On Wednesday 26 May 2021 Leeds Trinity University’s Race Equality Charter Partnership (REC-P) team held its first Black Lives Matter (BLM): Accountability, Transparency, Action event, in response to the University’s BLM statement which was rightly criticised as tokenistic and performative. Engagement at last year’s event showcased the importance of hearing the Black lived experience of our students, alumni and staff, and most importantly the need to move beyond words to action. Some of the actions that our University took after hearing from our Black colleagues at last year’s BLM event include:

• Hosting weekly programmes for Black History Month.
• Agreeing to host an annual Race, Equity and Social Justice conference to learn and share best practices.
• Developing student equality networks – including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic; International; LGBTQ+; Disability+; Women; Faith – to understand lived experiences of marginalised groups.
• Emulating the Black student panel with students and staff with other protected characteristics.
• Installing alumna Macy Iwediebo’s BLM poem on a wall in our atrium.

This year, on Wednesday 25 May, we held our second Black Lives Matter: Accountability, Transparency, Action Revisited event. The purpose of this year’s event was to commemorate Black lives and to ensure that our institutional statements are genuine and translated into action. The event started with Emily Bonang Howden, an anti-apartheid activist from South Africa who mapped her story from her birth to exile and her life in the UK. This was followed by a panel made up of our students (Chanelle Jones and Lewis Miles-Berry), alumni (Macy Iwediebo), staff (Ricardo Barker and Professor Sulochini Pather) and Vice-Chancellor (Professor Charles Egbu) who shared their lived experiences with the audience. The event closed with a poem unveiling and recital by our alumna Macy Iwediebo.

In November 2020, we became the first University in Yorkshire to achieve the Race Equality Charter (REC) Bronze award. This award means that we have acknowledged and developed an action plan to address institutional and structural racial inequalities that disadvantage our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students and staff. However, after hearing from our Black colleagues at our recent BLM event, we recognise that we still have a long way to go if we are to embed racial equity at all levels and develop a culture in which our students and staff can thrive.

We are committed to becoming an anti-racist University and will continue to develop further actions that are equitable and have real impact for our Black students and staff. Our University has committed to hosting an annual BLM event to ensure accountability. At Leeds Trinity, BLM is a movement and not a moment.

Shames Maskeen is a Postgraduate Researcher (PhD) and Operational Lead for the Race Equality Charter at Leeds Trinity University.