Transcript

LURRAINE JONES:

My name is Lurraine Jones, and I’m the Deputy Dean for Equality Diversity and Inclusion at The Open University. I’m here for lots of reasons.

I’m here because 25% of Black and minority ethnic students have experienced racial harassment. Over 50% of staff who had experienced racial harassment describe incidents of being ignored or excluded because of their race. And nearly a third experienced racist name calling.

I’m here because there are stark degree awarding gaps between Black students and their white peers. And I’m here because I’m absolutely committed to anti-racism.

Over the hour, you’ll be introduced to some of the stories and experiences that we explore in Union Black. And we’ll meet just some of the many contributors that you will hear from in the course. We’ll start by exploring some life skills like empathy that will not only be valuable to you as you get ready for Union Black, but that will also be useful to you in your current or future careers. We’ll look at having difficult conversations about race. We’ll explore the impact of labels and stereotyping. As we’ll discover, it’s not enough to be non-racist. You need to be anti-racist.