Student union tour of chicken shops runs foul of racist charge

IT WAS meant to be a tour of local eateries, designed to introduce new students to the popular fried chicken shops of south London.

However, organisers of Goldsmiths, University of London’s “Chicken Run” event, which was part of the freshers’ week entertainment programme, have been accused of racism and mocking local working class culture.

One student, Che Scott-heron Newton, the daughter of the late American jazz poet Gil Scott-heron, led the criticism, calling the chicken shop tour a “gross exotification of local workingclass culture”.

“My point is that I felt that a poorer area of London’s culture was being mocked by this tour,” she told The Daily Telegraph. She said that she had complained to university staff.

In a letter to her lecturer, she wrote: “Today I became aware that the student union is offering ‘chicken shop tours’ and I can honestly say that this is one of the most pretentious messes that I have ever seen in my entire life.

“I am beyond disgusted and appalled that the student union would think [this is] appropriate.”

Billie Paul, a third-year politics and sociology student at Goldsmiths, added: “I think it’s patronising and voyeuristic to parade a mainly middle -class audience around, especially when our presence as a university already gentrifies the area as it is.”

The event, which was organised by the university’s student union, took place on Monday night. Around 50 students were taken on a tour around different chicken shops in New Cross, south-east London, with a stop for tasters at each one.

The union’s website had promised to take students to various eateries, including PFC [Perfect Fried Chicken], Morleys, Gateway and Chick Chicken.

Employees at chicken shops that were part of the student tour told The Telegraph that they were bemused by the students’ outcry over racism.

Nadi Jafany, 34, who works at Gateway, said: “When [students] come here for food, they enjoy it. It is good for business.”

Asim Anwar, 32, an employee at Chick Chicken, was also confused about the furore, and added that the shop always welcomes students.

“They are our main customers,” he said. “They are very good for us, we are [happy] to have more students. They come in, get the food and leave, they don’t cause any trouble.”

A spokesman for the Goldsmiths Students’ Union said the event had been created in response to “gentrification in the local area and wider London”.

The event was aimed at “encouraging students to engage with and support the local community and local businesses”.