Thursday 28-11-2019 - 15:16

Last month, the Equality and Human Rights Commission published the findings of its inquiry into racial harassment in publicly funded universities in Britain. Its aim was to examine the experiences of staff and students in Higher Education and understand the impact that racial harassment can have upon an individual’s education, career and wellbeing.

The research found that for a wide range of students and staff at universities across Britain, racial harassment is a common experience and ranges from racist name-calling, insults and jokes to physical attacks. Such experiences were reported by 24% of students from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The report also found that experiences of racial harassment can have a significant impact upon wellbeing, leading to feelings of humiliation, exclusion, isolation and vulnerability as well as anger, upset, depression and anxiety.

Racial harassment, in any form and in any setting, is completely unacceptable and should never be tolerated. We want all students and staff at Durham to be a part of an inclusive and welcoming community, where diversity is celebrated and everybody feels safe. We recognise that for this to be a reality, existing structural inequalities must be dismantled and as a Union, we have a responsibility to work towards this whilst also mitigating the effects of oppression, disadvantage and discrimination in the short-term. We also recognise that this issue is structural and institutional – it is not a case of a ‘few bad eggs’, but the result of deep-rooted, systemic oppression and marginalisation. President of Durham People of Colour Association, Nailah Haque emphasises this, saying:

“Durham has a real responsibility now to assess its role in facilitating racism and allowing it to continue to ingrain itself into the different structures of the University and the wider culture. Considering the implications that racism has found to have on wellbeing, it is especially crucial that measures are put into place to make sure students of colour are well supported to deal with the specific harms that affect non-white students.”

That’s why, through our continued work to make Durham safer to students, we recently became a Hate Crime Reporting Centre and continue to promote Pincident as an opportunity for students to anonymously report experiences of discrimination and harassment. We’ve also trained over 500 students in being an Active Bystander, with a view to train many more throughout the year.

We continue to work with the University to improve BAME access and participation, and with student leaders of colour to tackle racial harassment on campus. We are committed to challenging institutional barriers which disadvantage students and staff of colour.

We’re also working on a Liberation Strategy that will empower the voices of underrepresented groups at Durham and strengthen our response to tackling the issues that students’ face.

Whilst this is a step in the right direction, we know that we need to do more to ensure that none of Durham’s students or staff experience racial harassment in the future. We will therefore continue to work to identify key areas for improvement and will work with the University to ensure that it takes on the recommendations of this report.