SPACE FOR PEOPLE OF COLOUR Damien Nguyen

UTS: Where There is No Safe Space for People of Color.

by Damien Nguyen from the Ethno-Cultural Collective

CW: Racism, marginalisation

As people of color, we are pushed away, we are frowned upon, we are marginalized.

As international students, outsiders, aliens,

we are silenced, we are ignored, we are non-existent.

We bury ourselves. We keep our heads below the water, drown ourselves in the mono-culture that is

Australia..

We hold our tongues, put on a front.

We were plucked off of the stem. Plunged into colonized soil, for the hope and the dream of a better life. Emptied our pockets to stay, to grow, to prosper.

Yet there is no space for people like us.

There is no safe space for anyone like me. For anyone who can relate to me, understand me. For anyone who can empathize with my pain. For anyone whose skin is stained the same color as mine. For anyone who lives my truth.

Where There is No Safe Space for People of Color.

“Racism asks for your silence. Anti-racism asks for your voice.” UTS said.1 So where? So how? If we can’t get an autonomous space to form a thought,

how will we cultivate the strength to speak our truth?

When will every action that UTS takes stop becoming reactionary? When will you lift your feet and cut off your racist roots? One that was ingrained deep into colonized ground.

Why is it so hard to spare us four walls?

Is it because the pain that we repressed can’t be boxed in?

Is it because the campus that you milked us dried to build is too polished to be stained by the scum that is us?

1 Email sent to all students from the previous VC, Atilla Brungs. 8/6/20.