BAME Subcommittee

The BAME Subcommittee focusses on anti-racism work, supporting BAME members of staff and advocating for their matters within the union and university

Chair: Sarah Liu (sarah.liu@ed.ac.uk)

Co-chair: Rashné Limki (rashne.limki@ed.ac.uk)

Statement on the racist attack on campus on 11/12/2020

Dear UCU members,

On 11 December, a University of Edinburgh student experienced a racist attack just right outside the Library. The University senior leadership team later acknowledged that measures needed to be taken in order to ensure BAME students’ and staff’s safety. However, we also believe that this racist assault is not a stand-alone incident. Racism has been longstanding in our community. We see this from the under-recruitment and underrepresentation of BAME students and staff. We see this from the degree-award gap. We also see this from other race-based violence happening in the city.

We want to acknowledge the individual and collective pain that we are experiencing right now, especially those in the Black, Asian, and ethnic minority (BAME) community. Racism harms our community. It is our responsibility to foster an environment that is welcoming, understanding, and accepting of all members, especially the minoritised groups. We condemn any act of racist violence and discrimination. We strongly support the many messages of solidarity that other organisations on campus and in the city have shared. We also call upon the University of Edinburgh to take concrete actions to address systematic racism. Increasing police patrol on campus is not an answer – what this community needs is a transformation of institutional racist culture and environment.

We stand in solidarity with our BAME members who may be traumatized and living in fear at this moment. We are committed to fighting racial injustice and ensuring equality across our community. We also recognise that we have much more work to do to challenge institutional racism and to pursue greater equality for all. Such work requires that we reflect who we are as an organisation, how we operate, and whom we represent. As we will begin a new year soon, we look forward to eliminating biases and making changes for a better tomorrow for everyone and especially our BAME members.

Sarah Liu, UCU Edinburgh BAME Officer