Update to Club Statement 17/10/2020
We wrote in June to express our solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and to explain what we wanted to do to make UCLMHC as open and inclusive as it possibly can be. Now, a few weeks into Term 1, we wanted to give you an update on some of the initiatives we mentioned then and also talk about Black History Month.
Before the start of term, we took the decision to create a new level of membership: Non-Competitive, which is considerably cheaper than full membership (known as Competitive). It allows members to train and play mixed. We think that this is a great opportunity for students to get involved with the club and play sport; it also significantly reduces the financial barrier to hockey. The introduction of trial memberships as well has allowed students to try hockey without having to pay upfront. Finally, the Union has also launched an Accessibility Fund to help students who might not be able to pay for membership, so please message us or use our Anonymous Messaging service to find out more.
To complement this, we held a BAME Taster Session during our Welcome Week as an additional opportunity for new, returning or postgraduate students to come down and try hockey. Just because Term has started, doesn’t mean you can’t still join! We will be holding more Tasters over the course of this term, all of which will be promoted on our social media and the Union ‘What’s On’ Calendar, so follow us on Facebook or Insta to stay up to date with everything.
With competitive matches starting again soon, we’re also starting some new projects to engage with other unis, as well as our own members. Firstly, we’ve chosen to take a knee at the start of our games this season and ask the unis we play against to join us. In August, the Guardian reported that English Hockey has ‘an endemic race issue’, which we completely agree with, so we are currently organising a petition calling for far more action to be taken to combat racism in hockey as well. Watch out for our posts on social media, coming very soon, where we will be explaining how you can get involved.
Most recently, at our EGM yesterday (15th October), all members voted to ratify several amendments to the Constitution. Article 2.3, which will form part of our Statement of Intent, states explicitly that the club must ensure the existence of an open and inclusive culture. The Article also binds all students to this policy whilst they are members and gives Committee the power to discipline anyone who does not adhere to this. Most importantly, Committee is responsible for upholding this policy, and is directly accountable to members, who will have the right to call an EGM, raise their concerns and force Committee to take action. If you’d like to see the new Constitution, we hope that it will be posted to our Union Directory Page soon.
The above is not meant to be some self-congratulatory list of achievements, an attempt to artificially validate the diversity of the club or prove that we have a great culture. We are under no illusions; we still have a very long way to go to achieve our goals, but recognising our flaws and implementing change is a step in the right direction.
October is of course also Black History Month, and it would be wrong not to spend some time talking about this. Those who came to our Mixed Competition on Wednesday (14th October) hopefully already have some knowledge of this, but for anyone reading this who didn’t or couldn’t come, we’ve chosen the Windrush Generation as a theme to focus on this Black History Month. I mentioned a particularly insightful, moving and incredibly tragic BBC factual drama called ‘Sitting In Limbo’, that relates the ordeal of ‘Anthony Bryan’, a Jamaican-born British man and victim of the Windrush Scandal. For anyone, regardless of their knowledge of the Windrush Generation and/or Scandal, this is necessary viewing. I’m also looking forward to hearing the new team names that each Mixed team will be coming up with for our next Competition Day (all will relate to an aspect of Black History Month). We will be continuing to discuss Black History Month and further topics at our next Mixed Competition Days throughout the term.
We’ve also put together a Spotify playlist for anyone to listen to. The idea here was to pick songs that help the listener to reflect on the Black Experience. I strongly encourage you to have a listen to all of these songs, they are far more powerful than any words I’ve written or could ever write. We’ve also included Riz Ahmed in this playlist because we feel it’s important to recognise the experience and history of other minority groups in the UK as well.
I’m conscious I don’t want to make this too long, but I felt it was important to be as transparent as possible about what we’ve done and what we are trying to do. As ever please message us if you have any questions, suggestions or concerns and we will hopefully come back at the end of Term 1 or start of Term 2 with another update.
James
UCLMHC Statement 03/06/2020
This is an incredibly challenging time for students, most of all because over the past few days we have watched horrific events unfold in America. We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and all those fighting appalling racialised injustice and disadvantage across the world. We offer our full support to current and past club members and the black community as a whole.
George Floyd’s death has highlighted not only the entrenched institutional racism in America, but also the systemic nature of inequality in the UK. It took 18 years for example for the murderers of Stephen Lawrence to be brought to justice. More worryingly, 12 years after Sean Rigg was crushed by police officers at the entrance of Brixton police station in 2008, none of them have been convicted.
But racism is not just characterised by brutal acts of aggression, or limited to the black community, as the example of our own university shows. BAME academic staff make up 13% of non-professorial academic posts in the UK, yet only 7.3% of professorial roles (link below to UCU report). UCL itself has a troubling history of researching Eugenics as well as downplaying and relativizing its role in the creation and development of a discriminatory system of higher education.
Specifically, within sport, there is a well-documented history of the abuse, discrimination and injustice suffered by people of colour at all levels. Indeed, reports of abuse last season in football rose by 43%, a staggering number. The Race Equality Foundation has also concluded unsurprisingly but nonetheless shockingly in a recent report that,’ Racism and racialised inequalities significantly influence black and minority ethnic communities’ access, participation and experiences of sport.’ (link below to the full report) It is clear therefore that more needs to be done.
Our club is committed to providing equal opportunities to all of its members, regardless of their identity, and is actively engaged in initiatives to help students into sport and support our members throughout their university careers. But we can and must do so much more. We are currently working on amendments to our constitution to strengthen our commitment to equality and looking at ways we can improve access to sport for BAME students. We also hope to run, COVID-19 permitting, beginners’ sessions closer to campus, that are designed to cater for all levels of fitness and experience. We would like to call on all sports at UCL to come together and look into what we can do to improve BAME students’ experience in sport. We also welcome any offers of advice, recommendation or opportunities to work together from all UCL societies, student bodies and individuals.
To our members, we hope that even in this extremely difficult time you are able to destress and spend time with your loved ones, physically or virtually. Below you can find links to the reports mentioned, further informative resources and links to petitions, donation pages and other forms of activism that you can do whilst staying safe.
In closing we would like to reiterate that we stand in solidarity with those in America, and across the globe, who are currently fighting to get justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the countless other victims of institutional racism the world over.
The 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 UCLMHC Committees
Links:
Race Equality Foundation Report - https://raceequalityfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Health-Briefing-40-Final.pdf
UCL Eugenics Inquiry New Article - https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-he-agencies-other-2020-3-ucl-eugenics-inquiry-split-leads-to-rival-reports/
Justice for George Floyd Petition - https://www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd
Black Lives Matter Donation Page - https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019
UCL BME Students’ Network Homepage - http://studentsunionucl.org/make-change/representing-you/who-can-help-you/bme-students
What can I do? Google Doc - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cq6zYlu-yFtcqu_J7pG4RpenlN-yPRINLShnnLyPfRQ/edit?usp=sharing