Tina is 22 years old and of mixed origin, she is a final year student studying BA (Hons) sculpture Fine Art. She self-identifies as female and heterosexual.
Tina returned to university after taking a year out due to family problems she was awarded extenuating circumstances. On her return, she was enthusiastically looking forward to “getting back to her art” after spending a year working and not being able to do any creative work of her own.
However, Tina was disappointed to find that there was not a single black tutor on her course and very few black students. Even though, the university was situated in an area which is heavily populated by people of colour (POC). In addition, Tina was put in the position of having to represent people of colour and as a result suffered a series of microaggressions. For example, her tutor asked her “why it was that black artists solely made work about being black?”. As if that wasn’t enough Tina also found that she would be forced into a situation where she had to explain protests like ‘Black Lives Matter’ or why it was not appropriate for her peers to refer to her hair as ‘bushy’. Tina also found that the university offered no intersectional approach within the curriculum thus marginalising people of colour further. Tina says that she felt alienated and othered by the institution.