A Summer of Racism

The past few months have been… a lot

Okay, fine. That was perhaps an over-dramatic title. But the past three months have been interesting for BME students to say the least, especially for those at Cambridge – a few of us have even made national news. 

It's easy to think race isn't an issue anymore, I mean it's 2017 right? But this summer has proved just how big a problem racism remains today. 

Summer started with one of the UK's most horrific tragedies: Grenfell Tower. It’s been three months since the fire that left 80 people confirmed dead, hundreds still missing and survivors struggling to cope with the emotional trauma of lost loved ones. Grenfell Tower has become a symbol of the structural racial and class inequality within UK.

Born and raised in Hackney, I spent most of my early childhood on council estates like the one where Grenfell stood. Seeing the aftermath with my own eyes, did it come as a surprise that just by looking at the names and faces of the victims that a large proportion were BME? No. Who else would be marginalised on council estates in one of the richest boroughs of London? 

Unfortunately, Grenfell is part of a much larger racial issue within the UK – our justice system. Now, hey, who am I to argue that judges are biased against a certain demographic? Because obviously the pretty white Oxford student who stabbed her boyfriend but was deemed too ‘talented’ to be prosecuted was in the right. 

And Rashad Charles, who died after being tackled to the ground by police for swallowing a mix of paracetamol and caffeine in a little bag, was clearly in the wrong.

-Ibriham Mohammed