Melissa is a middle-aged academic of Black British heritage. She is a practicing artist who has been working at UAL for 15 years as an hourly paid lecturer teaching on art and design based courses. Recently Melissa had attended a presentation by Erasmus participants who spoke to a group of lecturers about opportunities to travel while working at the university. Unfortunately, Melissa has always been hesitant about travel because of racist experiences in the past.
Melissa did not relate to all the positive experiences that her white colleagues were talking about. At one point a person presenting ended their presentation by saying “Apply it’s such an amazing opportunity you will not regret it” .
As the presentation progressed Melissa recounted at least 4 situations in which she had experienced overt racism while travelling. As a result, Melissa never travelled alone and would not travel to isolated places where for example people may not have seen a black person before. When travelling Melissa felt more comfortable in cities or as part of a group. Something that Erasmus had not considered in their presentation. At the Erasmus presentation, there had been no mention about the difficulty that some people may have when travelling to different countries regarding Racism.
The Erasmus panel participants were all white and Melissa did not feel that they were able to relate or even acknowledge her experiences as a woman of colour.