Racial harassment is “a common occurrence” for students across the UK, a report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission has found. Students and staff of British universities were both found to have been subject to racist name-calling, insults, “jokes”, and even physical attacks.
As a consequence of being targets of racial abuse, students’ grades and mental health both suffered, according to the survey that polled over 1,000 students across the UK.
While this report sheds light on a widespread and institutional problem, I am unsurprised by its findings. Racism is something of an open secret in university life.
During my own time as a student, I was often the only black woman in the entire lecture theatre. As a result, I felt conspicuous and lonely. The things I learned about media and representation helped me to understand the ways black women are perceived in modern day society – angry, hypersexual, loud. But that knowledge was little comfort in the face of overt and covert racism.
“When the people in a position of authority are complicit in and perpetuate racism, how can any student feel confident about speaking up against the prejudice they’ve been subject to?”
I’ll never forget how uncomfortable I felt when another student expressed his surprise (and displeasure) at finding a black person living in our halls of residence, or the way my black and female body was considered especially grope-able during nights out at the union. These memories were brought to the surface as I read the EHRC report’s findings.
An undergraduate student at Wales said that “on multiple occasions, myself or my friends have had the n-word shouted at us or been told they are ‘pretty for a black girl’.” The implication being, of course, that blackness is not beautiful.
One international student at an English university said: “I just don’t want to be brown anymore. I wish I could boil my skin off or bleach it entirely.” Carrying all the prejudices that are projected onto your body can be deeply painful. And there’s little to suggest that racism will stop being a part of campus culture any time soon.
Racist material and displays were found to be a regular part of promoting student society events. Repeatedly, students described being considered “oversensitive” and finding little in the way of empathy when they tried to address forms of racist ”banter”.
Universities don’t always have the mechanisms in place for identifying and challenging racism. Too often, it is students of colour who are left to carry the cost of standing up to it. Especially when their demographics are not reflected in an institution’s teaching staff.
“By downplaying the issue of racism, a university doesn’t have to worry about putting off future students – and losing out on their fees.”
Only one of the classes I took was taught by a woman of colour. Throughout my experience of tertiary education, not even one of my lecturers or tutors was a black woman. And this is not uncommon. Whiteness is hugely overrepresented in British academic life. Of the 19,000 people currently employed as professors in the UK, only 400 are women of colour. And only 25 of the professors now active in British universities are black women. The higher you go in academic life, the fewer black women there are.
A key finding of the report is that many students have experienced casual racism not only from their peers, but from academic staff. These micro-aggressions can take many different forms. Some students reported their tutors or peers expressing surprised that someone of their ethnicity would have enrolled on a particular course. Others reported being mistaken for the only other person from their background in the class.
Academics are responsible for students’ education. Academics are also responsible for providing students with an environment in which they can learn, safe from discrimination. The report’s findings suggest that a great many academics are failing students of colour in this respect.
When the people in a position of authority are complicit in and perpetuate racism, how can any student feel confident about speaking up against the prejudice they’ve been subject to? And – even if a student does come forward about experiencing racism from academic staff – how can they trust that what they’re saying will be heard and acted upon? The report found that students are often reluctant to report racism, and that informal complaints of racism often go unrecorded.
As a result, some universities remain wilfully ignorant of the racism their students and staff face on campus. Money, the report suggests, is a key motive. By downplaying the issue of racism, a university doesn’t have to worry about putting off future students – and losing out on their fees. Incidentally, the EHRC report highlighted international students “feeling unwelcome” and “being treated like commodities”.
The EHRC’s research is valuable because it gives voice to the truths that, in one way or another, are glossed over. But we won’t see an improvement unless institutions actively engage with these findings. Although more and more prospectus brochures show students of colour sat in classrooms or posed around a leafy green campus, racism plays a big part in how we experience university life. Structural changes – both in terms of how students and lecturers of colour are treated, and how racism is dealt with by the university – are essential.
Claire Heuchan is an author and essayist who blogs as Sister Outrider.