Language is important

The term ‘Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic’ or ‘BAME’ has been used to categorise people within the community. This term has been used in organisational settings, such as Your Students’ Union, to describe a wide range of different groups as one across the Coventry University Group.

The term ‘BAME’ is increasingly being seen to marginalise and not empower these communities. This is problematic and not reflective within a global context with these communities being the global majority rather than the minority. Therefore, many of our students no longer identify with this term.

We understand that it is important for people to choose what they want to be known as. While we are currently using ‘global majority’ we want to encourage the community to be known by a term that the community feels reflects them.

Your Global Majority Student Community

Your new community for global majority students is now up and running, at the Students’ Union, with a dedicated space on the website. You can find out more about the community, related societies, and join the community.

We are currently looking for your Global Majority Community Engagement Lead and you can find out more about the role and how to apply here. We actively encourage those who would be interested to lead the community and conversation on the language and terms to apply.

What does Global Majority mean?

Global Majority was coined by Rosemary Campbell-Stephens to refer to people who are Black, African, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and people who have been racialised as "ethnic minorities."

Currently, these groups represent approximately 80% of the world's population and are the global majority. Language is incredibly important in Equality, Diversity & Inclusion work, and therefore, changing from BAME to Global Majority moves the conversation away from the margins to the centre.

Further Reading:

Below are some articles if you would like to further your understanding on the term ‘Global Majority’.

• Global Majority: we need to talk about labels such as ‘BAME’ (LinkedIn Article)
• Global Majority Decolonising Narratives (Research Paper)
• A London council has dropped the term BAME from communications as part of a drive to be more inclusive (News Article)
• Definition of Global Majority (Cambridge Dictionary)
• Not 'ethnic minority', try Global Majority (Blog Post)
• I’m Embracing the Term ‘People of the Global Majority (Blog Post)
• We are not visible minorities; we are the global majority (News Article)