is still a problem.
The tyranny of the majority says that “there is no racism”. So racism within the University of York must be more endemic than the article exposes. It’s clear that this article is just the tip of the ice-burg in terms of the level of bullying, harassment and racism at the University.
Denial of racism constitutes active oppression – just like denying the Holocaust.
Wouldn’t less racism make the University better?
Racism at York University is normal – normal in the same dysfunctional way that putting your kid in the washing machine and pressing ‘spin’ becomes normal if you do it often enough.
Hmmmmmm. A law student making criticism and initiating a complaint about racism and institutional racism against the University? Looks like the beginning of a law suit to me. Students get free legal representation so it would be quite easy for students to sue for this kind of thing.
The University may trumpet a commitment to equality and diversity. But are they (senior management or whoever is running the uni) really facing up to and tackling subtle, insidious forms of discrimination?
Just finished my first year at York. I am transferring to Edinburgh in September. If you are going to experience racism at university it’s way better to experience it at a top rated uni (Oxford, Edinburgh etc) rather than a middle-ranked uni like York. I just think it’s appalling for anyone to sacrifice the best years of their life in this way. York is definitely a bit backwards – especially some of the accommodation and finance administrators. I would rather experience racism at a 5* research uni that a crappy new Russell Group uni.
Errr, Vianny. Edinburgh is ranked lower than York on this league table:
http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings
The Guardian places York just 2 places behind Edinburgh. Perhaps there’s a big difference for your subject, but overall the 2 universities are pretty similar. Hope you enjoy Scottish racism more than Yorkshire racism :)
There are some interesting tests from Harvard and the University of Virginia that people can do to see if they are implicitly racist (or sexist, ageist etc). Even if you (rationally and consciously) oppose racism, it might be that you have a subconscious aversion to different races, as a result of one’s upbringing, experiences and media exposure.
People should be encouraged to become aware of such implicit reactions, so they can make a conscious effort to adjust their behaviour, if necessary and where possible:
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/takeatest.html
“Even if you (rationally and consciously) oppose racism, it might be that you have a subconscious aversion to different races, as a result of one’s upbringing, experiences and media exposure.”
This is simultaneously the greatest cop-out and absurd rationalisation for institutionalised racism I have seen. I don’t know what is worse..the idea that there are so many home environments out there where individuals growing up don’t have the free will to distance themselves from their parents views, or the fact that there aren’t enough contrasting views being put out in those people’s school and social lives to put these views to rights.
York has an grim undercurrent of racism it is undeniable.
And as it follows the guy that makes a xenophobic joke about a black footballer on tv in the pub knowing he can’t be heard is still the same as the bus driver that refers to the ‘brown lass he owes some change to’ in direct proximity to the person.
Racism is Racism none the less.
Discrimination has not gone away but has become more covert than overt. The University culture remains untouched. In organizations a good intervention should ask “How can we keep track of attitudes to difference and diversity?”. Change in behaviour away from discriminatory practices presents a change in attitudes away from prejudices. There is a need to go “back to basics” and to work with people to make changes at the micro level. It is also significant that the student in question is a woman – gendered forms of racial harassment pose a significant issue for higher education.
Interventions on setting up confidential reporting situations at the University have clearly not proved very successful. Reporting such personal and sensitive experiences is difficult. It is difficult to argue that any of the racial harassment initiatives at the University have reduced racism. The policies are dealing with the effects rather than the causes of racism. Those on the receiving end understandably fear victimization.
There are also the racisms of professionals and managers in denying racism, or considering it unimportant. There are the racisms of ‘cultural’ assumptions, racisms are expressed at an interpersonal level, for example, in the form of throwaway remarks, jokes and debates. They are also expressed silently through non-verbal behaviour and through informal networks. They are expressed through ignoring and denying racism. They are reflective of, and informed by, the deeper causes of racism.
Policy interventions in racism have been limited in their effects in tackling the *causes* of racism. By causes of racism, I mean both the origins, or roots, of racism, and the ways in which it is reproduced on an everyday basis. Professional interventions on the whole primary deal with the *effects* of racism.
The University has a role to play in opening up new ways of seeing the world beyond the entrenched notions of multiculturalism and Britishness that we see debated ad nauseam in the media. There are black students currently at the University who are 10th generation British born – who are the children of physicists, award winning engineers, landowning farmers and lecturers. It must be debilitating to have to confront racial stereotypes when you know that you are nothing like the stereotype perpetuated.
In the days where you stayed in the same place for your whole life, where everyone was pretty much like you in terms of class, race and socio-economic background, either/or thinking had its place. It was easy then to do the “us” v “them” dance, the black v white jig, or the ‘us’ and ‘other’ jive. You could say that life was this, or life was that.. because let’s face it, unless you travelled and got to see the world, you didn’t know much more beyond your immediate environment and what the media told you about the rest.
Today, however, in this interconnected, digital, global age, it’s not so easy. Or at least, it shouldn’t be. If you want to shatter your own stereotypes and perceptions you can. With ease. Yet, many do not. Many continue to live in a closed universe, when the world is in fact, more open than it has ever been.
I’ve never been to Mongolia. Yet, I can go online and research it. I can see Mongolian people. Watch them speak on youtube, read their own thoughts on their own lives and their own environments. I have no need to make up what I think Mongolia is about. I need not believe my uncle, who has never visited Mongolia in his life and has only got his understanding of it from a select few publications, when he tells me negative things about them. No, I can find out for myself these days.
Even if you’ve never met a black person in your life, you can now. Go online. Read the multiplicity and range, the depth and breadth, of voices, and views and attitudes and thoughts coming from all over the world. In 2012, what we can all learn is that we are not the same. People are individuals. Even those sharing a racial, cultural, religious or socio-economic background can be -and are – vastly different.
“This is simultaneously the greatest cop-out and absurd rationalisation for institutionalised racism I have seen.”
Eh? I was merely pointing out something that often happens to be true: subconscious aversion to different races existing alongside a conscious belief that racism is morally wrong.
It wasn’t meant as a justification for anything, merely a statement of fact that I thought people on this thread might be interested in.
If you have a problem with that, take it up with reality.
@Vianny
Edinburgh is the only place I’ve been abused in broad daylight in a crowded street with my ex (who was an African-American student). She was told to ‘go back to Jamaica, you n*****’, beaten up (as I was as well) and told she looked ‘like a monkey’. No one helped us. She moved to a ‘worse university’ shortly afterwards. I have lived in Edinburgh and love the place but there’s a much worse undercurrent of racism there than in York. I wish you all the best however.
(And personally from anecdotal experience and asides from people who work there about Edinburgh’s teaching and treatment of students and dissatisfaction with contact hours/quality of teaching in almost every faculty apart from medicine, I would be wary of ranking Edinburgh a ‘top university’….)
Blatant trolling.
I’d hardly call it a statement of fact or a description of reality…I can sort of understand where you are coming from..I think what you are suggesting is that despite an acceptance of people from all walks of life there can still build up in someone a bit of an uncomfortableness when communicating/interacting with people from races/backgrounds you have little experience of?
If that’s what your getting at then, yes, there may be some truth in that.
But I would still say that is giving ’the aversion’ too much credit, when you should really just put it down to an unfamiliarity/uneasiness that you would have with any stranger or someone with different behaviours than you.
Again it strikes me that if you were fall back on this ’sub-concious aversion’ as a reason for why you don’t like a person or don’t get on with them then you are giving their race/colour/creed too much credit and not thinking about what they are actually saying to you.
That is why I would still say it’s a cop out.
It doesn’t take much to act like that initially, but it also doesn’t take a great deal to notice that behaviour in yourself and correct it.
After all Racism is learned.
I hope that it is clear that black students are not enrolled at the University as a ‘small favour’ or ‘random insulting gratuities’.
Contrary to the attitudes of certain University staff and students, black students are not giving a ‘tip’ to the University for a small gift.
Nothing short of full rights will do. The student is *king*. This means that no student should be racially abused at the University of York.
There is clearly a pervasive problem of “non-racism” at the University. This “non-racism” can be described as an oppression-hatred of a race of people without reason.
Adequate attention is not paid to the negative impact of “non-racism” on educational achievement. If it is normal for a University of York student to develop depression as a result of the “non-racist” University conditions, environment and student experience – this is also a problem that the University needs to address.
I am also not convinced by the arguments about ‘using the race card’ in incidents of “non-racism”. How can a race card be used during a complaint of “non-racism”?
“language merely reflects existing social conditions, and that we cannot influence its development by any direct tinkering with words or constructions” – George Orwell
Racism and “non-racism” look exactly the same. “Non-racism” up North looks suspiciously like this thing we call “racism” elsewhere.
Most people keep silent because they know that, even if you complain, the investigation won’t be done properly. The majority of allegations of racism and corruption have not been properly investigated – in fact they usually protect the racists rather than the recipients.
York sound horrid.
I wonder what the leader of our University – Sir Brian Cantor of York has to say about institutional racism and complaints of racism within the University? I agree that racism is learned behaviour, and we have to unlearn it. Non-whites are not yet completely first class citizens/students at the University.
A couple of weeks ago I was in a car in Fulford Roard, near town. I wound the window down to ask passers-by directions, but as soon as they saw I was black they just carried on walking and didn’t stop to help. This happened for three sets of people. I see racism every day. You can smell racism even if you can’t see it. Race is an important part of my identity, but I wish it wasn’t. I’d like to identify myself as a cyclist, economics student or a pop rock person; but when my housemates call me derogatory names, or my supervisor ignores me or when I am refused accommodation because I am not a “suitable candidate”, it has nothing to do with that.
Racism happens because of a lack of understanding. People need to be exposed to people from different races to combat it. You can have tougher laws but we need to realise that we all look different but we have more in common than we think. People of all backgrounds need to appreciate how race has been used as a tool to assert the superiority of certain groups over others.
I’ve recently started to adopt the term black English to refer to my ethnic identity. Why should Englishness be reserved for white people?
In some ways the whole diversity agenda has driven bigots underground and trained them how to hide their prejudice, but it is still there right throughout society. There is still an assumed inferiority about black people compared to white people.
I realised that many “ordinary” white people had no problem smiling in your face while stabbing you through your soul.
I have a British passport, but I will not feel a sense of belonging if I am constantly reminded (by racism) that I don’t belong. Sadly, far too many people misguidedly assume that if you are a non-white person, you are likely to be an immigrant or an asylum seeker when obviously the reality is completely different.
The University is very reactionary on race.
Interesting question: where did you learn your racism from?
Was it your mum or your dad or your grandparents that taught you to be racist? Was it from your friends at school? TV? The newspapers and media? Well meaning school teachers? (Distorted) History books?
If it was a white student who had experienced abuse at the hands of a black student, I doubt the complaint would be “unfounded”.
Before attending York I didn’t think I’d be discriminated against. I was shocked to find that there were people who violently hated me because of my skin colour. It was very intimidating and overwhelming because I had never, ever experienced that level of racism before. When I made complaints they were denied, I didn’t want to appease racists by going through the complaints process so I just withdrew. I am hoping to transfer to another University next year. Having to take a gap year and go through the whole UCAS process again is major effort and I will have to pay the new £9000 fees. However, living with racism will probably cause me to have mental health problems if I stay on at York so I know I made the right decision. I don’t know how black students cope in an environment where they are degraded racially?!?!?
The whole point of racism on campus is to get black students to ‘leave’ and ‘go back to where they came from’. So I can understand why some black students choose to stay on at York – they are deciding not to be driven away from their education because of racism. I think personal health is the most important thing though. I had to re-read the part where the student experienced depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
It’s shocking that a student was harassed to the extent that they developed a disability and mental health condition. I am speechless.
The question is: “What are you willing to lose to achieve a goal?” If you are a ethnic minority student on campus, are you willing to experience racism (and lose your mental health/sanity) in order to get a degree? Three years is a long time in a young person’s life. Age 18-21 is probably the age of the biggest growth as a young person goes from a child/teenager to an adult. It could be really damaging to experience abuse during this development phase.
I find is strange that there are so many accomplished black people in the UK, yet so few of them are found at the University of York – as either employees or students. This makes me think that the University of York recruitment team are specifically choosing not to employ ethnic minorities. Clearly, for the reasons highlighted in this article, York is not an attractive place for people who are something other than white. I don’t think things will improve anytime soon.
The problem today is that minorities have long had to make accommodations for the negative view others have of us.
See, it doesn’t matter about our degrees. Our fine, tailored suits don’t matter. We’ve made all the accommodations to fit into this society. We’ve cut our hair. We are careful about the clothes we wear. We change how we talk so as not to sound threatening. We’re fine, upstanding citizens. Yet we still are seen as suspicious.
We are sick and tired of being seen as suspicious. We are sick and tired of being seen as a stereotype and not as a full human being.
To be treated equally and not to be stereotyped because of the amount of melanin in our skin…
Hitler wouldn’t even admit to being racist – and he and his friends committed some of the greatest atrocities in human history. Good luck getting anyone else to admit it!
I don’t think anyone ever does admit that the effects of their acts or omissions are racist. So this statement from the uni is not surprising to be honest. It just means that the student experienced racism at the university, but the university denied it. It doesn’t deny the racism occurred, they (uni staff) just decided not to admit it.
Just like a kid that steals the biscuits from the cookie jar, when his mum asks where they went, the kid says “I dunno”.
Hello everyone,
Just to say, if you feel that you’ve experienced racism at the University or in the city, there are many people you can speak to for help in either submitting a claim, or in seeking support.
Firstly, you can get in touch with us confidentially at YUSU at [email protected] for support and guidance. If it’s about issues that you think we need to be lobbying to change, whether at the University, in the local council or beyond, then please do get in touch with our Racial Equality Officer at [email protected] or myself at [email protected]
There is also the University’s Equality and Diversity Office, who have harassment advisers to help you if you feel that you have been unfairly treated, and you can also go through your college provosts.
And for anything in the wider area, the police are also there to help.
YUSU is committed to challenging racism in all forms, and if there are any ways you think that we can be working to combat the discrimination in and around the University, please do let us know and we would love to know how we can help to fight the structural and attitudinal discrimination people of ethnic minorities face.
Again, please do get in touch if you feel that you need any help or support, or even if you just want to know where to go next with your complaint.
Bob Hughes, YUSU Welfare Officer. ([email protected])
In other news:************There are definitely some interesting student-staff relations at the University. Certain residential tutors are having forbidden sexual relations with students who they are supposed to be supervising within University accommodation… It will all end in tears…
I’m an international student, Asian. Never experienced the slightest bit of racism from my peers. I never had to compromise my cultural habits or whatever to talk to my friends or lecturer, because I didn’t put race as a barrier. On the other hand, I know a few international students who do feel that there’s a difference between local and international student, but it was more internal. They put up the barrier themselves. I’m not saying there are no racist home students, but rather, racism comes from both sides.
Now if we’re talking about the townies, that’s a different story.
I sense university administrators ‘trolling’ because the complaints single them out. I reckon Brian Cantor is paying staff members summer bonuses to write that they have “never experienced the slightest bit of racism”. Indeed! You also keep repeating the same phrase “NEVER, ever EVER” experienced racism in your previous two comments. The ginger lady doth protest too much! *major cringe* & embarrassingly bad trolling.
Students have complained about racism – do something about it or you will get the same complaints year after year. The first thing you can do is pick up a book and go and read about different cultures. Once you have read every book on every culture in the world – then, come back and contribute something intelligent to the conversation. I doubt an international student would ‘put up the barrier themselves’. Which international student would leave their home, family, friends and everything they love to put up barriers in a new university town? Your trolling is cringeworthy and transparent.
There are definitely a few members of staff who are a bit racist, very subtly though. When you make a complaint the staff usually accuse you of ‘using the race card’ and then deny racism. This creates a vicious cycle of racism complaints and racism denials, which lead to more complaints and more denials which then lead to complaints of institutional racism because the original complaints were not dealt with.
Education is vital & no amount of racism should drive a student to become a university dropout. The problem is that if the university does not prevent racism, and then fails to adequately respond to complaints, students do take matters into their own hands.
After experiencing racism a few hundred times in your lifetime, it does get a bit tiring actually. When an 80 year old, 40 year old and 19 year old experiences racism, the effects are exactly the same. I feel sorry for those who experienced racism before they reached age 18 – simply because they would have become disconnected from the educational experience and would not have made it to university.
Racism is a bit boring after a while. How stupid do you have to be to believe that some humans are inferior to other humans because of their complexions? You would have to be a complete blockhead. If an ethnic majority want to racially stereotype somebody – why not go to a prison and racially stereotype a murderer or rapist who has actually committed a crime? Ethnic minorities on campus are the complete antithesis of any stereotypes presented and perpetuated.
In my first term at uni last September, one of my housemates kept telling me ‘you speak English really well’ He was so surprised that I could speak English fluently. I found it really awkward because I was born in Finchley and I had attended nursery school, primary school, secondary school, 6th form and now university in England. I didn’t know what to say. It would be a bit odd if I couldn’t speak my native language. Just because I am Chinese it was assumed that I was an international student and that I couldn’t speak English. When people congratulate you for being able to speak your native language (English) it shows that low expectations are assumed about ‘ethnic minorities’. They will probably have a heart attack when I write an essay in English!!! I can write my name and address in English too.
Dear me, first paedos and now racists. You wouldn’t get this shit at Lancaster.
Racism is a characteristic of York, I would even argue that racism is synonymous with York.
Consider your behaviour. Consider the effect you would have if every morning you drove past Jimmy, a university student walking from his off campus (but university owned) residence to his lecture, and called him a derogatory name, through a brick at him and yelled racial obscenities at him. Would Jimmy feel pleased at your attention? Would he look forward to his daily walk to campus? Or would he develop a Pavlovian hatred for walking to campus?
Consider that Jimmy then notifies a member of the University that he is being verbally abused everyday as he walks to campus. Consider that the university administrator then tells Jimmy “nobody is abusing you, go away Jimmy, stop using the race card”.
Jimmy, still shaken by the abuse and by the denials of the university staff, then walks into his lecture hall or seminar and begins his work. Consider that Jimmy then seems glum and quiet in class, his tutor asks him whether he is struggling with the work. Jimmy says, no professor, the work is fine, in fact it’s quite easy. Jimmy’s tutor then yells at him ‘If the work is so easy, why are you behaving like that?’ Jimmy then says that he is experiencing racism at the university. Consider that Jimmy continues to make complaints about experiencing verbal abuse, but the staff continue to say ‘no Jimmy, nobody is abusing you’. Jimmy begins to resent his daily 7 minute walk to the lecture hall, he begins to associate his daily walk to university with abuse… he may even call the university or the city ‘racist’ a few times. Quite justifiable, no?
The culture needs to change.
You have it. If not more. You just don’t have decent reporting to expose it.
Joanna Wong you just made my night!
To the 30% of university staff and students who are the least racist people I know – I love you. Thanks for providing a nice contrast :) Keep being you. It’s always a nice shock when you experience racism during the day, and then you come home and your lovely housemate is there providing conversation, or baking a cake or inviting you for a night out or a night in watching movies on 4od/BBCiplayer or inviting you to a late night trip to the cinema or just treating you like a normal human being… roll on next term.
I mean if you are born in England you would have to go out of your way to not learn to speak English. You would have to never go to school from age 2-18, and never interact with anyone who speaks English, including never learning the alphabet & then just turn up at uni.
But how would you have been able to fill the UCAS application form in? How would you have been able to study a degree without A-levels or their equivalents? The dumb logic of ignorant, bigoted, racist assumptions never seizes to amaze me.
admin staff are lousy and Library fines are some of the highest in the country.
My friend is of South Asian heritage and we were walking around town looking for a restaurant, when we saw it on a brochure in a man’s hand. We asked him where the restaurant was, and the guy said “I can’t even understand what you’re saying. You Muslims better improve your English if you want to live here”. The thing is that my friend spent his whole life in England. White people are probably the most racist race.
Surely a ‘racist university’ environment is an oxymoron? The word “university” is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means “community of teachers and scholars.” You can either have a racist environment, or you can have a university – you can’t have both because racism threatens academic excellence…
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These experiences of racism cause many people to somewhat hate white people, or at least ignore them to the point of invisibility.
Nah, there’s no point reporting racist incidents at York uni. Nothing is ever done about it. The university equality and diversity team is questionable given there have been reports made against the equality and diversity team about anti-semitism in the past.
My advice to students is: Just take action yourself in whatever what you see fit. If students and staff are allowed to be racist, then students and staff recipients of racism are allowed to respond to said racism however they like too.
Archbishop of Goodricke, Honourable, King, My Lord, Baron, His Royal Highness, Your Majesty, Duke of Heslington Hall, Earl of Halifax College, Viscount of Vanbrugh, Sultan of Derwent College, Pope, Tsar Descendant of Jesus Christ twice removed, Emperor, demi-God, Sir Brian Cantor appointed as Master of York by divine right…
this is your legacy.
York is the most racist university in the country. These student experiences are abhorrent. York as a city is quite racist so I guess it’s to be expected. I feel sorry for those arriving at York next term, high in spirits, fresh faced, excited about their three years at university. They will face a nasty racist shock in due time.
At the end of my first year I walked into a popular York letting agent to request and view some houses. I was told by the rather chubby lady working there that she ‘didn’t want any trouble’. Obviously accommodation is reserved for those who are non-Asian because they are not ‘trouble’.
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Just got my A-level results. I was quite excited about getting into York before seeing this article. Now I’m not too sure. Now I wish I hadn’t got the grades I needed to get in. My English lit teacher said that York was a very good uni and it seemed okay on the interview day, but student experiences seem to disagree. Bit worried now.
There is definitely a positive correlation between being racism and being white. Definitely one of the problematic pathologies of our times and rarely subjected to the full weight of sociological, political or even economic analysis. Seems like every year there are complaints about racism, and every year they are denied. Sounds a bit suspicious to me.