Why I’m No Longer Talking To My Students’ Union About Race

This amalgamation of thoughts, emotions and frustrations has been a long time coming, however, I thought I’d just be able to ‘let it go’ as we approach the end of this academic year. Alas, a recent Blog post has proved to be the straw that broke this camel’s back.

We are a mere few weeks away from July 1st when the Students’ Union’s new sabbatical team takes over, but in a last-ditch attempt to once again put their image before their students (and indeed their student officers) they have finally broken my spirit.

The only place to start is at the beginning, so I hope you are sitting comfortably…

I applied for the role of LGBT+ Officer after the first electee stepped down. In my bid for the position, I highlighted the lack of representation and inclusion of non-white LGBT+ individuals here on campus. Once elected, I was told that my pledge for a regular queer night in Stags wasn’t very feasible but the Bridge would suffice — and so Rainbow Night was born! The first Rainbow Night coincided with Black History Month so what better way to start the year than to centre an event around Black queer and trans people?! The next Rainbow Night was centred around Trans Awareness Week, and monthly themed LGBT+ nights would have continued had I not become overwhelmed with various things over the Christmas break. In the Spring term, I helped organise a number of LGBT+ History Month events. I couldn’t have achieved these without the VP Welfare and Community’s assistance. In the name of connecting non-white LGBT+ students, I also hosted a small number of ‘Queer People of Colour Discussion groups’, though in hindsight I should have put more effort into the promotion of these events (which, for some reason, went unmentioned). And in the run-up to the election — in which I ran a protest candidacy for President — the release of my ‘Blood Without Bias’ video was delayed at the expense of those I represent as LGBT+ Officer, as it ‘might have given me an unfair advantage’ (to win a position I did not want). That is a summary of my record this year.

Knowing this, you may begin to understand my surprise when I see myself referenced in a post about their “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Work”, which states:

“With the LGBT+ officer, we have filmed videos regarding QPOC issues throughout the year, such as blood bias, and for LGBT+ History Month we hosted the first Queer Black Rainbow night, specifically for QPOC.”

The single video I filmed with the SU (‘Blood without bias’) was about the homophobic blood ban, and had nothing to do with race — and anyone who watched the video would understand that. The loose wording may lead some into believing that Rainbow Night was a monthly event exclusively for QPOC, when in fact it was for the entire LGBT+ community (including the BMH one). And yet these are mentioned in a section of ‘achievements’ aimed at highlighting what the SU has done for Black students — which could not happen if the LGBT+ Officer happened to be white.

If I cared about my reputation, I would stay quiet as this makes my work seem more ‘woke’ and relevant to the Black Lives Matter movement than it actually was. However, as I demonstrated in the Spring election, I don’t give a toss about my own reputation. I should be held to account for the fact that my work as LGBT+ Officer wasn’t what I had hoped at the beginning of the year, which I hold my hands up and say that it was due to a poor work-life balance and personal drama. Yet this communication does exactly the opposite. The SU’s assertion of accountability is a myth, it’s completely non-existent, as they put PR and preservation/restoration of reputation above the interests of theirs. The work of their volunteers that they push must be Instagram-able for social media promotion. The point of Liberation Officers, and probably most if not all elected roles, is not to actually work towards ‘liberation’; it is to complete a number of things (such as events and statements and letters to MPs) throughout the year so that by the end you can say that you ‘worked towards liberation’ irrespective of whether or not your actions made a difference, or if your actions were even detrimental to the cause.

I could naively hope that this was simply an error due to them not really knowing or understanding the work that their student officers do, however as I have run essentially everything I have done by the VP Welfare and Community, I know this supposed ignorance cannot be the case. Therefore, I must assume a more sinister motive which is that the Union wishes to carry out what I can only describe as ‘blackwashing’ (or perhaps ‘woke-washing’) to try to salvage it’s soured image in regards to dealing with race and racial issues. My Blackness has been extorted for the SU’s self-promotion, like countless black faces in high places — not that I think a voluntary role that usually goes to the single person who wants it is a particularly high place.

What surprises me most is that I shouldn’t have been surprised at all. I started the year with optimism as five presumable feminist Sabbs were in office; The VP Welfare and Community had a copy of renowned author Reni Eddo-Lodge’s bestseller “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” on display in her office. We were sure all on the same team… or so I thought.

Then after a high-profile racist-incident she told me that the BAME Officer’s statement on racism was not needed — as if there was some logical explanation behind it — when I asked her (as a then-News editor for the University publication) why the statement had not made it into print. Only later I found out that this was not for any valid reason, only that mentioning ‘white supremacy’ in the context of a University and Students’ Union such as ours was inappropriate (which of course couldn’t be further from the truth). This censorship was later either omitted from the history books or re-written entirely, as when I wrote about the lack of anti-racist action that the SU had taken, the President wrote a statement (which she told me would be published regardless of if I made recommended changes to the article or not) in response explaining how the BAME Officer had been ‘reached out to’ by the Sabbs. By this point, it was clear that she did not like me as by simply making reference to the person that holds the office of President I had ‘made it personal’ according to her.

Following my article, The President and I had multiple ‘one-to-one chats’ about why I wasn’t being constructive in my actions and why I wasn’t conducting my disapproval of my SU’s (mis)behaviour in the correct manner and why Black students hadn’t come forward despite no efforts being made to reach out to them and an exhaustive list of more ‘whys’. There was an awful lot of shifting the blame onto: Black students for not being vocal enough, myself (a Black student) for being too vocal, the University for taking it out of their hands and forcing them to do nothing in the meantime… anyone but themselves. Even today they have admitted no wrongdoings or mistakes, only a single vague suggestion that ‘things possibly could have been communicated better’.

This continued in a Senate meeting where the President nonchalantly revealed what I would describe as quite critical information, to say the least: The statement about the conclusion of the racism investigation (that “The racist word was not used” and so conveniently no action could be taken) was contradictory to the audiology report that she (not the student body or wider Students’ Union) had been granted access to (that it was inconclusive as to whether the racist word was said or not). That this brings the entire investigation into question is apparently of no concern to her.

Surprisingly it was not myself that brought up the racist incident in that meeting, but another Black student. In an attempt to deflect from the question of ‘Don’t you think this is more than a harmless discrepancy?’ and ‘As one of few people given access to this info, do you not think it is your job as president of the SU to pull the University up on this?’ by stating that I, personally, had already discussed this with her (though this was the first I heard her mention of the audiology report) in private and I had not replied to an email asking for feedback — and so obviously I had to shut up and let the meeting proceed as everything I had to say could be completely disregarded from this point on.

I would imagine she feels as though it is her duty to hold students who raise their concerns (who have no power) to account against some unknown standards for some unknown reasons, whilst simultaneously any attempt to hold her or her fellow Sabbs (who have the power to make changes that affect every student) to account is nothing but a personal attack.

[It might also be with noting that the feedback she was so desperate for was later emailed, along with a reminder one week later, and no response was given.]

In spite of all of this, I continued to be LGBT+ Officer as the SU’s mistreatment and silencing of Black students was a separate issue to the interests of the LGBT+ students I am meant to represent. After all, as I was reminded; ‘I am my SU too’.

I had also put down any misconduct to mere ‘personality faults’ of the Sabbs I had engaged with rather than believe these issues were larger than just ‘a few problematic people’. And as such, I went beyond my role and offered to set up a ‘what does racism look like event’ that the President told me the BAME Officer was meant to do — though the President failed to mention that the reason the BAME Officer hadn’t was due to the mistreatment she faced, instead choosing to make out she was simply neglecting her responsibilities for no reason at all. I took up her offer to speak to someone from the University — which she brought up in the Senate meeting as if I had declined — and did not follow through. And I set up the Black Students’ Network, which she said was meant to be the job of the BAME Officer despite the fact that building an entire network from nothing was not in the job description, even when I checked the handbook (unhelpful and generic leaflet) she reminded me of when I questioned what our roles are actually for. Between unrealistic expectations, undefined responsibilities, and tokenistic opportunism, I now no longer see the point or effectiveness of voluntary student officer positions.

This is the kind of thing that corporations and organisations do when racial issues (like Black Lives Matter for instance) make headlines. They deceive us into believing they are ‘woke’ by whitewashing the ways they subjugate the people they claim to champion, and blackwash the ways they make tiny steps that they also claim are in the direction of progress — steps that, for the most part, do not resemble the anti-racism that we are demanding. It illustrates how calls for ‘diversity’ and ‘representation’ (over decolonisation and true liberation) are entirely futile when the structures we want to be ‘included’ in are designed to oppress and extort us. I guess this is liberalism in a nutshell.

I am tempted to say, given what I have experienced this year, that Black students do not feel part of this Students’ Union, but I think the truth is that pretty much all students don’t feel part of the students union — even some of their own volunteers such as myself. And when this backstabbing, hollow and soulless brand of student politics is sold to us as ‘involvement’ and ‘representation’, I can see why. Race, however, has proven to be a topic of particular inadequacy unlike gender, class, sexuality, religion, etc. So when I see my SU share a #BlackLivesMatter post and follow this up with a blog outlining the many ‘proofs’ that they cannot possibly be racist or that they have an unquestionably good record on dealing with racial issues and Black students, you will have to forgive my anger. We see today the harm that is done when institutions fail to deal with racism and when people cannot properly talk about race. The fact that next year will see two Black Sabbatical Officers but no BAME Officer will allow these issues to go unchallenged — after all Black Lives Matter began under Obama’s Presidency. Perhaps the next Sabb-ministration will learn from the failures and shortcomings of this year. But from the fact that the next President chose to use student-organised anti-racism events as campaign material without contributing anything at all to the fight against racism in her role as a current Sabb, I will not hold my breath. I fully expect this shit will continue after the current Sabbs depart.

I do not hate my SU, as some might believe, many of the staff I have spoken to this year were genuinely nice and understanding people, but your niceness is irrelevant when the action and inaction your organisation makes are inadequate or even unjust. I’m sure the current Sabbs will move onto their next thing wondering why that Black guy was so troublesome, without any deeper analysis or reflection of their actions.