To all in Mathematics and Engineering at UEA,

The recent killing of George Floyd in America, and some of the openly racist behaviour of people in positions of power, will have left some of us shocked, and many deeply distressed at what we have seen. For our Black colleagues and students however, the events are likely to have had a much deeper and more personal impact. We understand that your pain is rooted not only in the heavily publicised acts of racism, but also from less overt forms of racism so often overlooked.

We recognise that at UEA, and in the wider disciplines of Mathematics and Engineering, people often perpetuate bias and systemic racism, both consciously and unconsciously. For Mathematics, you could look at the Black Lives Matter in Maths Zine created by Ayliean MacDonald (@Ayliean) here to see some examples. The website of Nira Chamberlain (current President of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, of which many of you are members) also makes for some difficult reading, for those of us in positions of privilege (see especially this and this).

What can and should we, as a community of staff and students, be doing about this?

Listen: we must listen, both as a School and as individuals, to the experiences of those in our community who experience racism. We want to put right things in the School so, if you have felt discriminated against in your time here, or you feel that there are things that we do which perpetuate biases or isolate you, please tell us: you can email me or Richard Purvis R.Purvis@uea.ac.uk, our Director of Equality and Diversity.

Support: We must stand as allies to those who are suffering from racism and support them when incidents do occur. Within the university, there is the UEA Network for Black and Minority Ethnic Staff, which provides a (currently virtual) space for colleagues to meet others with similar shared experiences, and feeds in to university policy and processes (contact Rob Drury R.Drury@uea.ac.uk); and where specific incidents occur – if you have experienced or witnessed any hate-related crimes or behaviour – there is the UEA report+support mechanism at https://reportandsupport.uea.ac.uk/, where you can also find further information on support available.

Beyond the wider university support mechanisms we, as a School, would like to hold an honest and open discussion to determine whether or not the School feels like an inclusive space for all our students to thrive. To do this we need your support: please share your views with me and/or Richard confidentially. We will also aim to hold an online meeting to discuss this in the run-up to the next academic year.

Act: At a School level, we must act in response to the things that those who have been discriminated against tell us. Many of you will have seen the supportive posts by UEA MathSoc, and their commitment to actions which we fully endorse. Individually, we also need to challenge ourselves to recognise our unconscious biases (even if we find them difficult to admit) and the behaviours that come from them. A starting point could be to take unconscious bias tests, for example from the Project Implicit website.

There is also an interesting Guardian article on what, as individuals, we can do to bring about change at a societal level. No one individual, or School, or University, can eradicate racism from society – but for change to happen, we must all take responsibility for it.

Prof. Shaun Stevens (Head of School of the UEA School of Mathematics)