Imagine you’re just chilling in your dorm room and minding your business when, all of a sudden, people are chanting abusive language at you from the hallway. This is the nightmare that Rufaro Chisango lived through in the Sandby Hall residence building at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in Nottingham, England, on Monday night. Chisango captured video of the encounter on Monday night from her room and tweeted about the abuse.
yoo I’m fuming, the way people in the same uni halls as me are chanting “we hate the blacks” outside my bedroom door. Words cannot describe how sad this makes me feel, in this 2018 people think this is still acceptable pic.twitter.com/XUiYqNIWQT
— Ruu (@rufarochisango_) March 7, 2018
According to BBC News, Chisango reported the chants to her hall’s front desk on Tuesday morning. Although officials at the university said that they would take care of it, she still hadn’t heard anything by Wednesday night, detailing the slow progress on Twitter:
Okay this happened Monday night, the video wasn’t able to catch what else they were saying which was “blacks would go back to picking cotton”. I’m the only black person on my floor and they were chanting this outside my door so don’t be surprised to why I didn’t leave my room
— Ruu (@rufarochisango_) March 7, 2018
I told the reception and they said that this will be dealt with Tuesday morning, they took my details and said they would inform me… it’s Wednesday night and they haven’t.
— Ruu (@rufarochisango_) March 7, 2018
I have written a statement and sent it to the uni, and so have my parents and some friends
— Ruu (@rufarochisango_) March 7, 2018
“It was a big impact obviously, when it happened,” Chisango said on a BBC News program. “It shouldn’t be tolerated at all. It shouldn’t have [taken] such a long delay when I reported something like this. I just want the appropriate action to be taken.”
It really took the power of social media to get the university’s attention, but after Chisango’s messages on Twitter spread, support was coming from left and right. Supporters of Chisango included the student union’s president, as well as politicians recommending that she contact the member of Parliament (MP) assigned to the area of NTU.
Hi, I’ve only just become aware of this, however, the behaviour you have described is unacceptable. Please could you DM me so we can start to resolve this? In the meantime if you have any immediate concerns for your saftey and well-being I would advise contacting Notts Police.
— Martha Longdon (@NTSUPresident) March 7, 2018
Please contact the Police and your Member of Parliament and cc me in. All my love and solidarity.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) March 7, 2018
If this is Sandby Halls the local MP is @ChrisLeslieMP, please contact the police, as a Nottingham City Councillor I hope @TrentUni deal with this ASAP. Happy to help as a former student & Local Cllr if I can, thoughts & solidarity with you.
— Georgia Power (@labourgeorgia) March 7, 2018
@ChrisLeslieMP I believe this is in your constituency. You need to write to the head of this uni demanding that they expel these racist students! There’s no place in our society for racism or any other form of hatred and racial intimidation. https://t.co/d78wywoxZv
— JermainJackman (@JermainJackman) March 7, 2018
Having seen this shocking tweet I will try to establish where this occurred and I urge anyone with any information firstly to report such abuse to the police straight away. Any further details about this event please also email me directly at Chris.leslie@parliament.uk
— Chris Leslie (@ChrisLeslieMP) March 8, 2018
Once local MP Chris Leslie was informed of the incident, NTU publicly responded to Chisango’s case, saying that officials were trying to understand why there was a delayed response to the reports.
We are investigating this as a matter of urgency. We are taking this extremely seriously and do not tolerate behaviour like this.
— Nottingham Trent Uni (@TrentUni) March 7, 2018
We have contacted the student who made the complaint and are providing support to her and others affected. And we are liaising with the police about this incident. We value being a diverse global community, with staff and students from across the world.
— Nottingham Trent Uni (@TrentUni) March 8, 2018
We are also working with our accommodation partner to understand why the University was only alerted to this on Wednesday evening after this was reported to them in the very early hours of Tuesday.
— Nottingham Trent Uni (@TrentUni) March 8, 2018
Since the university began its investigation of the case, it has suspended “suspected perpetrators” pending further questioning of them. Police have arrested two 18-year-old men “on suspicion of racially aggravated public order offenses” and are still questioning them.
We’ve arrested two men in connection with racially aggravated public order offences following reports of a video posted at Nottingham Trent University and shared on social media. The men, aged 18, remain in police custody. Our enquiries are ongoing. pic.twitter.com/KEikOcQeUt
— Notts Police (@nottspolice) March 8, 2018
Unfortunately, without the interference of greater forces on social media, racism is common at this university and often goes untreated. Ilyas Nagdee, a National Union of Students officer who represents minority students at the university, told the BBC, “These are just the stories that go viral over social media. But unfortunately this is the day-to-day experience of students of color across the country and it has been going on for decades. I’m contacted at least a couple of times a week by students asking me for help after experiencing racism.”
As for Chisango, she is staying true to herself and trying to fight this negativity with positivity. She thanked everyone for their support and tweeted out a MLK quote, writing, “I just want to thank everyone for their kind messages and all the support. ‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.'”