{"id":13652,"date":"2024-10-01T09:40:34","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T09:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/?p=13652"},"modified":"2024-10-01T09:40:35","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T09:40:35","slug":"a-journey-of-acceptance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2024\/10\/01\/a-journey-of-acceptance\/","title":{"rendered":"A Journey Of Acceptance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Graduate, Jemima McKenzie, speaks to CONNECTED about what Black History Month means to her, the challenges she has faced and how she worked to overcome them at Reading.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jemima, an ethics, value and philosophy<\/a> graduate, now works as an Employment Advisor for Reed in Partnership<\/a> \u2013 although she is currently subcontracted to the Department for Work and Pensions<\/a> to help people who have been on Universal Credit for over six months get back into work through an employability programmed called Restart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"BlackJemima said: \u201cI wish we didn\u2019t need a Black History Month but we do, for so many reasons. It\u2019s easy to get lost in the culture around you, so for me it\u2019s important to spend time doing little things that I love to remind me of my culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also need to recognise that so many Black people have lost their lives and have been treated awfully throughout our past. We don\u2019t want to go back to that \u2013 I do not want to worry about how other people perceive me or whether I\u2019m going to be treated differently.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cFor me, Black History Month is about achieving love and appreciation for all cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Being invisible<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Jemima opens up about the difficulties and challenges she\u2019s faced over the years, including during her time at Reading.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cAs a mixed-race bisexual woman from a working class background, I recognise that my challenges were different from my friends who were darker-skinned than myself.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cFrom my own experience, when I went out with a society or my friends I found that people would look through me like I wasn\u2019t there. It\u2019s a weird feeling when you\u2019re the only person in a group who isn\u2019t looked at, or isn\u2019t acknowledged.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cBeing treated like that made me feel like I didn\u2019t want to be there. It felt like I was being pushed aside, like my opinions didn\u2019t matter. Sometimes I would say something but would be spoken over. Then someone else would say the same thing and it would get acknowledged. That kind of treatment was the thing I struggled with the most to be honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know for certain whether this treatment was down to the colour of my skin. But I do know that I wasn\u2019t the only one who experienced it and I never noticed it happen when I was talking to other black students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m intersectional so I also had to deal with not just racist people, but homophobic people, as well as those who were both racist and homophobic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accepting myself<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Jemima shares that the University was really supportive of her during her journey of self-discovery and acceptance, and this propelled her to try and help others on their journeys.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cOverall, my time studying at Reading was great \u2013 during my time here I learnt a lot about myself. I went on a journey of self-discovery, self-love and acceptance. Coming to terms with my identity was a big deal for me and the University played a large role in making that happen.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cNo matter how hard it was at times, I\u2019ll be forever grateful for my time at Reading. All the staff were positive and lovely to me and I made friends for life.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI wanted to make this happen for everyone else as well. Through my philosophy studies and my own experiences, I realised I had a passion for diversity and inclusion. I cared a lot about helping people accept and love each other and to be able to exist peacefully without judgement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw that there were lots of other students who felt similar to myself \u2013 who felt that they didn\u2019t belong, or had different experiences to their friends or counterparts. People felt there wasn\u2019t enough space for their cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making space for everyone<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Jemima successfully ran to become the <\/span>Reading Students\u2019 Union<\/a> Inclusion and Communities Officer for 2022-2023. In this role, Jemima focused on awareness-raising around the current issues at the time, with a focus on improving the sense of community and belonging amongst the students.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI spent a lot of the time looking at our societies and figuring out how we could make sure that everyone felt they deserved to be there and how to recognise when societies weren\u2019t promoting an inclusive environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was challenging because you can\u2019t control everything and you can\u2019t always be there for every situation. It was also about recognising the barriers and the challenges students and staff faced in standing up when they witnessed a problem \u2013 not everyone will always feel comfortable pulling people up. I\u2019d say that active bystander training is perhaps the most important training for everyone in society to undertake.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the pleasure of working with so many staff in the University who felt the same about these issues as myself, and who wanted to help and be better themselves. They were willing to put in the work to improve and change things.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThere are so many students at Reading who are passionate about making changes and sometimes people just need to be given a platform to use their voice. Having that platform to speak up is vital in the work towards achieving better diversity and inclusion. Being able to help provide that platform was my proudest achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jemima shared that her time and experiences at Reading really helped her in her career. She said: \u201cThe journey I went on and the things I learnt during my time there as a student and as the Inclusion and Communities Officer \u2013 I wouldn\u2019t have had that experience anywhere else.<\/p>\n

\u201cI left Reading knowing that despite my background, my sexuality and my skin colour, I was deserving of the opportunities to progress and have a successful career. I\u2019ll never forget my time at Reading and it will always have a special place in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find out more about active bystander training<\/a>, and discover the University of Reading\u2019s programme of events to celebrate Black History Month<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Graduate, Jemima McKenzie, speaks to CONNECTED about what Black History Month means to her, the challenges she has faced and how she worked to overcome them at Reading. Jemima, an ethics, value and philosophy graduate, now works as an Employment Advisor for Reed in Partnership \u2013 although she is currently subcontracted to the Department for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":13654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[115,70,120,99,192],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Journey Of Acceptance - Connected<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Graduate, Jemima McKenzie, speaks to CONNECTED about the challenges she has faced and how she worked to overcome them at Reading.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2024\/10\/01\/a-journey-of-acceptance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Journey Of Acceptance - 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