King’s Intersectional Fem Soc creates petition, email template addressing racist KCL students

King’s Intersectional Feminist Society has started a petition and email template addressing institutional racism and racist acts by King’s students with the support of Decolonise KCL, Working Class KCL, and KCL Action Palestine.

The petition asks King’s College London to take action against its ‘role in institutional racism and police brutality.’ Its list of demands includes providing reparations to Black communities, increasing bursaries and scholarships for Black students, investigating the March 2019 student discrimination incident, and severing all links with the police force.

Since it was published two days ago it has already got over 1,000 signatures.

The email template also demands that King’s take strict action against two students, Postgraduate student and an Undergraduate student, both of whom have been accused of posting racist content online.

The Tab King’s spoke to Jameela, Co-President of King’s Intersectional Feminist Society about why her society started the petition.

Jameela told The Tab King’s:

“Our society is never shy about calling out injustices and inequality within the university. As with many of our campaigns, this issue of racism and police brutality was personal. Being a black student and knowing that the university is complicit in the very inequality they say they are against, it honestly doesn’t leave me with much hope or trust.

“Knowing this, combined with the awful news of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, I got angry and I got tired (as I do every time police brutality is brought to our attention by the media). But I decided to channel that energy into making an active change because I’m tired of being tired and angry. And with the support and encouragement of my allies within the Intersectional Feminist Society committee and my fellow Kcl students, it feels like this is very possible!”

The link to the petition, email template, and other resources provided by the KCL Intersectional Feminist Society can be found here.

The petition can be signed by both King’s students and non-King’s students. Additionally, the email templates provided include one for King’s students and one for non-King’s students.

The following demands detail the institutional change KCL Intersectional Fem Soc insists upon:

“1. Launch an investigation into how the college benefited from the slave trade.

2. Recognise this history of racism in two ways: the payment of reparations to black movements and non-profits, and the introduction of better provisions for black students, including extensive bursaries and scholarships.

3. Continue with the independent investigation into the incident that happened in March 2019 and be transparent in this, making all of the investigation’s findings accessible to the general public.

4. Sever all official and unofficial links between the university and the police force, commit to never calling the police on peaceful student protests, greatly reduce security presence and reform the in-house security.”

Several students have emailed their personal tutors demanding that strict action be taken against the racist King’s students.

The petition claims that the university has “has been embedded in and benefited from racism since its inception.” It further goes on to say that King’s must be “held accountable for their promises to protect the POC community.”

King’s College London has been asked for a comment.

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