Chair of BARAC UK co-signs letter on Covid 19 and Racial Inequality in Higher Education - Black Impact and Make Diversity Count writes to the PM

Chair of BARAC UK Zita Holbourne has  co-signed this letter initiated by Black Impact  regarding Covid 19 and racial inequality in higher education. 

Read original on Black Impact website here 

On the occasion of the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Racism, we have written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson MP, to express our concern about the growing crisis in relation to racial inequalities in higher education and are seeking his urgent support in tackling this important issue.

Read our letter below.

Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP

Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA

19th March 2021

                                          COVID-19 RACIAL INEQUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Dear Prime Minister,

We are writing to you today 21st  March 2021, being the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Racism, to express our concern about the growing crisis in relation to racial inequalities in higher education. We are seeking your urgent support in tackling this important issue.

We work with and support local and International Black African and Caribbean students in higher education across the UK. As you are aware, the health of ethnic minorities is disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Additionally, vaccination hesitancy has led to lower vaccination rates within some ethnic minority groups, mainly African and Caribbean communities. Our lived experience of racism partly explains such hesitation and the consequent lack of trust and confidence felt by many in UK African and Caribbean communities, in Government and institutions willingness and commitment to tackle racial inequality.

We believe that the evidence shows that current rates of ethnic disadvantage in education, health and economy have all increased during this pandemic.

The amplification of racial inequality comes as a direct result of the pandemic. It is now doubly important that the Government develops a clear Race Equality Strategy in response. Also, we believe it is essential that within Higher Education, there is a radical reappraisal of the Advanced Higher Education Race Equality Charter (REC) as called for by the Race Equality Now (REN) campaign supported by Universities and launched in 2020.

Black Impact and Make Diversity Count launched the REN campaign and have disseminated a national Black student and staff survey to assess their perceptions of the progress made in implementing the REC.

Race Equality Now has received support from organizations, both within and outside of the higher education sector, including the National Union of Students and Operation Black Vote. The campaign has also received support from Vice-Chancellors and individuals within senior university management.

Prime Minister, we are seeking your public endorsement of the REN campaign and a statement of support. We would like to discuss the REN campaign with Michelle Donelan, Minister of State for Universities, Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education, and seek your support to facilitate this meeting.

Far too many Black African and Caribbean students continue to face the reality of differential treatment, racial harassment and sometimes violence on university campuses across the country. Evidence of this discrimination can be found in numerous reports, including the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Tackling racial harassment: Universities challenged and Universities UK’s Tackling racial harassment in higher education.

The systemic issues Black students and staff are experiencing during this pandemic include:

• declining mental health; lack of culturally competent services; 8% of students who experienced racial harassment said they had felt suicidal
• digital and economic poverty; lack of access to educational resources and spaces to complete assignments
• Black attainment gap of 26%; there has been little specialist measures or support put in place to ensure the attainment gap does not widen during this pandemic
• reduced graduate employment rate, e.g. BME graduates with a first degree are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as white graduates[1]
• day to day discrimination at their universities; Nearly 1 in 3 members of staff had experienced racist name-calling, insults and ‘jokes’[2]
• a low disproportion of Black people in leadership positions, e.g. there are only 155 Black professors out of 22,810 professors in the UK[3]
• inaccessible ways to report incidents of racism and investigations not taking place; Two-thirds of students who had experienced racial harassment did not report it to their university.  [4]
• International students are facing incredible financial pressures and a high degree of social isolation.

We would like to discuss all of these critical issues with you and your ministers. We would appreciate it if you could consider providing us with a supporting statement for the REN campaign to help us advance the cause of quality, fairness, and opportunity for all within higher education.

Yours sincerely,

Ceewhy Ochoga, Founder, Black Impact
Osaro Otobo, Founder, Make Diversity Count
Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, VP Higher Education – National Union of Students
Patricia Lamour MBE, CEO Aspire Education Group
Zita Holbourne,  National Chair BARAC UK

A MEDAL FOR WALTER TULL, PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION

 

Introduction by Zita Holbourne, Co-Chair BARAC UK
  
BARAC & OBV have launched a new campaign calling on David Cameron, Prime Minister to award the Military Cross to Walter Tull. In the face of horrific racism, Tull rose above it and achieved. Tull was the first black army officer and the first black professional footballer in Britain. Tull was and still is an inspiration and contributed greatly to British society, but because of racism was never honoured as he should have been. Please read the article below written by Lee Jasper, Co-Chair of BARAC UK and support the campaign by signing the petition (see link at the bottom of the article).

 A Medal for Walter Tull,  by Lee Jasper, Co-Chair BARAC UK

In the formal narrative of the history of Britain, that venerated canon of academia, that shapes our lives providing meaning and a sense of who we are as a nation, hardly ever, are the contributions of Black peoples recognised or acknowledged. The same is true for the working classes, seldom are our achievement's part of the great story of British history.

It’s as if our contribution, and by implication our very existence, remains a profound embarrassment to the nation. Our somewhat ambivalent and skeptical feelings towards the concept of the much trumpeted notion of “One Nation”, a vision of an inclusive British citizenship, is brutally undermined by the refusal to acknowledge our many and varied contributions to this country.

Too often Black people’s historic contributions in the making of modern Britain are junked in acts, which can only be described as politically motivated, historical revisionism.
You will find only the most scant references to us in the national curriculum. You will not find us represented in the majority of history seminars, books and events that litter this country’s cultural and academic calendar.

The Mary Seacole and Olaudah Equiano campaign remind us that in general British Black people have been airbrushed and erased from British history. Whether that is the history in the trade union movement or the story of the empire, we are reduced to token mentions rendering us almost invisible.
That’s why for some it’s difficult to take any pride in being British, the whiff of hypocrisy is deep rooted and offensive. Sadly, over time, I have come to the conclusion, that, whilst we are all theoretically equal in the fraudulent notion that is the concept of an inclusive meritocracy British citizenship, in reality, we are still treated as very different.
 

Let’s consider the Government response to British history. One relates to working-class soldiers in World War Two. The other to a working-class black hero, who fought in the First World War.

I think we’d all agree it was welcome news, this week when it was finally announced that those soldiers who helped defeat the scourge of fascism serving in the freezing tundra’s of the Arctic during WW2, will posthumously receive a newly designed military medal, in honour of a most arduous and dangerous mission. They ensured that vitally important Arctic supply lines remained open, providing the magnificent Soviet Red Army with critical supplies.

 

When the PM David Cameron made this announcement at the end of last year, Commander Eddie Grenfell, an Arctic Convoy veteran responded by saying that he was ‘pleased but not delighted". He accused Mr. Cameron of taking too long to recognise the heroic actions of the Arctic Convoy.
He is, of course absolutely right and whilst these brave soldiers, and their families have had to wait 68 years to finally get the recognition they deserve.

Now consider the case of Walter Tull, Britain’s first commissioned black Army officer. Walter was born in 1888. His father died whilst he was quite young. His grandmother was an enslaved African from Barbados. Walter’s stepmother unable to cope with six children placed Walter and his brother in an Orphanage in Bethnal Green, London.
His passion was football and such was his prestigious talent that he was spotted by a scout in 1908 who immediately signed him for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Walter became the first Black outfield player to play in a professional British team. He suffered racist abuse of the worst possible kind imaginable but Walter was of African descent and made of sterner stuff.
 

After a match against Bristol City, one press reporter recorded the incident. He wrote of the City fans:

Becoming the first Black footballer in Britain would be achievement enough for some, but Walter was to go on to break yet more barriers.

He left his first love football to serve King and country in the First World War. Unbelievably, given the period, such was Walter’s dedication and professionalism he was promoted no less than three times and rose to the rank of Lance Sergeant.

Sent home in 1915 with shell shock, he, nevertheless, returned to France in 1916 distinguishing himself at the Battle of the Somme and on his return to England, his superior officers recommended that Walter be made an Officer.

Back then Black people were barred from becoming a British Army Officer and there were specific military laws that prohibited their promotion to Officer class. Despite this, after his superiors demanded his promotion, he was made a Lieutenant in 1917. He became the first Black man to be made an officer in the British Army and the first to lead white British troops into battle.


Achievement enough some might say, but Walter Tull was a phenomenal human being of outstanding character, professionalism and bravery.
He was sent across the Italian front and was mentioned in dispatches for his ‘gallantry and coolness under fire’ by his commanding officer. He was recommended for one of Britain’s highest military honour’s, the Military Cross, but because Walter was black, much to the eternal shame of Britain Walter never received his medal.

 

Retuning to the Somme in 1918 Walter Tull, this immense shining example of fortitude, tenacity and courage, went above and beyond the call of duty and was killed, machine gunned as he was helping his men retreat to safety.
His men desperately tried to recover his body such was their admiration for him. Unfortunately they were beaten back and Walter’s body now lies in a foreign field, just one of the many thousands of British soldiers whose bodies lie in unmarked graves.
 

He died on the Western Front in France on March the 25th 1918.
There has been a quite campaign seeking to convince the British Government to posthumously award the family of Walter Tull his medal of honour and erect a statue in London in his honour. Though many promises have been made, as of today no such recognition has been forthcoming.

That’s why Operation Black Vote and BARAC are urging David Cameron through this petition to acknowledge the feats of Walter Tull and afford him the posthumous medal he so richly deserves. I ask that you join us in seeking some degree of recognition and justice, for Walter Tull and his descendants.
Mr David Cameron, do the right thing and posthumously award Walter Tull his Military Cross.



Click here to sign the petition: PETITION, AWARD THE MILITARY CROSS TO WALTER TULL