Events reported in the media have highlighted the things students of colour are made to endure, but we know that this is nothing new. That's why Warwick Anti-Racism Society (WARSoc) and Warwick SU are coming together, asking Warwick's students of colour to Speak Out about these experiences.
From comments about "exotic" food in halls, to people touching others' hair around campus, the microaggressions students of colour face can have a huge impact on the experience and mental health of students of colour. We want to amplify your voices and call on the university to do more for students of colour. Share your stories with us (anonymously if you prefer) and help us make a difference to the experience of students of colour.
You can read the initial Speak Out Warwick report here.
Progress against the report recommendations can be found here.
To contribute to the project, submit your own experiences using the form below. If you would like your experience to be shared publicly through this project, please ensure that it does not include any personally identifying information about you or anyone else.
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"Myself and another girl come from the same country, but do not look alike, apart from the colour of our skin. On many occasions we get mixed up and people who are from non-BME backgrounds call us by each other's name. Once it was the other girls birthday and 5-6 people wished me a happy birthday by accident. We all don't look the same! If we can learn all of your names and pronounce them correctly the first time we meet you, it feels ignorant when you all can't learn to pronounce our names and continue to mix us up repeatedly."
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"In an honours level literature seminar, a classmate who is a POC contributed to the group discussion by highlighting the text's dealing with colonial history and surrounding issues. To this, our tutor responded by looking down at the register, and then, becoming overtly surprised by the student's Italian surname and her being a woman of colour, he spoke it out loud, slowly. Marvelling, he questioned her about her ethnicity, asking "where do your people come from?". The student then proceeded, albeit hesitatingly, to provide details of where she was born and her parent's countries of origin. I found the whole scene highly disconcerting and hugely irritating because rather than respond and expand on the discussion points raised by the student (that were significant to the text and had not previously been addressed by the tutor), the tutor instead diverted the discussion thus wasting valuable lesson time to satisfy his own personal intrigue. The language used - 'your people' - highlighted the tutor's highly problematic views about, and knowledge of, ethnicities, culture, history, society etc."
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"On another occasion, when reading a poem, the same tutor read out the n-word and then proceeded to take up the seminar time explaining why he felt he was able to use this word. His reasoning was that during the time the poem was written, people were happier to use/say the n-word and that today we are too PC and touchy about using such language. I was disgusted by this and felt very uncomfortable, especially being the only POC in the room. I lacked the emotional and mental energy required to challenge his argument and thus his opinion remained the only one spoken in the class."
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"I have had countless racist experiences since arriving at Warwick. Throughout my three years as an international student in the neighbouring city of Birmingham, I never once experienced racism in any shape or form. In contrast to my experience at Warwick, I experienced racism from the first day I arrived. The Immigration Department was by far my worst encounter - with the staff being outrightly rude, refusing to help me in any way, and threatening me with not being able to start my postgraduate programme on time, all based on a fault on THEIR part. None of the other international students on my programme experienced this even once and I personally feel that i was discriminated against because of the COLOR of my skin; because I am AFRICAN; because I am BLACK. My second encounter was with The Law Society. From their election process, to the diversity in their current committee, down to the atmosphere at ALL their events, I was treated with the highest form of discrimination at every effort I made to be involved in their events. Warwick Accommodation was yet another department that treated me with absolute disregard in regards to my complaints about my accommodation in Coventry. Despite reporting the racist incidents I had with my accommodation's management, they simply dismissed my email with a 'thanks for bringing it to our attention'. I made the effort to go to their office and schedule a meeting to speak with a staff member, but even then my complaints were dismissed. In all these incidents, what made me sure that it was racism and discrimination was the fact there was coincidentally ALWAYS a British student in the same predicament that I was in, but they had very different experiences than I did. With the immigration office, a fellow peer was personally written an apologetic email whilst my feedback form and emails were simply ignored. With the Law Society, a British first-year student asked for feedback in regards to why they were not selected for a position and they received extensive feedback. When I asked for the same, I was simply told that 'they don't do that kind of thing'. With Warwick Accommodation, a fellow peer was personally relocated to alternative accommodation after their complaints, but I was simply told 'there is nothing more we can do for you'. I have never in my 21 years of life experienced the amount of racism that I have since my start at Warwick. NEVER."
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"When certain people would walk down the street, they would cover their noses whilst they walked past as if we smell. (I’m black) Make disgusting comments about me being dirty and so forth. It’s the covert forms of racism that get to you just as much as the overt."
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"The amount of racist comments I have heard in seminars is both heartbreaking and disgusting at the same time. For such a ‘prestigious’ university, some Warwick students really need to check themselves!"
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"A drunken flatmate once 'jokingly' said to me that he was going to lynch me for not giving the correct directions to a venue. I was shocked and angered that they would think it ok to joke about such abhorrent racist violence and not know any better, and his being intoxicated was not an excuse. This happened at the beginning of the academic year and knowing that I would be living with the person for several more months made confronting them about it a fraught decision. It's disgusting that students of colour have to cope with the stress of dealing with such ignorance and arrogance on top of general university-related and induced anxieties."