Rashmi Samant, the Indian student who was briefly elected as the Oxford Student Union President, talked about the racism controversy that led to her resignation earlier this month. Rashmi said that becoming the President of the Oxford Student Union was one of the greatest honors of her life and said that she stepped down because she was sensitive to the feelings of the people who reposed faith in her and also due to the cyberbullying targeted at her.
Here’s a brief summary of an OpIndia article on this topic:
- Rashmi Samant, the briefly elected Oxford Student Union President, revealed that she resigned due to sensitivity towards those who had faith in her and the cyberbullying she faced.
- Controversy surrounded her when accusations of making racist social media posts came to light after her election.
- She addressed the posts from her teenage years, explaining they didn’t reflect her current convictions and were not meant to express hatred toward communities.
- She discussed a comparison she made between Cecil Rhodes and Hitler, stating that her goal was to highlight the shared origins of bigotry and hatred behind their actions.
- She mentioned that a member of the university insulted her family, dragging her parents into the public domain.
- Samant emphasized her understanding of the value of diversity despite limited exposure to the developed world.
On stepping down as the Oxford SU president, Rashmi Samant said it has been a traumatic learning curve for her. “Only one hour after I won, I started getting aggressive messages from people. ‘You made a post in 2017 at the Holocaust memorial making a pun.’ ‘You said ching chang in 2018. You have to apologise.’ Then, a statement I made in my campaign was about “celebrating women, trans women, men who support us.” I didn’t realise that separating trans women from women goes against etiquette.” A few more telling quotes by Samant:
I was branded transphobic. Anti-semitic. Racist.
There were so many anonymous messages and emails full of hate. People were making posts about me. Even a member of the university staff made a post about my parents, taking an old photo off of my mother’s Facebook that said jai shree ram in connection to the Ram Mandir. They wrote, “We are not ready for a Sanatani president.”
The Rashmi Samant case is consistent with Oxford’s long history of rampant racial discrimination[2]. However, what is new is that today’s toxic atmosphere is helmed by wokes, ultraliberal, and disgruntled leftists.
Citations
- Rashmi Samant claims she resigned as Oxford Student Union head due to cyberbullying (thenewsminute.com)
- The dark and dirty legacy of racism at Oxford University – gal-dem