What does racism mean at UM and for UM?
When is a joke just a joke and when is it racist? When is a process biased, favouring white Europeans? If ‘race’ does not exist as a biological category, why is racism a social reality?
These are just some of the questions we, the Diversity & Inclusivity Office (D&I Office) has encountered over the past months since we started our efforts of Action Against Racism at UM.
In conversation with our UM BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) community and other engaged staff and students, it is clear that institutional and individual racism are a reality at UM. At the same time, it also became clear that what constitutes as racism is not always generally agreed upon. However, if we want to move forward with an anti-racism action plan for the UM Community, it is essential that we define racism.
We would like to invite PREMIUM students to review academic definitions of racism, look up best practices of racism definitions of Dutch and international universities and to perform research into our own UM community to come closer to a working definition of racism for UM. You will present your results to the D&I Advisory Council (chaired by UM rector Rianne Letschert).