Indigenous and Jewish students condemn ‘racist, degrading’ photos of St Mark’s College students
INDIGENOUS and Jewish student groups have condemned students from a North Adelaide residential college, after photos emerged of them dressing up in blackface and as Adolf Hitler and holocaust victims at parties.
INDIGENOUS and Jewish student groups have condemned students from a North Adelaide residential college, after photos emerged of them dressing up in blackface and as Adolf Hitler and holocaust victims at parties.
Images have emerged of St Mark’s students at parties over several years from 2011 to 2016. Some are of current students.
Indigenous and Jewish student groups have condemned the photos as degrading and racist.
“Blackface has been a tool to degrade and oppress people of colour and will continue to be a tool to degrade and oppress regardless of the intention,” said Ethan Taylor, president of the Union of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students.
The Australasian Union of Jewish Students said: “This appalling behaviour denigrates the memory of the systematic extermination of six million Jews and millions of others during the Holocaust and trivialises the horrific crimes perpetrated by the Nazis”.
St Mark’s declined to comment.
The college has been under fire over a series of allegations about degrading hazing rituals and sexual assaults.
Chairman Richard Burchnall has resigned this year and the college’s board agreed to be dissolved.
The Advertiser can reveal the college has claimed its students have been spat on and abused on campus at Adelaide University as a result of the airing of the hazing and sexual assault claims.
In an email to Adelaide University Student Representative Council president Matthew Boughey, who has heavily criticised St Mark’s culture, college master Rose Alwyn said students were spat on and labelled rapists by Adelaide University peers.
The SRC ran a campaign to end “shocking instances of hazing, ritualistic humiliation and sexual misconduct”, which included posters across the campus and a rally in June.
Ahead of the rally, Mrs Alwyn wrote to Mr Boughey with examples of St Mark’s students being “vilified” at Adelaide University. A male St Mark’s student was accused of being a rapist.
A female St Mark’s student was told by a tutorial classmate he was surprised she hadn’t been raped yet. Another St Mark’s student was spat on at uni.
Mrs Alwyn wrote St Mark’s students who “attempted to make positive comments about the college” had been accused of “inciting a rape culture”. Mrs Alwyn did not comment when contacted by The Advertiser.
Mr Boughey did not return calls. But minutes of the SRC’s July 24 meeting show members voted to “condemn the bad attitude of certain students towards St Mark’s students”.
An Adelaide University spokesman said students were encouraged to report incidents so they could be investigated.