RACE AND THE COST OF LIVING CRISIS

VARSITY RETURNS! DURHAM VS YORK

COST OF LIVING AND BEING WORKING CLASS AS A MINORITY-ETHNIC STUDENT

OVER THE PAST months, the country and arguably the world as a whole have tackled an economic crisis that has shaken the foundations of our societies.

Prices spiking and wages remaining stagnant have created a new culture of fear, worry, and pessimism throughout the classes.

As students, we have been forced to reckon with the sight of the future being bleaker than before, especially for those finishing their degrees. This undeniably affects all of us regardless of race, gender, and even to an extent, financial circumstances.

Working students are faced with costs becoming harder and harder to maintain, and the relationship between working and studying more tenuous.

Students from working-class areas have to consider the struggle of their families, their friends, and their peers back home. Not to mention our staff, who are tackling both the decision of whether to participate in industrial action and consider themselves intersectional activists must acknowledge how different minorities are affected that they are the same as others.

“Falling faster” is a phenomenon coined by Runnymeade Trust and refers to the fact that BAME individuals “fall faster” under the poverty line than their white counterparts during an economic crisis.

The statistics are shocking; stalled the then slowly closing financial gap between white and minority ethnic communities. This is a pattern indicative of the institutionalised oppression that BAME individuals face in every facet of their life. the economic crises they face. All in all, it is a hard time for everyone. However, throughout these struggles, it is important to un derstand those who are acutely affected by the crisis. Those who differently by something seeming-

So, how can we help with this?

It’s important to use our language accurately and with an understanding of the whole situation. Those who are privileged enough to have these conversations, rather than just try their best to live through these current times, must use that privilege to have accurate conversations.

In times like these, it is usually people who suffer under multiple forms of oppression who are then forgotten, lost in the assumption

BAME individuals are almost 2.2 times as likely to fall into deep poverty than white individuals.

This also is not a unique factor of the current cost of living crisis. The 2007/2008 financial crisis

It isn’t about reducing the struggles of everyone else, but recognising why and how some are suffering more or suffering differently. We must do everything we can to avoid letting people fall behind.