Discrimination Archives – The Oxford Student

Sunny Singh talks about the turbulent first few years of the Jhalak prize

30th May 20202nd June 2020Myesha Munro

Image description: Professor Sunny Singh holding the Jhalak prize trophy 2019 First awarded in 2017, the Jhalak Prize was founded to celebrate books of all descriptions written by British citizens or British residents of colour. The idea came from two writers, Sunny Singh and Nikesh Shukla, who are supported by the authors club, media diversified […]

Covid-19, AIDS and the outdated stigma

23rd May 202026th May 2020Olly Boyland

Photo description: an AIDS awareness mural by Keith Haring in Barcelona The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a proliferation of medical trials seeking to treat and eventually cure the virus, one of which is the convalescent plasma trial. Scientists hope that, by recruiting volunteers who have had coronavirus, they will be able to develop a […]

A mother braids her daughter's natural hair.

‘Don’t touch my hair’ – the significance of ‘Hair Love’

19th February 20203rd March 2020Ibtihaaj Mohamoud

Household chores and childcare were pretty evenly distributed in my house but if there was one thing that fell directly under my mother”s responsibilities, it was my hair. Some of my most vivid childhood memories are of me sitting between my mother’s legs, head lolling off to sleep and her hands lovingly braiding my hair. […]

Debate: positive discrimination prevents meritocracy

9th February 202013th February 2020Reuben Cooper

Image description: Magdalen College Improving access to students from more disadvantaged backgrounds has rightly become the priority for Oxbridge admissions. After all, no young person should be discriminated against “on the basis of the class they were born into”. The upper echelons of higher education should be open to all inspiring, budding young intellectuals and […]

Disney’s first gay character faces criticism from across the board

3rd October 2018Iona Todd

Image Credit: Walterlan Papetti (CC BY-SA 4.0) This summer has seen Disney cross another major milestone in its journey to put characters from across the LGBT spectrum on the big screen. The upcoming Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson film, Jungle Cruise, is set to feature Jack Whitehall as the gay brother of the film’s leading lady. […]

Moving the dialogue surrounding Oxbridge BME students beyond Lammy’s ‘social apartheid’ narrative

9th November 2017Mayu Noda

“Social apartheid”, “fiefdoms of privilege”, “centuries of entrenched privilege” – such are the damning, yet also all too familiar, condemnatory remarks recently aimed at Oxford and Cambridge by MP David Lammy. According to Lammy: “Only one in four Cambridge colleges made offers to black British students in every year between 2010 and 2015 […] And each year […]

Queerphobia and the Rise of the ‘Snowflake Student’

15th May 201715th May 2017Oliver Hirsch

Created in 1980, Oxford Friend is a voluntary organisation which runs a helpline for LGBTQ+ people in Oxford. Back then, according to one of its most long-serving volunteers, things were a lot worse than they are today. We’re also better off now than we were in 2000, when a church in the city centre told […]

Bowlplex accused of racial discrimination

26th February 201526th February 2015Laura Whetherly

An Oxford bowling alley has come under fire after a video showing staff members being discriminatory against travellers was shared online.

Kellogg College accused of age discrimination

16th March 201417th March 2014Luke Mintz

An ex-employee of Kellogg College is suing Oxford University for age discrimination and unfair dismissal. Catriona Carter Jonas, 53, told Reading Tribunal Centre last week that she suffered “nasty treatment” from her superiors at Kellogg, causing her to “cry herself to sleep”. She stated that the college’s former bursar once described her as a “wrinkly […]

I’m not a feminist, and it is not my job to be one

17th December 201317th December 2013Ben Dovey

I confess, the title of this article is somewhat of a misdirect. It’s true, I don’t consider myself a feminist, however, this isn’t to say I’m not a supporter of everything that feminism stands for. On the contrary, I fully back the entire cause. That does not make me a feminist. I’m male, I’m white, […]

This House believes that positive discrimination is a necessary evil

28th November 2013Rutej Mehta

The evening began with an emergency debate designed to get the chamber in the mood for discussions of sexism. The motion this House would allow everyone to vote for VP Women in OUSU elections carried, with very few speakers for the opposition. This was not to be a foretelling of the evening’s main event, with […]