Race Equality Week

This is the third blog in a four-part series about Race Equality Week. 

Hello and welcome again.

If our accommodation is a cluster of continents, then conversations are the bridges between them. I will share some of my favourite examples of traveling round the continents from my accommodation building without suitcases or visa.

One evening, I was in the common room when I met three Chinese flatmates planning to make hotpot. Because we had exchanged greetings before, I was invited to join them. Suddenly, this Nigerian girl studying in Europe was sitting in an Asian culinary space, learning to use chopsticks that made a mockery of my coordination. To be quite candid, at some point I had to accept defeat and used spoon and fork because it literally became a fight between me and the proteins.

On another occasion, after casually meeting flatmates and their friends in the kitchen, I was invited to have henna done during Eid. I found myself dressed up, taken out to celebrate, my hands decorated with henna, all because of a chance accommodation allocation.

One of my most meaningful experiences came from a conversation about language. My research is shaped by my inability to speak my Indigenous language, as all my formal education has been in English. One day, while making ramen, I shared this with my flatmates. I spoke about the pain of language loss and how I use Nigerian Pidgin, a creolised language, to stay connected.

What surprised me was the response. A flatmate from Barbados shared that they also have a form of creole and asked me to teach him some Pidgin. Others joined in, curious and eager to learn. Over the following months, it became a joyful running joke. They would greet me with “How far?” or “How you dey?”. I remember laughing all the time when they spoke pidgin English because it just sounded odd with their respective accent and it was just so beautiful albeit hilarious.

These small moments matter. They do not solve racial inequality, but they create cracks where belonging can grow. They remind us that community is built in everyday interactions.