Aveen Hameed

Our students come from all aspects of society. And that includes students with right wing views, and students who are unwilling to engage in this conversation, they feel it's unpatriotic, they feel it's inappropriate. And they also, they feel that it's questioning, you know them, rather than questioning history. And that can be really challenging because those students really, A) don't want to engage but, B) one of the factors that I find quite challenging is they refuse to acknowledge unearned privilege, they refuse to acknowledge that having a British passport gives them advantage. They refuse to acknowledge that living in this country gives them advantage, or even coming to the University of Exeter and gives them advantage in life. And so one of the most challenging aspects of this is actually people…Yes, and it's what, you know, one of the most challenging aspects of this is actually working with people who just won't accept that they have privilege or that some of this privilege is as a result of colonial legacy. They like to think that they've worked hard for everything that they have, and that privilege doesn't come into it. So they're probably the most difficult. So I think changing perception, changing people, people's minds about engaging with this, but also, I think this idea that it's unpatriotic, I think it's really important that learning your past is not unpatriotic; acknowledging past mistakes is not unpatriotic. You know, fixing the legacy that disadvantages people has nothing to do with being unpatriotic. It's just about being a good person.