Let's Start Somewhere

by Louise Hall.  I am new to the startcono team. Here is a a  little bit more about me.  I studied fine art BA and graduated with first class with honours from Arts University Bournemouth in 2020. After graduating, I became Student Union President running on agenda to reform education and make my university a more inclusive and more diverse environment. I had spent much of my time as an undergrad battling the system to feel seen and visible.  A proud moment of my undergrad was writing a long list of books and texts that the library should have with some notable authors like bell hook, Audre Lorde and many more. I felt like many other students there was a clear lack of representation, there was a lack of celebration of cultures, gender identities, disabilities, and different lived experiences beyond a mainly white male curriculum. When challenging the lack of voices from different lived experiences on the reading list, it often came with well these are the greats why ...

  By Jamel  McFarlane  When you think of racism in sport, what comes to mind?     What sports do you think of?     Cricket? Rugby? Football?     My mind always goes to football. Despite the recent high profile racial scandal cricket recently went through. This only happen because Azeem Rafiq spoke out about the racial abuse he faced during his time at the Yorkshire Cricket Club but also the fact that Scottish Cricket was called institutional racist by an independent investigation.  Why do I think of football? I do not think it’s because racism in football happens all the time. I believe this is not because football itself is that institutionally racist anymore, but because football is one of the most watched sport in the world. It does not help that a lot of social media discussion are normally around football. Football is on throughout the year so the media coverage and the spotlight is always on it.  Seeing racism in foo...

   This is a joint article written by Jamel McFarlane and Artie Ray Hughes     My name is Jamel McFarlane.      I was named Jamel because my parents saw the names James and Jamal and they liked them both. They wanted to make it unique so they changed it the A to and E to make it Jamel. Having a name like Jamel which means handsome has its challenges and benefits.      When you search for the name Jamel or Jamal it says it is an Arabic masculine given name (Arabic:  جمال Jamāl/Ǧamāl), meaning "beauty".  It is a name used in the Middle East, North Africa, West Africa, East Africa, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and predominantly Muslim countries in South Asia. Having a first name that is from an Arabic background and being a black guy throws up its challenges. My last name McFarlane is of Scottish origin and that itself throws up interesting conversations. I believe it comes from my ancestors being within...

Written by Moyin Ekundayo  Representation, 'the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way'. In many ways, representations are like using stereotypes. I will be trying to talk about the representation of black men in society, a bit of a difficult one to do, really. There are millions and millions of black men out there in the world.  That last statement is a perfect place to start. I want to ask you to close your eyes and think, what does a black man sound like? What does he look like? Is he tall? What sport does he like?  See, this topic is very complex, and I can only write and verbalise the stereotyping/distorted representation of a specific group of people. A little self-indulgent but obviously straight black males, I might include some different examples that do not fit this category. However, my goal is to get other people from different demographics to write about their experiences on this similar topic to give a more rounded perspective....

Written by Moyin Ekundayo  Hello again, thank you for not getting bored of me yet. This one is going to be very short. So hopefully, by the time this comes out, Black history month is almost over because the next couple of statements might make no sense. Black History Month is over, so what now? Guess we go back to 'normality, right? I mean, it is only fitting to ask the proposed question.  Someone might be reading this and ask, "but when is white history month? Why can you be happy with having a month" and my reply to that will be, well, white history month is every month.  See, I have always had an issue with 'token months' in some form or another. You can boil my problem with the tokenistic celebrations down to what happens after the month, day, or week is over? What happens after you have taken a flag down or stopped serving foods from different countries? These fail to provide fair and innovative learning, mainly because surface-level interactions are being p...

  Written by Moyin Ekundayo  Hello again. Thank you for taking your time to engage with the first piece about taking the knee.  You might now be thinking multiple things (Roughly). Wow-what a great first piece I have learned a lot more than I thought. What more can I know, do or understand. or What a load of ****.  Well, I hope that you are in the first camp and thank you. This piece is more about allyship, what it means, how to be an effective ally and what practising allyship means. Allies tend to come from positions of " dominance " now. I use that word liberally because it does not mean a group is superior or more important than the other. But one group is represented more in an environment than the other, e.g. Heterosexuals working toward equal rights in support of gay, lesbian and bisexual people or Able-bodied individuals involved with disabled individuals to get more accessible entries and exits at a place of work.  Overcoming Barriers- Jack Moreh Going ...