{"id":105617,"date":"2019-11-12T17:27:45","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T16:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=105617"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:24:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:24:34","slug":"these-students-want-the-diversity-debate-to-be-less-gezellig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2019\/11\/12\/these-students-want-the-diversity-debate-to-be-less-gezellig\/","title":{"rendered":"These students want the diversity debate to be less gezellig<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no coincidence that Erasmus School of Colour (ESoC) sounds like the name of an EUR faculty, say Melisa Ersoy, Alyssa Renfurm and Merel Dap. \u201cIt affirms that we, students of colour, are a part of this university,\u201d explains Renfurm. \u201cWe want to claim our place within the university \u2013 show that we belong here too, the same as everyone.\u201d ESoC was launched at the beginning of the academic year. And with the opening of The Living Room<\/a><\/em>, they now also have a base on campus.<\/p>\n

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Melisa Ersoy, president of Erasmus School of Color and in the background Alyssa Renfurm (left) and Merel Dap (right). ESoC is part of the student living room in the Tinbergen building.<\/span>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmber Leijen<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

ESoC can be found every Tuesday afternoon in the \u2018students\u2019 living room\u2019 in the Tinbergen Building. \u201cAnd everyone is welcome to drop in and think along about future events,\u201d emphasise the students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to encourage a different debate about diversity at the university,\u201d says Ersoy. \u201cRight now, there\u2019s not enough room for critical perspectives. We\u2019ve been talking about diversity at EUR for some time now, but we haven\u2019t managed to transcend the level of questions like \u2018so is diversity a good thing or not?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Stronghold<\/h2>

Ersoy and Renfurm are currently in the Engaging Public Issues master programme, after both first rounding off the Sociology bachelor\u2019s. Merel Dap started at Erasmus University College and is currently studying Medicine. The three students remember very well when they first considered founding an organisation like ESoC.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring our bachelor\u2019s, Melisa and I had a tutor, a man of colour, and we both thought this was quite special,\u201d recalls Renfurm. \u201cFirst and foremost, he was simply a good tutor. But we did wonder why we thought this was so special. Something like that starts you thinking: why did I get this feeling, and what\u2019s lacking in my own university. Well: what I feel is lacking is a sense of representation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Take a long hard look at who\u2019s walking around campus, and who\u2019s standing in front of the lecture board. And once you see it, you can\u2019t unsee it. Which doesn\u2019t make it any less fucked up.\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

For Dap, the \u2018shock\u2019 came when she started on her Medicine degree programme. \u201cAt Erasmus MC, I remember thinking: OK\u2026 this place is incredibly white. EUC is very small-scale \u2013 you never get together with more than a hundred students. In Medicine though, most lectures are attended by hundreds of students at a time. At which point it really sinks in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The university administrators should give more thought to who and what get to have a say within EUR, according to the three students. With a marked lack of diversity in the academic staff, the university is sending a message, says Ersoy. \u201cNamely that by sheer coincidence, the best and most incisive studies are produced by white men. Take a long hard look at who\u2019s walking around campus, and who\u2019s standing in front of the lecture board. And once you see it, you can\u2019t unsee it. Which doesn\u2019t make it any less fucked up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Impotence, humiliation and rage\u2019<\/h2>

The three believe that by themselves, \u2018solutions\u2019 like a quota for women professors won\u2019t get the job done. After all, they say, diversity is about more than just gender and checking off lists. And what happens after the university has filled its quota? Will it be \u2018diverse enough\u2019, all of a sudden? And what do people actually mean by terms like diversity and inclusion?<\/p>\n

\u201cBesides, it\u2019s super toxic when you drop one of these women in a male-dominated environment, where no one seems prepared to do anything about the atmosphere or work attitude. You see the same thing with the police. Police Chief Fatima Aboulouafa<\/a> offered criticism and was suspended from active duty.\u201d Renfurm adds: \u201cYou may be allowed to work there as a woman \u2013 even as a woman of colour \u2013 but you have to fit in the team, which means you\u2019re not allowed to bring up certain issues. At that point, you\u2019re no longer gezellig<\/em> and you no longer fit in the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Merel Dap (left), Melisa Ersoy (center) and Alyssa Renfurm (right) from Erasmus School of Color<\/span>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmber Leijen<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Ethnic profiling<\/h2>

Aboulouafa\u2019s dismissal actually informed ESoC\u2019s choice of theme for their first public event on Tuesday evening, 12 November. The focus will be on ethnic profiling and what it feels like when people draw conclusions about you based purely on the colour of your skin. The evening starts off with a screening of the documentary \u2018VERDACHT\u2019 (\u2018SUSPICIOUS\u2019), followed by a public debate. \u201cAn incisive examination of impotence, humiliation, rage and what it feels like to be considered suspicious as a given,\u201d is how ESoC describes the documentary.<\/p>\n

The evening was organised in partnership with Studium Generale, and the students are quite pleased with the collaboration. \u201cWe already tried to organise something last year, but it isn\u2019t made easy for individual students to organise something on campus. You\u2019re sent from pillar to post and back again. We\u2019re happy that we can team up with SG within The Living Room. You don\u2019t have to reinvent the wheel, as it were.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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