Black Lives Matter: SeNSS statement and resources
The SeNSS community abhors the racist murder of George Floyd and systemic racism in all its forms.
We acknowledge that our own field – UK higher education – needs to take urgent action to address the unequal treatment of black and minority ethnic students, researchers and staff.
As the Leading Routes group has shown in their path-breaking ‘Broken Pipeline’ report, home BAME students face significant barriers in accessing postgraduate funding.
SeNSS is working to implement the recommendations of a report we commissioned last year into ‘widening participation’ at the doctoral level. We encourage the ESRC and UKRI, and all our partners, to redouble their efforts to ensure that BAME students and other under-represented groups enjoy fair access to funding and to career opportunities.
At this time, we also encourage all our researchers and their supervisors to turn a critical eye to their own research projects and academic practices, and to reflect how these might play a more prominent part in tackling inequalities and promoting social justice. We hope that the resources listed below will help in this and we are keen to support further discussion and action on this vital issue.
Black Lives Matter – selected UK resources compiled by SeNSS DTP*
SeNSS universities: staff networks and widening participation report
SeNSS DTP Widening Participation in the South East Network for Social Sciences [report on access to doctoral funding, including literature review]
Black Lives Matter – selected UK resources compiled by SeNSS DTP*
SeNSS universities: staff networks and widening participation report
Advance HE – Race Equality Charter scheme - https://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charters/race-equality-charter/
SeNSS DTP Widening Participation in the South East Network for Social Sciences (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57b6c63d3e00be2170fc88f4/t/5de7cdb791057c05bf60a880/1575472576191/Evaluation+Report+SeNSS+Final+for+public.pdf) [report on access to doctoral funding, including literature review]
SeNSS universities: BAME staff and race equality networks
City, University of London - https://www.city.ac.uk/about/working-at-city/equality-diversity-inclusion/staff-networks
University of East Anglia - https://portal.uea.ac.uk/equality/networks/bme-staff-network
University of Essex - https://www.essex.ac.uk/staff/forums-and-networks/bame-staff-forum
Goldsmiths, University of London - Race Equality Group, see https://www.gold.ac.uk/media/documents-by-section/about-us/Goldsmiths-EDI-Annual-Report-2018-19.pdf
University of Kent - https://www.kent.ac.uk/hr-equalityanddiversity/networks/bame-network.html
University of Reading - https://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/staffportal/news/articles/spsn-842032.aspx
University of Roehampton - https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/corporate-information/equality-and-diversity/equality-forumspages/
Royal Holloway, University of London - https://intranet.royalholloway.ac.uk/staff/your-employment/human-resources/equality-and-diversity/staff-networks-cultural-diversity-staff-network.aspx
University of Surrey - https://www.surrey.ac.uk/about/equality-diversity-and-inclusion/support-and-engagement; https://my.surrey.ac.uk/news/speaking-out-against-racism
University of Sussex - http://www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/newsandevents/?id=50703
UK groups combatting racism and promoting diversity
Black Lives Matter UK (http://blacklivesmatteruk.com) [National organisation]
Stop Hate UK (https://www.stophateuk.org) [National charity]
Southall Black Sisters (https://southallblacksisters.org.uk/about/) [London based charity offering advice, advocacy and resource centre to women experiencing violence and abuse and other forms of inequality]
Runnymede Trust (https://www.runnymedetrust.org/) [National think-tank leading the debate on racial inequality]
Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust (https://www.stephenlawrence.org.uk/) [National charity]
Institute of Race Relations (http://www.irr.org.uk) [National educational charity]
100 Black Men of London (http://100bml.org/) [London based charity aiming to lift young black people up through education and mentoring]
Access UK (https://www.accessuk.org/) [National charity providing career services for marginalised people]
The Amos Bursary (https://www.amosbursary.org.uk/) [National charity working to reduce the gap in prospects between young black people and young white people]
All-Party Parliamentary Group for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Business Owners (https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/200520/black-asian-and-minority-ethnic-business-owners.htm) [Parliamentary group]
Black Owned Businesses in the UK (https://www.ukblackowned.co.uk/)
Black Women in Business Awards (https://www.bwbawards.com)
Generating Genius (https://generatinggenius.org.uk/) [London based Charity aiming to open doors to STEM careers for BAME students]
The Reach Out Project (https://www.reachoutproject.co.uk/) [London based charity opening up new opportunities for young BAME people]
UK Black Pride (https://www.ukblackpride.org.uk/)
Operation Black Vote (https://www.obv.org.uk/) [National charity which aims to increase the number of BME people who vote in the UK]
The Black Curriculum (https://www.theblackcurriculum.com/our-work) [Charity that aims to teach children about black history]
Race and Health (https://raceandhealth.org/events.html) [Researchers looking at the links between health inequality and race]
Kwanda (https://kwanda.co/) [Grassroots campaign which creates opportunities for BAME people, and uses a democratic system to decide which causes to champion]
Football Unites, Racism Divides (https://furd.org/) [Sheffield based charity which uses football and community to fight racism]
BTEG (https://www.bteg.co.uk/) [National charity aiming to end racial inequality through education and employment]
Education, courses and resources (selected)
Black Cultural Archives (https://blackculturalarchives.org) [National heritage centre dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain]
Institute of Education, UCL – UK BAME history resources (https://libguides.ioe.ac.uk/BAMEresources/blackhistorymonth)
Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre and Educational Trust (https://www.racearchive.org.uk/about-us/) [Manchester-based Trust which aims to record the history of BAME people in Manchester]
Books By Black Activists (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mljH99Nwy-SfgbDec-UDHSrrN1_JLmwB?usp=sharing)
Anti Racism Resources for White People (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BRlF2_zhNe86SGgHa6-VlBO-QgirITwCTugSfKie5Fs/mobilebasic)
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo and Michael Eric Dyson (https://b-ok.cc/book/3553806/99f7ce)
Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect: Police Violence and Resistance in the United States (Written by multiple authors) (https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/952-who-do-you-serve-who-do-you-protect?discount_code=WHODOYOUSERVE)
BAME Deaths in Police Custody (https://www.inquest.org.uk/bame-deaths-in-police-custody)
In 2011, police were 28 times more likely to use ‘Section 60’ stop-and-search powers (where officers do not require suspicion of the person having been involved in a crime) against black people than white people. (http://www.irr.org.uk/research/statistics/criminal-justice/)
Information on how to support BAME people during COVID-19 (https://www.ubele.org/covid19-supporting-bame-communities?fbclid=IwAR2e6GyGjwaIGaIwyJZTo7qW8qqr2WXz0V5G63foPmW6VgdBIA7EkLcSOhY)
Times Higher Education article (12 June 2020) https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/universities-can-and-should-do-much-more-address-systemic-racism
Leading Routes 'The Broken Pipeline: Barriers to Black PhD Students Accessing Research Council Funding' https://leadingroutes.org/the-broken-pipeline
Petitions
Introduce Mandatory Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting in the UK (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300105)
Update the GCSE English Lit reading lists to include more black authors (https://www.change.org/p/department-of-education-battle-racism-by-updating-reading-lists-at-gcse?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_22536040_en-GB%3Av5&recruited_by_id=2cc0d700-a59f-11ea-8fc7-856fb932abd0&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial)
Call/Email your MP to raise questions and issues
Find your MP’s email address at https://members.parliament.uk/constituencies. Write to them to tell them your views/concerns and to ask them for theirs. Make sure to add your address when you contact your MP; their spam filters often screen out emails without a return address.
Go to https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mps/ to see how your MP votes on particular issues.
* sources include: Fawcett Society, Black Lives Matter UK, Stephen Lawrence Trust, Institute of Race Relations.