A Message from the President.

Welcome to the University of Sussex's BAME Society!

Hey everyone, my name is Lily. I’m the current President and one of the three co-founders of the Sussex BAME Society and I want to you to our new site. Firstly, I want to say that I am so proud of how much our Committee has achieved and how hard in the few months since we've set up and have and another huge thank you to our members who have supported us. 

So you may be wondering why we made the BAME Society. Well myself, Ruth (the Vice-President) and Ife (our Welfare & Inclusion Officer) created the Society after meeting for the first time at a job interview for the University's Race Equity Advocates (previously the BAME Ambassadors). After talking and coming to a consensus that as students of ethnic minorities we could be better supported, we decided to actually do something about this and within the week we were registered to become an official society. As a First-Generation student from a working-class background, coming to university has been like stepping foot on a different planet (I really didn’t think I’d go to university but here I am). I had no idea what I was doing and where things were for much of my Foundation Year, my course was very white dominated and all the content extremely Eurocentric plus living off-campus presented its own challenges. I felt overlooked by the university and extremely unsupported, so this became my personal driving forces to create our society as I didn't want any other students to feel isolated and powerless like I did . We hope to help assist students in any way we can; whether that’s helping you find the right person to contact at the Student Life Centre or even directing you to the best place to find plantain in Brighton, our aim is to provided support for our community as much as we can as we can all emphasises how hard it can be navigating university as BAME students as it can bring on a new set of challenges to the table.  

We all have our own grievances with the term 'BAME'. Personally, I see it as an umbrella term made by a white person that generalises and dismisses our individual experiences and communities, as well as the issues that occur in said communities (I could write a whole essay on why I hate this term and how it’s problematic). However, despite our feelings about the term BAME we intended create a safe place on campus for students for ethnic minority students to come together, support and uplift each other. Our Society intends to offer students from all ethnic minority backgrounds a chance to not just express their own cultures, but to also learn about others, being at university exposes you to so many cultures you haven't before and  in  the few months since we’ve set up this Society I’ve already learnt so much about my fellow Committee members' cultures and can’t wait to learn more.

Our Committee has been working tirelessly throughout summer to bring you an exciting term full of events that cater to all our members; however, with social distancing restrictions, please keep in mind there is only so much we can do in this current climate. We will still be here to help you in any way we can and if you wish to contact us about anything, we are always willing to hear from our members and other students as we value your voice. 

I want to thank you again for supporting our society. Stay tuned for what we got planned, you won’t want to miss it!

Lily Mitchell, President