Racism refers to any prejudices, hatred or discrimination against a person or group of people because of their skin colour, ethnicity, or national origins.
Racial discrimination could involve direct/indirect discrimination, harassment, victimisation, or third party harassment through means including verbal, non-verbal or physical aggression towards a person or people who are perceived to belong to a different racial group.
Racial harassment can take many forms including:·
- Physical – such as jostling or assault;
- Verbal – such as derogatory remarks, racially explicit statements or threats, stereotyping, racist jokes or ridicule;
- Non-verbal – such as offensive gestures or facial expressions (where the victim believes it occurred because of their race and/or ethnicity), racist graffiti, arson or damage to property, threatening or isolating behaviours.
Racial harassment can be a one-off incident, or part of an ongoing campaign, it may be very explicit or may take the form of microaggressions or online harassment.
What are the effects of racial harassment?
Racial harassment is offensive behaviour that makes a person or group feel humiliated, intimidated or degraded. Harassment creates a hostile environment for all.
To report racist behaviour to the University, please click here. For information on support please see here.