New opportunity to join English classes at International House Aberdeen

Interesting and funny. Worth watching.

Author and activist Isabel Allende discusses women, creativity, the definition of feminism -- and, of course, passion -- in this talk. ... See more

So our NEW website is now LIVE !
It's still a work in progress but we LOVE it !!!!
Tell us what you think ??
http://www.grampianpride.org ... See more

CAN YOU HELP? As part of GREC's Hate Crime Awareness Month, today we're launching our new hate crime poster. We need as many people as possible to share it online and display it within your community spaces. #HateCrime ... See more

A Christmas jobs fair will take place in the Town House from 10am to 1pm on 18 October. A number of high profile companies have companies have signed up so far, with more expected to join. Jobs range from retail and hospitality, to the armed forces, driving, and the care sector. Seasonal and permanent roles will be on offer.

The Progress Through Positive Partnerships Christmas jobs fair,is a joint ACC/DWP initiative. ... See more

Please watch and share this powerful video on the issue of class and racism. It’s four minutes of your time you won’t regret.

I’ve posted it in response to today’s release of a government audit on UK race equality, or rather inequality. The audit found, amongst other things, that white teenagers are far more likely to smoke than their minority ethnic counterparts, Roma children are falling well behind their peers at school and black men face the highest likelihood of being found guilty in court. It also concluded minority ethnic women are being hit hardest by austerity.

Unsurprisingly the Government’s response to this report has been underwhelming. In launching the report Theresa May talked a good game. But actions speak louder words and so far this Government has overseen, according to the audit, a sharp downturn in race equality in this country.

Clearly under the last Labour Government much was done to improve equality in the UK, yet too much was still left unchallenged. To understand why that happened you have to take a long hard look at race and this country. People often talk about having ‘frank conversations about immigration’. What they actually mean is let’s talk about everything else except race and racism. If we genuinely did that, we’d enter into an arena I guarantee many would feel uncomfortable within.

Take for example our own movement’s pride in the 1945 Labour Government, the creation of the Welfare State and the establishment of the NHS. Something many, myself included, are rightly proud of. Why not? My English grandparents helped build it. But how many of us acknowledge and understand the part that this same Labour Government played in ramping up the often brutal post-war exploitation of African and Asian colonies to help pay for these ‘monuments to British socialism’? Probably not as many as you’d think.

Some people will say, ‘why raise these issues of the past? Yes, they happened but what’s the point of raking over this unpleasant history?’. The answer is that audit’s like this and the limited policy prescriptions that follow will never get to the root cause – the structural underpinning of racism – until we as a society acknowledge the fact that racism is hard-wired into our society in a way that is simply invisible to far too many of us.

Last month trans model Munroe Bergdorf was fired from L’Oreal for a Facebook post she composed on racism and white privilege. In an interview discussing her post she said:

“I can wholeheartedly say that the dictionary definition of racism was written a very long time ago and not by a person of colour. It doesn’t allow us to have a conversation about modern-day racism. If you’re not aware of it, then make yourself aware of it. Racism isn’t just calling someone something, it’s a whole system. If you think we live in an equal society, you’re living in a daydream. You need to recognise that there is such a thing as white privilege and you can be homeless and still have white privilege, because you can still have a better chance of getting out of homelessness than a person of colour in the same position. We do have the language but it needs to be out there: unlearning, micro-aggressions, being complicit, unconscious bias, privilege – these need to be taught, we need to address why syllabuses only teach white history, we need to speak about slavery and the brutality of colonialism.”

This then is ultimately one of the key challenges for our Party and 21st Century socialism. To understand that there can be no ‘frank discussions’ on immigration and freedom of movement, on audits like the one released today - unless we are prepared to acknowledge, discuss and work on the underpinning, structural reality of racism in British society and beyond. ... See more

October holidays are coming. Come and join us for the last sessions in Tullos, Sunnybank and Woodside. ... See more

Come on down to the Confucius Institute today to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival with us. We are having traditional Mooncake! ... See more

How did you celebrate #coeEDL2017?

Email scilt@strath.ac.uk with a description and some colourful photos and we'll feature you in our European Day of Languages blog! The best entries might even make it into the next SCILT newsletter.

Visit the blog to see some of the great posts so far: https://edl2017scilt.blogspot.co.uk/ ... See more