Protest against Cofnas' victory lap at Oxford University on 17 November
On Monday, Oxford Students’ Coalition against racism have met with university management over their demands. Oxford has refused to cancel Nathan Cofnas. They have refused to publish the risk assessment before the event. They have refused an independent review. They have refused to meet us again before 17 November. They offered a different room inside Oriel, permitting a protest inside the college and some vague commitment on looking into a welfare space and security measures.
Professor Irene Tracey, Vice Chancellor of Oxford University, and her team's answer on student safety: we will observe racism but not stop it, if there is harassment, we’ll act on it later.
We reject Oxford’s claims about freedom of speech. Until 2015, Oxford University academics drank out of a human skull believed to be from an enslaved Caribbean woman. The institution also displayed the skull as a form of silverware. This pattern is not subtle. We are not surprised that this institution of empire and colonial violence has chosen, again, to platform race science.
Cofnas led the academic and subsequent media hounding of Professor Jason Arday. The Byline Times describes Cofnas and Reform UK as part of “an explicitly anti-Black race science network” operating in academia. Barely three months after Professor Arday's death, with an inquest still ongoing, we will not stand by, as Oxford University rewards the actions of this DEI witch-finder general with a victory lap. Oxford University management may think it acceptable to allow unrestricted racist campaigning on campus but we will resist racism wherever it goes.
More than 29,000 people have signed the petition. Black student societies at Oxford have asked us to stand with them, how will you respond?
Oxford University may abandon its Black students and staff. We will not.
The students are still demanding two things: Oxford to publish a redacted form of the risk assessment before 17 November, and commission an independent review of racist activity on campus with Black student organisations co-shaping its terms. We will not stop demanding them after the event.
Join us at 5pm on 17 November at Oriel Square, Oxford. We will protest both outside and inside Oriel, as the University has permitted. We will be there for Black students. Be there with us. Sign up below to meet us either at Paddington or Oxford Rail Station.
If you can’t attend then continue to share the petition. Share this post. We will not drop this before or after 17 November.
No justice, just us.
