This week's student news: students say that hosting a Gone with the Wind themed ball would be racist
A college at Cambridge University has been forced to change its plan to host a Gone with the Wind themed ball after students complained that the theme was racist.
St Edmund's College had planned to theme its annual summer ball around the 1939 Oscar-winning film staring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. The film, famous for the romance between Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara, has been widely criticised for its depiction of black people.
Mamusu Kallon, who was born in Sierra Leone and is a student at St Edmund's, told the Independent: "It is a film that glamorises the romantic dreams of a slave owner and a KKK member while rendering the horrors of slavery invisible.
"The black characters fulfil every derogatory racist stereotype of the 'slave' and black people continue to be subject to the modern-day versions of these stereotypes. Surely Cambridge University should not be perpetuating this?"
The updated theme for the summer ball will now be "journey through the seasons".
The row comes only a week after students at Cambridge and Oxford University launched a photo campaign to highlight their experiences of racial discrimination at the university.
Students at Oxford said they wanted to "demonstrate that despite there being a greater number of students of colour studying at Oxford now than there has ever been before, there are still issues that need to be discussed."
In other student news
• Warwick students swing to victory
Heard of the Inter-University Pole Dance Competition? Neither had we. But this year Warwick students have picked up the prize for best pole dancers, beating 25 other universities from around the UK. The competition took place at the University of Exeter and saw students competing in a range of categories. The Warwick team stood out not only as the winners – but the only self-taught team at the event.
• No more page three at Leicester
Students at the University of Leicester have voted to boycott the Sun newspaper on their campus. They say they will start selling the paper again once the controversial page three is removed. Leicester is the most recent in a string of universities to join the No More Page 3 campaign.
• Are unpaid internships just for the well-connected?
On Thursday interns and former interns will share their stories at the London Assembly Economy Committee. A panel including representatives from the NUS, Transport for London, Asos and the Greater London Authority will discuss the issue and what can be done.
You can follow the hearing at 10am online.
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