I had the pleasure and honour of attending the NUS Black Students’ Winter Conference which took place in London back in November. I was elected as your Black Students’ Delegate back in November 2017. The campaign represents all students of African, Asian, Arabian and Caribbean heritage.

This conference deepened my knowledge of the campaign through multiple workshops and keynotes, and it highlighted to me the importance of not only engaging with our institutions in tackling racism, but also engaging with our Students’ Unions.

One of the hard-hitting campaigns which was run by the BSC was the ‘My Racist Campus’ campaign, which exposed several racist incidents across UK Universities. For progress to be achieved, it’s pivotal that SUs and our institutions accept that  racism, whether visible or hidden, unfortunately remains rampant across our education system and beyond.

I encourage any and all students who have suffered, experienced or seen any racist incidents to come forward. We must call out racism and engage in difficult conversation beyond ‘why is my curriculum white’.

Whether it’s taking action for Palestine, standing up for refugees or tackling climate change as a race issue, it’s important that we as a student body organise to stand up for oppressed people all over the world. It’s clear that we must also support students suffering from intersectional discrimination.

It was a highly inspiring and illuminating conference and I encourage all self-identifying black* students to get involved in any capacity possible.

HAMZA SHAIKH

If you're interested in getting involved here on campus, check out the Campaigns section of our website.