‘This is our strength’

The Minoritised Ethnic Student Collective in the School of Health and Society at the University of Salford (UoS) was formed in response to how structural racism manifests and is perpetuated in higher education institutions. It was established in June 2020, in the context of Covid-19 and resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and has come to have multiple meanings; it is a decolonised set of values within higher education, it is a weekly online space exclusively for minoritised ethnic students and alumni, and most crucially it is the 400 collective members that come together in solidarity. 

Earlier this year, The Minoritised Ethnic Student Collective was selected to receive the prestigious national Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) 2024 by Advance HE.

The Psychologist spoke to the Collective team, made up of Suryia Nayak, Maxine Hamilton Bell, Patience Udonsi, India Amos and Johana Hammad about the work of the collective and what contributes to its success.

What's it like being a minoritised ethnic student at the moment? 

The Collective was born just after the racist murder of George Floyd in 2020 and resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement. These and other societal landmarks of racial inequality shine a light on the importance of recognising that minoritised ethnic students and staff are emotionally and materially impacted by intersectional racism in the world, and this context must be taken into consideration within any education setting including institutions of Higher Education (HE). Factors such as the enduring legacy of colonialism, the under-representation of minoritised ethnic staff at the highest levels of academia, the Award Gap, and disproportionate referrals of academic misconduct and fitness to practice are features of university life for minoritised ethnic students, which directly mirror the experience and context of intersectional racism in society. 

How does the Collective help? Can you expand on the two mantras of the Collective?

The Collective has two mantras that unite us and our shared vision: 'Together we are stronger' and 'Silence will not protect'. 'Together we are stronger' is inspired by the practice of weaving, in which threads are interlaced to form a fabric. Each member of the Collective represent diverse intersections with a variety of lived experiences informed by race x ethnicity x culture x sexuality x family system x accent x language x location and more. This is our strength. We use the metaphor of a woven cloth because the strength and shine of a cloth depends on its thread count. The interwoven threads of our lived experience makes the fabric of our interconnections as a Collective stronger and brighter, and we can feel that when we come together in solidarity.

The Collective's emphasis on 'intersectional' racism points to the fact that racism does not operate in splendid isolation; racism relies on other forms of oppression to function, for example poverty, trans/homophobia, and misogyny. The point is that no one is just their race or skin colour. Our awareness of the university as a 'microcosm' of intersectional racism provides a robust foundation for our Collective ensuring that the multifaceted identities and lived experiences of minoritised ethnic students are explicitly named and considered which enables us to provide nuanced support and acknowledgement.

The second mantra informing the Collective is 'Silence will not protect', inspired by Black feminist Audre Lorde (1984). This mantra deliberately counters the mechanisms of silencing that intersectional racism thrives on and reminds us that in breaking silence we break through and connect to one another.

Can you explain the second mantra some more, from a psychological perspective?

Giving testimony and bearing witness has a historical legacy within civil rights movements and is foundational to our Collective. Our starting point, explicitly stated at the beginning of each of our weekly Collective meetings is 'belief'. Giving voice to experience is often a traumatic experience for minoritised ethnic students and staff who are burdened with the disproportionate responsibility to justify, prove, and evidence experiences of intersectional racism. In other words, the traumatic experience of not being believed and not viewed as a credible. This can leave students feeling humiliated, emotionally fatigued, and more likely to opt to remain silent in order to survive everyday racism (Wong et al., 2022). 

Audre Lorde (1984) inspires the transformation of silence into language and action, calling attention to how silence 'immobilizes us' (p.44). To speak out is to counter the mechanisms of silencing that intersectional racism thrives on. As co-facilitators, we are not neutral or impartial in what we say, and how we respond to students when they give their testimony. Our approach to prioritising the psychological safety of members means that in parallel to us, the students of the Collective begin to break silence and give strategic voice to their experiences of intersectional racism. When one minoritised ethnic student plucks up the courage to speak out this encourages others to break silence, which in turn enables a sharing of wisdom, affirmation, and support.

The award citation mentions the importance of the reliability and rhythm of the Collective in supporting students. This must also be one of the hardest aspects to maintain? 

Our Collective currently has over 400 members, has met over 100 times at our weekly online space and is consistently attended by 20-40 students each week. Given that we know that minoritised ethnic students are more likely to withdraw from their undergraduate degree in the UK compared to white entrants (ECU, 2019) we believe it is the reliability and rhythm of the Collective that contributes to successfully supporting minoritised ethnic students to remain in HE. The Collective space is relied upon to be there every week, and it has never been cancelled. The one-hour meeting space is online so that people can join from wherever they are and if necessary, can be present alongside doing other things- cooking, taking care of children, logging on during their break at work. Our choice for this format is deliberate; to make sure the Collective is accessible and so we can maintain the reliability and regular rhythm that we believe contributes to successively staying collectively connected.

Your Collective is multi-disciplinary – what benefit does this bring? 

That we have to work collectively is a measure of what minoritised ethnic students and staff are up against. Solidarity emphasises the social bond between people and solidarity holds us together as a team, and in turn holds the Collective together. Our ethos of working in solidarity with one another is influenced by the Sub-Saharan African Philosophy of 'Ubuntu' that embodies the honouring of the personhood of others and the acknowledgement of our interconnectedness within society (Gade, 2012). Because this relationality is valued and understood by the Collective, the Collective becomes part of what keeps us going. 

And of course, working as a multi-disciplinary team our impact is enhanced because our collective voice is heard in a multiplicity of places and across all levels of the institution. Each one of us speaks to promote equity in education informed by the first-hand accounts of the minoritised ethnic students we work with.

It's a 'Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence' – what does teaching excellence mean to you? 

The Collective maintains a focus on community and situated experience, and we honour situated knowledge. The collective meeting is an unstructured free-flowing space, where we invite students by saying: "All your voices are welcome here, would anyone like to say their name?", "Is there anything that you want to talk about that is affecting you?". In Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks (1994) writes "When education is the practice of freedom, students are not the only ones who are asked to share, to confess… When professors bring narratives of their experiences into classroom discussions it eliminates the possibility that we can function as all-knowing, silent interrogators" (p.21). We adopt a relational understanding of teaching and learning whereby the social dimensions of learning are centred and reciprocal relationships are advocated. This means as facilitators we draw on our own experiences of how structural racism shapes our personal lives, and we share our stories with students. Students too share their situated experiential knowing with each other and with us; simultaneously we are all knowledge creators and learners; and together we create space to develop our collective wisdom.

What next for the Collective? 

Our Collective raises consciousness, drives implementation of anti-racist/anti-oppressive practice, supports minoritised ethnic students to feel they belong and inspires activism and solidarity. The Collective will continue to be a vital source of support for minoritised ethnic students encountering race-related challenges at university. We hope to invite more members to the collective, welcome inspirational speakers that lead to new collaborations and networking opportunities, to enrich educational experiences and open up new avenues for personal and professional growth. We hope to meet again in person so we can eat and dance together! 

The work of the Collective also crucially provides an unequivocal evidence base for equity, diversity and inclusion action planning in academic institutions. We seek to continue to drive impactful practice. Over time, the visibility of minoritised ethnic students support initiatives will contribute to a lasting cultural shift within the university. It will help to embed equity, diversity and inclusion into the fabric of the institution, making it a more welcoming and supportive environment for all students.

We celebrate our achievement in being selected for a CATE award and recognise that the success of one member of the Collective is an accomplishment for us all. Working in solidarity means we recognise that our work is never done; we work with a continuous commitment to process repeating the mantras with every step: "Together we are Stronger" and "Silence Will Not Protect".

• India Amos is a Senior Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy, Programme Leader: MSc Counselling and Psychotherapy (Professional Training) and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Lead for the Social Sciences Directorate in the School of Health & Society at the UoS and is a HCPC registered Counselling Psychologist.
• Suryia Nayak is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work & Integrated Practice and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Lead for the School of Health & Society at the UoS
• Maxine Hamilton-Bell is a Lecturer and Programme Leader in Social Work at the UoS
• Patience Udonsi is a Senior Lecturer in Learning Disability Nursing and Social Work and Programme Leader: Learning Disability Nursing at the UoS
• Johana Hammad is Administrative Support/ Event Coordinator for the Minoritised Ethnic Student Collective and  Support to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion School Lead at the UoS.

Picture, above: L-R Johana Hammad, Maxine Hamilton-Bell, India Amos, Suryia Nayak, Patience Udonsi

Picture, below: L-R- Patience Udonsi, Johana Hammad, India Amos, Maxine Hamilton-Bell, Suryia Nayak

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References 

ECU (2019) Equality in higher education: students statistical report. Equality Challenge Unit, London European Commission (2010) Communication from the Commission, Europe 2020 a strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. European Commission, Brussels.

Gade, C. B. (2012). What is ubuntu? Different interpretations among South Africans of African descent. South African Journal of Philosophy= Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrif vir Wysbegeerte, 31(3), 484-503.

hooks, B. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge

Lorde, A. (1984). The transformation of silence into action. Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. (pp. 40–44). The Crossing Press.

Wong, B., Elmorally, R., Copsey-Blake, M., Highwood, E., & Singarayer, J. (2021). Is race still relevant? Student perceptions and experiences of racism in higher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 51(3), 359-375.