Southampton Men’s Hockey Team slammed for ‘racist’ emails

The emails, which were sent out to every student who has signed up for a trial session with the Hockey Club, were revealed on Facebook last night after one recipient took offence.

Islam Nayem, a third year Poltics & IR student, posted the screenshots of an email from SUMHC on SUSU’s Facebook page, calling for an end to “campus bigotry”.

He told the Soton Tab “I usually don’t read [the emails] but this one caught my attention because of the subject of the email “as-salamu alaykoum”. I am not [a member], but I’ve been in the mailing list for a couple of years now.”

The emails, sent from an account named “SUMHC Banter”, calls “whining” Freshers “worth less than a Jew’s foreskin”.

It continues “I know racial diversity is important to our esteemed club, but seriously I wish you would FUCK OFF.”

A source within the club told us the emails “have been a tradition of SUMHC for many years”, and that the ones posted are “extremely timid to previous banter”.

VP Sports Development Katie Lightowler fumed “My view is that this particular email is unacceptable. SUSU have been formally notified and the correct procedures will be starting from this point.”

Last year’s club captain Dan Stewart said “I can say with all confidence that we are in no way a racist or anti-semitic club. SUMHC is home [to] a diverse range of ethnicities and beliefs and we respect every member equally.

“Any comments from emails have obviously been taken out of context and been used to maliciously attack our long standing club which continuously attracts the largest member following in the AU year after year.”

The Hockey Club initially declined to comment, but have now released a statement to The Tab saying “As a club we find the allegation that we are in anyway racist or anti-Semitic as untrue. We have a highly diverse club, in terms of race, religion and sexual orientation, so any claims that we are discriminatory to anybody who identify as these, we believe are baseless and false.

It has never been the intention of the club to cause any offence to our members, or indeed anybody else who might read our emails. Obviously, we apologise to those people who have found it insulting or unacceptable.

In the light of what has happened, the committee will discuss action needed to ensure nothing like this happens again.

The thoughts and feelings of those beyond our club were not taken into consideration, for which we sincerely apologise.

You can read the full statement here.