United Against Racism: CSU Community Consultation Wants to Hear From You

Student Union Invites Students to Share Stories of Unfair Treatment

NewsShakti Langlois-Ortega — Published January 23, 2018

In response to these injustices, the Concordia Student Union invites students to share their stories and solutions at the Community Consultation about Racism on Campus, this Friday.

CSU’s External Affairs and Mobilization Coordinator Ahmed Badr explained that this consultation is the beginning of a long-term project to ensure a safe environment for all students who might experience discrimination or racism at Concordia.

With this collaborative consultation, the CSU wants to provide a barrier-free platform for students to share their experiences, discuss current issues, and suggest tangible solutions to strengthen the fight against racism.

Badr said that the CSU primarily wants to hear directly from students who feel or have felt unfairly treated based on their religious beliefs, skin color, country of origin, or status in order to address the issues accordingly.

“It will help us know what the real problems are,” he said. “We can’t plan or work without the input of our members.”

The CSU, who represents over 35,000 undergraduate students, is a melting pot of local, out of province, and international students, along with immigrants and refugees from all parts of the globe. They want to address the growing concerns of racism at Concordia by catering their course of action, upcoming campaigns, and workshops directly to marginalized groups.

“It’s not about us sitting in our office and making assumptions,” Badr said. “We want to hear from them, [develop] a network and build a bridge with them.”

The Community Consultation about Racism on Campus will be held in room M100 of the Grey Nuns building (1190 Guy St.) on Jan. 26, from 4 to 7 p.m.