The money and ideologies upon which these institutions are built on are so closely linked to colonialism, oppression, genocidal regimes, and economic policies of violence and exploitation.
Representation politics become tokenistic.
#CCW
-
-
What happens after we've called the problem to attention? We need to do the radical work of redistribution but this work doesn't get the visibility that the institution craves. Is this a place which can create this redistribution change?
#CCWShow this thread -
"Only ethical relationship we can have with these institutions is one of stealing." Coming to Oxbridge as a student of colour gives us a magical legitimacy and an unearned authority which we must use to critique and challenge the universities.
#CCWShow this thread -
RE the master's tool cannot dismantle the master's house. we even know what the master's tool are yet? We have to put language to these experiences. We have to be disruptive. We cannot leave universities with only degrees - pressure from punitive structures.
#CCWShow this thread -
All universities seemingly have to do to tackle racism is "talk about it" which makes it look marketable and appealing. These try to neuter radical work which is happening or coopt work from students of colour.
#CCWShow this thread -
"Stormzy effect" relating to appalling statistics of new Black students in Cambridge does a massive disservice to those who have been doing work for years regarding access. Students lay the framework which is going to be erased once they leave.
#CCWShow this thread -
Black students finding admission statistics and naming the issue did the work, not just the existence of Stormzy. Support campaigns who are doing radical work on campus. Huge burden falling on students of colour to do this work.
#CCWShow this thread -
Message to prospective students: come and continue the work but you'll have to endure hostility? How do we frame this in an 'appealing' way? Legacy work is important. People need to come and carry on the work. There are communities here to find for students of colour.
#CCWShow this thread -
Students of colour have to decide what kind of student they want to be: will they choose to assimilate to move through with minor resistance, or will they pick up the baton and face kickback by doing radical work? There is a possibility to recalibrate what university is.
#CCWShow this thread -
We shape the knowledge produced at university. Coming here isn't the end of a journey in itself but a chance to educate ourselves on wider social issues; the violence of The Border, policing, PREVENT policy are all visible at the university.
#CCWShow this thread -
The University isn't a special space, the issues we face within it we will also face without. The vantage point that the margin offers - we can see things that some other people can't. It's not what we can get out of it, it's what we can do within it.
#CCWShow this thread -
Question on whether the aim of decolonising is more numbers. No, what happens after students of colour get in? What good is an untransformed university full of students of colour? University hides behind terms like "BME" which conflates different experiences.
#CCWShow this thread -
The reason these movements aren't translating into new academics of colour is because the conversations aren't going far enough. How do we translate this somewhat complex discourse into a somewhat basic society? (Racism is bad - empire, not good
)
#CCWShow this thread -
Education of wider public is important, but we do the work by doing the work; we'll never be able to get everyone to do the work, but the important focus is sparking these conversations.
#CCWShow this thread -
Where are we at with decolonising our curriculums? Decolonise has become a buzzword, the problem is it's seen as a project which can be completed. It's actually a continuous process of unsettling, not just adding Franz Fanon to the reading list.
#CCWShow this thread -
Power has always shaped what is worth studying, what is seen as legitimate or a valid body of knowledge. Just adding people to reading lists doesn't do anything to disrupt how we see European knowledge as the universal. The world has been misunderstood.
#CCWShow this thread -
We have to rethink who is an expert. How do we educate people in the high up places in these institutions? People who do not go through these insitutions have a better understanding on how the world works.
#CCWShow this thread -
The university is ghettoised, it's not in touch with the world. Calling the police force racist seems a given to most people "outside" of these institutions but saying that here is seen as controversial. Oral histories devalued in the face of archival histories.
#CCWShow this thread -
Students of colour are forced into defending their position as legitimate in the contexts of debate. It's not about mutual aid, sharing or learning, and debate is not a good use of our time. Debates depend that one side (that of students of colour) is invalid.
#CCWShow this thread -
How has my location in this university blinded me or prevented me from seeing how knowledge is shaped or shared? European knowledge depends on the "individual genius". Decolonising is a lifelong project! There is so much potential in vocational subjects to deconstruct.
#CCWShow this thread -
For example, law students within the decolonise movements would be incredible going out into the world questioning how to dismantle the legal system. The universities could equip these students to be agents of change.
#CCWShow this thread -
The sciences also need decolonising! Deconolising asks us to think about education holistically: are we training engineers to build drones to kill people and then training humanity students to justify that killing? Science is underpinned by "truth and fact".
#CCWShow this thread -
When we understand our ideas are not absolute, we can properly challenge these links. Decolonise is disruptive. It SHOULD be disruptive. We have to rethink how we study these subjects. Funding should not allow our continued complicity.
#CCWShow this thread -
Groups like
@ZeroCarbonSoc have been bringing these issues to the frontline for so long, exposing the university for the many fingers it has in different violent and terrible pies. External funding means unis cannot be objective. Our own complicity can be terrifying.#CCWShow this thread -
We can refuse to turn a blind eye, we can refuse to allow this continued complicity. We can refuse to accept what is seen as the "norm".
#CCWShow this thread -
The fallacy of free speech is the PREVENT policy. What it asks of public servants to "look out for signs of radicalisation" - which often means what turns a "good" Muslim into a "bad violent one". This asks the monitoring of Muslim students. How free are THEY to speak?
#CCWShow this thread -
Muslim students are less likely to speak in certain spaces and subjects, because there is a punitive punishment. 30% of those being reported to prevent are under the age of 15. Free speech is not universally applied. Whose speech is free? It's a counterinsurgency tool.
#CCWShow this thread -
Power underlies whose speech is free. Far right rhetoric stems from ethno-nationalism of the government and state. This is not the same as surveilling Muslims because they've been historically viewed as threats.
#CCWShow this thread -
People who say their speech is being restricted are in other spaces allowed huge platforms of their views. This covers up allegiance of conservative forces marketising education. This obscures wider conversations of things like PREVENT, racism, campus violence of any kind.
#CCWShow this thread -
Now we're thinking beyond metrics of assimilation which terrifies gatekeepers of these institutions. How TERFs have taken hold of mainstream newspapers and have openly debate the right of trans people to exist are the same people who claim their free speech is being taken.
#CCWShow this thread -
- Show replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.
We support, represent & empower BME students at Cambridge University.