Students call for a public inquiry into racism on the NUS NEC

NUS Vice President for Welfare Ama Uzowuru's latest blog post has caused a storm. She describes a series of events including, in her own words:

• "I have witnessed a Nubian Professor of Science working behind a Travelodge reception be told that he was a "Fucking Paki" and if he did not serve the drunk buffoon the alcohol that he wanted, he was going to hit him and he demanded that the drink be served to him immediately as this was "his country", so what he says goes!"
• "whilst I getting some money out of a cash point, three homeless people commented on this saying "Why does this Nigger have money and I don't, who does she think she is?""

The part that's caused the real storm is here...

• "But I have to say one of the most upsetting moments of my time on this NEC to date was when a fellow NEC member said to me during this week, without intent, that my name was too foreign to be mainstream. This highlighted a lot of things for me; not least that my thoughts that racism is part of the fabric of society were true and those that have never been attacked or felt threatened do not have that understanding on what it feels like to be marginalized in society. I questioned this person, asking them what they meant; their response was that they thought the name on this particular document should be a name that is easily recognisable. The fundamental understanding that they had just said the same thing twice was not there at all. They went on to try and justify what they meant in many ways but the first response was more than enough. It was enough for the racist message to be delivered and heard by me. On top of this, this NEC member took another cheap blow by saying that I was hysterical – So a bit of old fashioned sexism in there for good measure, why not! All of this while three other members of the NEC sat back and watched and did not feel that it was their place to say something in a situation which was not only deeply offensive but racist".

In retaliation to this event, students have created a Facebook group entitled "Racism on the NUS NEC? Students Deserve a Full Public Enquiry!", which currently has 466 members - many of whom I suspect are officers from Unions around the country.

The NUS top dogs have released three public statements on the matter, and the third makes an apology to comments made to Ama. According to NUS President Gemma Tumelty, the matter is now closed. Here's the third statement:

• "Regional Conferences 02/06/2008 Regional Conferences were, as always, intense. Hurtling around the country, going from city to city, discussing NUS’ future, relatively poor attendance, and living in the pockets of other NEC for four days is a tiring and surprisingly demotivating experience.Since Regionals week some people within the student movement have focused on an incident between Ama and myself where I used the wrong language, caused offence without intent, and which has proved to be a significant learning experience.I fully and unreservedly apologised to Ama at the time, and my future actions and future language should be judged to show I have learnt from the mistake.Most of all, I was horrified I offended Ama. An officer I have known for three years, and who has become a good friend. We disagree politically from time to time, but we have great rapport, and although it was recognised that what I said was without intent to cause offence, the fact it did shows there continues to be much more for me to learn and understand about the issues of discrimination. And I agree with Ruqs, there should be training on all issues of equality and discrimination for NEC and staff within the organisation. Much has been said about my own personal character by people who don’t know me, don’t know what motivates me, and were not there. It has been depressing to read statements calling me a ‘bigot,’ and a ‘racist,’ it is this sort of personal hostility that will not address the issues that were raised in the original blog. I made a mistake, I admitted it, and I’ve learnt from it; sometimes people don’t say the right things, and it is those that have sat me down and discussed the issue through rather than the anonymous posters, that have helped me to learn and impact upon my future language and conversations."So we now have a few of our demands met, namely:1) We now know publicly who said what, and who was there at the time. 2) Wes has agreed to implement the Black Students' Officer's demands in full. We can discuss on the group what we now want to do, and whether these responses are satisfactory. Go to http://www.officeronline.co.uk/blogs to see the blogs that have been copied here.

But is an apology enough? Surely what is needed is a culture change? Not just at the NUS, but in all levels of all organisations - political or not - across the country. South Wales Police Minorities Support Unit describe racism as:

• "A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person (this means if anyone thinks it's racist then it is)"

Evolved racism

Ama raises further points of interest in her blog and specifically that racism today is something very different to what it has been historically. She says:

• "I have no qualms in claiming that this person's words were in what I would like to call "evolved racism"; racists will not use language like "you fucking Nigger". They are more intelligent in what they say and how they say it, they will try and justify their words in a guise which is "easier on the ears", in a way that it harder to pick up by the bystander and one which if you pushed hard enough your end result of harming this person will be achieved".

Aren't these the exact tactics deployed by the BNP and vindictive right wing papers like the Mail and the Express?

I suspect nothing will come of the Facebook group - if the President says the matter is closed - it's closed I guess. Isn't that how student politics works?