New College incident was latest in a series of racist incidents around Oxford University

More racism rows


by Gretta Mullany
21:05 GMT, Thu 20 November 2008



A racism row has erupted in another Oxford college this week, with the editors of the New College bogsheet forced to apologise for an allegedly anti-Semitic article.

This is the latest in a series of incidents around the University, with many students expressing concern that casual racism is now widely accepted.

Following on from the controversy surrounding the under 21's rugby social last week, the New College JCR bogsheet, the Newt, has received several complaints from readers this week for being anti-Semitic in content.

The article, entitled "Jewish Economic Policy," published in the last issue of The Newt has been permanently removed from the paper's website having caused serious offence to many readers.

The article played on prejudiced stereotypes of Jews being miserly, giving 'advice' on how to save money in Oxford.

The editors in this apology confessed, "we entirely accept that its humour was both inappropriate and distasteful and was representative of a type of humour based on prejudiced stereotyping that should not be perpetuated."

They continued that although the article was "intended to be satirical it was "at the same time deeply offensive".

Yet there are many students are still concerned, with one comment on the Newt website hoped that "Oxford actually responds to the fact that it has allowed a culture of casual racism and elitism to flourish and will respond extremely harshly to the author.

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The following story was published  in The Times 18th February 2010:

Racism at Oxford? Hardly, claim staff


18 February 2010


Staff at the University of Oxford believe "very little needs to be done" to promote racial equality, despite half of their students claiming to have experienced racism.

More than 1,000 members of staff and 885 students responded to a race-equality survey. A summary of the results, posted on Oxford's website, says: "Generally the staff group felt adamant that Oxford was based on a culture of meritocracy; things were working well and very little needs to be done in this area."

Of 450 people who provided the most detailed responses, 34 per cent said that no further work was needed on racial equality.

In addition, 8 per cent made negative comments about Oxford's Black History Month celebrations, saying they "drew attention to race", making it "an issue which it would not be otherwise". Eleven staff members believed positive discrimination was taking place. More than 75 per cent of respondents were white.

Key themes included the perception that the word "race" is "redundant and unnecessary", that racial-equality initiatives are "outdated and old-fashioned" and that Oxford is "happy and diverse".
Undergraduates were polarised on the issue, with half stating that racism rarely occurred and half reporting that they had experienced it.
The latter felt more needed to be done to challenge racist jokes and to integrate black and ethnic-minority students into student societies. They also drew attention to a lack of diversity among tutors and lecturers.

Postgraduates also felt racism was a problem, with one citing "institutional racism" as the reason for a lack of integration between international and British staff and students. Foreigners and ethnic minorities were "ghettoised" in separate accommodation from white British students, they said.

A race equality report based on the survey, which concluded in May 2009, recommends "engaging senior management in cultural sensitivity training" and employing more diverse staff. An action plan includes advertising for posts in "the most relevant UK-based ethnic-specialist media publications".

melanie.newman@tsleducation.com.

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=410386&sectioncode=26