Sikh separatist demands for a homeland have become widely known since the murder of one and bid to kill another in North America. Sun Yat-sen’s kidnap in London did the same for Chinese revolutionaries.
One of Britain’s most renowned medical institutions is grappling with its colonial history and the effects of racism and inequality on its culture today. In the first of a two part series Mun-Keat Looi asks whether its efforts on decolonisation are enough
In 2019 the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) put itself under interrogation. The school, at the forefront of global health with a leading role in treatments for Ebola, malaria, and HIV, commissioned a two year independent review of structural racism at its heart.1
Completed in 2021, the review found that the university’s culture and practices “still too often disadvantage people of colour” and that its curriculum remained “Eurocentric.” Staff and students from minority groups felt “unsupported” when experiencing or trying to tackle racist behaviours, and they were found not to have “equitable experiences or opportunities to progress at LSHTM.” Discriminatory behaviour by senior staff went un