Staff ReporterTwo 18-year-old men have been arrested after a student at Nottingham Trent University filmed racist abuse being chanted outside her bedroom.
Police are investigating the incident, while the university has been accused of failing to act swiftly when the racist jeers were first reported earlier this week.
Rufaro Chisango, a student at the university, posted a minute-long video on Twitter which included male voices chanting “we hate the blacks” and “blacks and whites will never be together” outside her bedroom door.
yoo I’m fuming, the way people in the same uni halls as me are chanting “we hate the blacks” outside my bedroom door. Words cannot describe how sad this makes me feel, in this 2018 people think this is still acceptable😤 pic.twitter.com/XUiYqNIWQT
— Ruu (@rufarochisango_) March 7, 2018
They were also heard shouting “sign the Brexit papers” and “Brexit, Brexit, Brexit”. At one point the video shows that a woman attempts to intervene, telling the men to “leave her alone”.
Ms Chisango posted the video clip on Twitter, explaining that reception staff at her halls of residence had told her that Monday night’s incident would be “dealt with” and took her details, but said that by Wednesday night she had heard nothing from them.
Writing on Twitter, Ms Chisango said: “I’m fuming, the way people in the same [university] halls as me are chanting ‘we hate the blacks’ outside my bedroom door. Words cannot describe how sad this makes me feel, in this 2018 people think this is still acceptable.
“Okay this happened Monday night, the video wasn’t able to catch what else they were saying which was ‘blacks would go back to picking cotton’.
“I’m the only black person on my floor and they were chanting this outside my door so don’t be surprised [as] to why I didn’t leave my room.”
A number of MPs contacted to Ms Chisango on Twitter to offer their support, with former Labour minister David Lammy saying that he sent his “love and solidarity” to the student.
Lilian Greenwood, the Labour MP for Nottingham South said she is “appalled” by the video, while Jess Phillips, who sits on the women and equalities committee wrote also wrote, saying she “hope it gets sorted”.
Nottingham Trent University has now pledged an urgent investigation, adding that it has suspended the suspected perpetrators pending a full investigation.
“We are shocked and appalled to see the video of racist chanting posted yesterday evening,” a university spokesman said. “This kind of vile behaviour will not be tolerated. Those suspected perpetrators have been suspended immediately pending a full investigation.
“We are also working with our accommodation partner to understand why the University was only alerted to this on Wednesday evening after this was reported to them in the very early hours of Tuesday.”
A spokesman for Nottingham Police said: “We’ve arrested two men in connection with racially aggravated public order offences following reports of a video posted at Nottingham Trent University and shared on social media. The men, aged 18, remain in police custody. Our enquiries are ongoing.”
