The murder of George Floyd, the mass protests and the toppling of statues have made this year a keystone of Black History. These events have shown that now, more than ever, we need to address issues that have long been swept under the rug.
Although we shouldn’t need an excuse to educate ourselves, Black History Month is a particularly poignant time to reflect and engage with issues around race and racism.
The Edinburgh Race Equality Network (EREN) is a community of BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) staff and allies committed to creating an environment where race is celebrated, and everyone is treated fairly. They have developed the following projects that you can get involved with.
Book Club
The range of literature and content around race is ever growing. EREN’s new book club is a great way to explore these texts and challenge your thinking and assumptions. Meeting once a month the group will discuss a book, or just a chapter that explores both the history of race and racism, and how it continues to permeate our lives today.
The book for the first session, on Tuesday 13 October at 5.30 pm is the award-winning Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge. Please register here to attend or check the website for further events and details.
Blogsite
The team have also recently launched the EREN blogsite. It’s a space to record experiences around race and racism from BAME staff members. As a new site, the team are keen to hear from contributors, so if you have a story you’d like to share, please reach out to RaceEqualityStaffNetwork@ed.ac.uk. Your post can be anonymous if you wish.
The site is intended to be a home for different voices, and experiences, from within the University, and in the city. Whatever your story the team want to hear from you.
The EREN welcomes new members from across the University, to both the network and the book club. You can find out more on their website.
If you missed it, take a look at our recent feature where we chatted to Caroline Wallace and Denise Boyle from the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team about other ways we can combat these issues at the University.