The Students’ Union has announced its plans for celebrating Black History Month, which will follow the national themes of “wellbeing and belonging”.
At the beginning of October, the outside of the Students’ Union was decorated with a new set of murals, replacing the normal food and drink advertisements with short profiles of prominent Black figures. These included poet and dramatist Lemn Sissay, the most recent Chancellor of the University, as well as Manchester’s (and Britain’s) first Black lecturer, Arthur Lewis.
Accompanying the redesign, the Students’ Union is running 12 events across October. They will begin with Melanin Markets Manchester on October 9th, an initiative celebrating black businesses, run by two Black female entrepreneurs.
There will also be a music event Connect +, a networking event run by the Black Excellence Network.
As part of Connect +, there will be a talk discussing the “effects of conspiracy and joint enterprise laws in racializing and criminalizing particular communities” titled: ‘Guilt by Association: race, culture and criminalisation.’
The Students’ Union has joined other universities in limiting some of its sessions to “those of black-heritage backgrounds.”
This includes the Black Mental Health Safe Space, which is due to be a regular occurrence, and the event Triple Threat, advertised for those who are “Black, Faithful, Queer”, and open to “all Black university staff and students.”
The University of Westminster has come under scrutiny from right-wing outlets, politicians, and commentators, such as The Telegraph and Nigel Farage, for introducing similar plans. Farage called their plans “racial segregation”, comparing it to “apartheid”.
The University defended the rights of its Students’ Union to create safe spaces for students, commenting to The Telegraph that “equality of opportunity does not always mean giving everyone access to the same thing; it means creating a levelled playing field by offering some programmes to those who are underrepresented or those who have had less access to opportunity.”
You can read a full list of the events on at the Students’ Union this Black History Month here.
A University of Manchester Students’ Union spokesperson said:
“We will be continuing our work and partnerships forged this Black History Month, collaborating with initiatives such as the Black Excellence Network (BEN) and Black People Talk, and strengthening engagement with our student societies. The programme we put together this year has been created with input from these initiatives and informed by research into some of the needs of our black students. This insight led us to include some events, as part of a wider programme, exclusively for our black-heritage students; specifically where it was appropriate to provide a safe space for students to connect with people who have similar lived experiences. We feel that we have been able to facilitate a varied Black History Month offering that we can use as a jumping off point to continue our work on representation and celebration of black experience within the SU.”
