These are the worst racist incidents to come out of British unis in the last two years

Everyone was shocked to see the explicitly racist messages exchanged by Exeter students in their Law society's football group chat yesterday, but these incidents aren't new to British universities. They've been going on for years.

Blackface, racist messages in group chats, ill thought-out events, things written on t-shirts, swastikas. Racism is still manifesting itself in different forms across campuses and it doesn't look like it's about to stop either.

Here are some of the worst racist incidents reported on at British universities from the last two years, in no particular order:

A fresher filmed a group of students chanting ‘we hate the blacks’ outside her door in halls at Nottingham Trent

A fresher at Nottingham Trent filmed a group of students repeatedly chanting "we hate the blacks" outside her bedroom door in her halls of residence. Rufaro Chisango, the only black student on her floor, filmed the video from inside her room, where the chanting was happening directly outside of her door.

In the video you can hear a group of boys chanting “blacks and whites were never meant to be together” and “sign the Brexit papers”. Other chants, which weren't picked up on video according to Rufaro, include: "Blacks would go back to picking cotton".

Read more here.

Exeter students wore jackets saying ‘I love rape’ and ‘F**k the Syrians’ to a social

Exeter University students at the Falmouth campus wore hi-vis jackets on a night out which were scribbled with “I love rape”, “Fuck the Syrians” and swastikas. The students were on a Camborne School of Mines (CSM) social enjoying a pub crawl in Falmouth Town.

The jackets were worn by Exeter students on courses such as Geology and Mining. The night is known as a ‘PPE’ night, as those on mining courses are regularly given high-vis and hard hats as Personal Protective Equipment.

Read more.

Reading students from the Agriculture Society blacked up and wore racist costumes on a night out

The Agricultural Society invited people to a night called “Agrics go on holiday” where they were supposed to wear “holiday attire”.

Instead of sun-kissed tans and Hawaiian necklaces, some students blackened their faces, dressed as North Korean soldiers and wore turbans leading to many calling them racist.

Read more here.

Computer Science students at Sheffield compared Black Lives Matter to Planet of the Apes in a course group chat

Two Computer Science students at The University of Sheffield posted racist memes and images on their course group chat. One meme compared "The Rise of the Planet of the Apes" to Black Lives Matter and another image had illustrations of "Snigger the Monkey".

When asked why they had posted the images in the chat, the students said they were drunk at the time of posting.

Read more here.

‘She’s a big black ape’: Boys insulted Bournemouth University fresher in racist group chat

A group of boys made racist insults towards a Bournemouth fresher in their Facebook group chat, calling her a "big black ape" amongst other offensive comments.

A screenshot of an Instagram taken by Telma Rodrigues dressed up as a Playboy bunny was sent in down their Facebook group chat before commenting a number of racist insults. They described her as a "big black ape", a "gorilla looking motherf****r" and a "cotton picking f**k".

Read more here.

Cardiff student blacked up for a house party and said it wasn’t racist

A Cardiff University student attended a house party in Cathays dressed as ‘blackface’. In a video from the night out, he defended blacking up saying “it’s called blackface, it’s dressing up.”

The ‘costume’ caused a stir, and people at the party were not amused with the apparent ‘joke’. Eventually the student was forced to wash the ‘blackface’ off, and subsequently kicked out of the party.

Read more here.

Racist graffiti written on bananas in Warwick halls

A black student in halls at Warwick opened her fridge to find racist remarks written on her bananas. Faramade Ifaturoti tweeted a bunch of bananas with “monkey!” and “nigga!” written on them in black pen.

She said: “Just entered the kitchen and look at what one of my flatmates has done. I am extremely disgusted.”

Read more here.

Exeter students write ‘The Holocaust was a good time’ on bar crawl T-shirts

Students at the Snowsports social held at Timepiece, Exeter, were seen with antisemitic and White Supremacist slogans on their white T-shirts.

While most of the magic markers were used to pen generic sexism or “banterous” innuendoes, two rather different and shocking slogans stood out: “Don’t speak to me if you’re not white” and “The Holocaust was a good time”.

Read more here.

Bristol students accused of blacking up for promotional fancy dress house party

Accusations were made that several Bristol university students attended a house party in racist fancy dress and wore cornrow braids to look like a fictional character.

The theme of the house party, was ‘Teams, Memes and 2016’. The event involved a number of UOB students who chose a ‘Orange Is The New Black’ theme and aimed to dress as a character from the show.

Chante’ Joseph, the head of Bristol’s Afro Caribbean Association at the time, was one of the first to draw attention to the event on twitter and said: “This is disgusting and I will not rest until these girls are dealt with properly because it’s out of order and insensitive.”

Read more here.

Anglia Ruskin University student rugby player posted racist photo on Snapchat, calling himself ‘Serina Williams’

A photo emerged on Twitter allegedly showing a rugby player from Anglia Ruskin University in blackface, calling himself “Serina Williams” [sic].

Sunchi Chen, a Nuclear Engineering student at University of Birmingham posted the photo after it was shown to her from a friend at Cambridge. She said the student who had posted the original Snapchat reached out to her to apologise.

However she said she’s since received phone calls from other people criticising her for posting the picture, and calling her a “dumb bitch” and a “racist”. She told The Tab: “One of the boys who got in touch warned me that my phone number had been found via my Twitter.

“A part of me thinks that if I hadn’t posted the picture publicly he wouldn’t have seen any problem with it. In essence, he’s sorry he got caught.”

Read more here.

‘Jet fuel can’t melt Jews’: Anti-Semitic messages left on Sussex’s ‘Before I Die’ wall

An anti-Semitic message was written on Sussex’s ‘Before I Die’ board just 24-hours after its installation. The message reported read: “Jet fuel can’t melt Jews. Holocaust was an inside job”.

The aim of the ‘Before I Die’ art project was to let individuals reflect on themselves as well as exhibit common humanity and get a better idea of what it means to be human.

However, the chalkboard box on Library Square was defaced with anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi and pro-Holocaust statements.

Read more here.

A barman at one of Exeter's most popular student clubs Unit 1 blacked up for Halloween

One of Exeter’s most popular student haunts, Unit 1, made the headlines following a controversial Halloween costume sported by a member of staff.

Dressed in an “afro hair” style wig and dark face paint, the bar man’s photograph was shared multiple times on social media and dubbed “racist” by Spotted: Racism at Exeter University.

Multiple people have commented on the picture with some defending the barman’s choice as simply misinterpreted fun. Some asked the page: “Is it actually a joke or are you being serious?”

Others said: “Unless you are provide evidence that he was attempting to mock people based on skin colour rather than simple dress up as a cool character, which is what it appears to be, you have no reason to call this man racist.”

Read more here.

A Coventry lecturer allegedly made racist remarks, comparing people from Bulgaria and South Africa to rats

Coventry University is currently investigating a lecturer after he allegedly made offensive jokes about Bulgarians and South Africans during a lecture yesterday.

A student has claimed the lecturer said it is okay to perform human experiments on Bulgarians and South Africans, implying they are below rats.

He also allegedly said there are only two genders and joked about accepting bribes for an in class test. His comments apparently lead to "awkward silences" during the Add+vantage lecture.

Read more here.

A swastika was carved into a door in Birks Grange Village on Exeter campus

The swastika was found carved into a door on campus at Exeter University.

The Nazi symbol, banned in many countries around the world, was sighted in the Birks Grange Village halls of residence on the Streatham campus.

In a statement, the Exeter Socialist Students said: “We are mortified and outraged at the swastika found at Exeter. Fascism is blight upon the world and must be challenge upon every level. It is horrifying that the iconography of such evil is present here at Exeter.”

Read more here.

It's important to note that these incidents are only the ones which were made public. There are many more that don't get reported on.