A young black man is pinned against a wall by two security guards. “Give us your card,” barks one of the guards. “I’m a University of Manchester student and they’re trying to snatch my card off me,” shouts the young man in indignation.
This is a scene from the video which opened Is Uni Racist?, a meticulously reported documentary presented by journalist Linda Adey, which investigated the extent of racism in British universities.
We discovered the young man in the video was 19-year-old Zac, who was held up by university security staff because, according to Zac, they thought he was a drug dealer. Adey visited Zac in Manchester and asked whether he felt safe on campus after the event. “Not at all,” he replied firmly.
Adey proved to be both a dogged reporter and a sensitive, skilful interviewer as she met other students who had been victims of racism. There was Gracie at Oxford University, who had complained about being called the n-word by another student.
Meanwhile, budding doctor Natasha dropped out of her studies in Cardiff due to the harassment she experienced after calling out a student play for racism and homophobia. “It broke me,” she said quietly, recalling the ordeal.
However, many students on the receiving end of racist abuse do not report it. Adey examined how the way universities handle complaints – victims talked about being locked out of the process – might be the reason two thirds of students facing racism do not formally complain.
Adey put her findings to Professor David Richardson, who leads Universities UK’s advisory group on racial harassment. He admitted that universities were institutionally racist and explained the work being done to change this.
“In one sense I was kind of impressed with him,” said Adey. “I guess the question is: is this going to be different from all the other times that we’ve heard this before?” This was a punchy and important watch.
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