Working class and BAME? Here’s how not to feel like an imposter at uni | Poppy Noor

Universities are still overwhelmingly white and middle-class and adjusting can be tricky. Here are some tips to help you throughWith freshers’ season fast approaching, if you’re from a minority background, you can expect some of the following delights in your first term: “You’re like black and gay? No wonder they let you in – couldn’t let that box-ticking opportunity go to waste”; “I’m not racist, I just don’t like brown girls – it’s the same as having a preference for blondes”; “you get a full bursary/maintenance loan? That is SO unfair. My parents don’t get help with anything and we’re really poor … Yes, we do have a house in France but all our cash is tied up in assets.”Being at university can be isolating if you’re from a minority background. While middle-class peers don beanie hats and coopt mockney accents, your real working-class mannerisms will likely just single you out for abuse. During my own freshers’ week, people assumed that I must have got in with concessions because I spoke using slang – as if I was writing “bruv” in my essays about Kant – while brushing it all off as “banter” – that ceaselessly posh word that is somehow considered not to be slang. This downplaying of privilege for social kudos can feel particularly horrible when the perpetrator denies having gained any benefit from their own background, while mocking you for yours. Continue reading…
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