hi my name is Latifah and I study English literature and Japanese and I'm
a first year student and my accommodation is B. C. it's next
to St David's station Oh dayum I never heard of that I know that's why I always
say I live in st. davids that's what people call it a it's actually called
B.C. in general I really love I love it Exeter like it's really small
and you get a better sense of community because I'm from London and in London
even though I'm from East London there's parts of London I have never seen before
it's just daunting so coming to exeter I think it's a change of
environment and you get to know like you bump into people all the time and
that's why I really enjoy also the nature like it's always
beautiful if it's raining it's beautiful if it's sunny it's beautiful so that's
my general view the thing I noticed the most that kind of bothered me at the
start I've got used to do it now is the lack of diversity like coming from East
London it's just it's kind of I'm more aware of the fact that I stand out but I
don't see that as a bad thing also because lots of people ask me different
questions and get to know where I'm from and like my religion and all kind of different things
about myself so if you're like worried about you know standing out in that way
don't worry it won't it will affect you the first like week or so but after a
while everyone's pleasant so yeah actually that's the topic that a lot of
the people who comment on my videos ask about personally I'm a Muslim and in terms of
my ethnicity I'm half Somali half Jamaican I'm from East London so all my
friends most of them all are from like South Asia so India Pakistan and
Bangladesh in general that's just been my bubble my whole life so I think
most of my friends actually stayed in London noticed thing why would you go
somewhere like that like you know you're going to stand out and especially with
all of the negativity on the news about like being a Muslim or
what Islam stands for it's like even more daunting
But what made me take the leap is the fact that that's how the world is like
I am an ethnic minority even though in London I'm like the
majority I wanted to build on myself and go for like a journey so I thought to
come here I knew that I would be a minority I was ready for anything
like if people were to say something mean to me which hasn't happened by the
way I was ready to see like to deal with it and I was actually looking forward to
it because I think it's also a way of opening other people's eyes because if
you like an Asian person a black person or anyone don't come to these areas they
will never know they'll never get to meet someone like you so then if that's
another reason why I feel like I had a responsibility to let people know
because what was really interesting is coming here I'm actually so many people
told me you're like the first Muslim person I've ever met like properly and
like it surprises me but also it's in a good way I have bad way but it is a good
thing it's nothing else has happened to me but it's more people are curious so
they were ask me why do you wear the hijab for example I pray five times a
day so say I'm with my friends and say okay I'm going to pray now and then we
just open a conversation so I don't think if you take it the right way
and also if you can see if someone's being defensive so if someone like comes
up to you and says... you can tell if someone's asking you a question to
provoke something or if someone actually wants to know so if they are provoking
anything you just told them how you personally as a person you have nothing
against them and I just talked about the positivity and they don't realize that
there's no need to really like challenge you I would say I have been in
that situation once before especially with someone questioned me about Oh
Islam and homophobia and they just directly came to me and said oh I am a
part of the LGBTQ community and I heard that there's a line in the Quran that
says this I have no problem with that if you get any negativity show positivity
to them and now me and that person are actually quite good friends and meeting me
on a regular to talk about like my religion so I was just saying don't be
afraid and also coming here yours you're special because you're going to be like
educating so many different people
have you ever watched SKAM it's a you it's a it's a TV series this is scam scam
yeah yeah I've heard of it but it's like my friend or is it like Norwegian yeah
yeah and there's like a Muslim character Sana I'm sorry I'm obsessed is it that
good for me yes and also you watch it yeah like yeah yeah I think that either
you love it or you haven't watched it basically I think that's the thing and
for all the scam lovers out there I don't know what do you think I feel that
what you're doing is kind of what she's doing because she's just showing love
and positivity and giving a really positive image to Islam more people like
you please have you ever had any kind of uncomfortable moments oh yeah okay a
couple like for example I'm Muslim but I am also black too yeah we I'm
doing English literature and we were studying (...) which was
written during like imperialism and like slavery so talking about the context and
every I'm the only kind of person in the class and it's just like this kind of
they're all I kind of looking at me to think oh like Latifah is gonna start
talking now you know first-hand experience I'm thinking I know I'm black
but it's just those moments I must say I'm quite awkward I would say at one
time I was walking with a friend and it was these guys that were quite drunk and
they said a comment but that was the only time that I remember that I
remember and also I kind of thought okay they're drunk but at the same time it doesn't
make it okay it doesn't make it okay no all all and those are the two
times but I was expecting much more like on a daily level even with locals no
one really says anything to me or questions anything but if you are in
those kind of situations I would say just don't react upon it well don't get
angry or don't do all these things because at the end of the day it's going
to happen inevitably um but I would say is like that's literally the only things
I can think of in comparison to all the good things that have happened as well
yeah so yeah don't let it get to you!
to all those people who are em Exeter is a choice that you have and
you're considering coming or not even that what you're considering going
outside of the city that you're in just think that is I think it's just a such a
rewarding experience like if I was in London now I wouldn't um I've just I
feel like my character wouldn't be this way I've changed a lot and most of my
friends are still scared of white people supposedly what they are going to do
when they don't necessarily do anything to you and also you you'll be really
surprised about how much some people know like on one good experience that
happened to me was oh yeah I was going I've got invited to have some barbecue
at there's like a Chinese place and obviously as a Muslim I can only Halal
meat so I explained that and then behind my back the guy he actually went to the
place and said to them oh can my friend bring her own meat to like
because what you do is you like fry it yourself and kind of my friend bring her
own meat cook here and they said yeah you can have a discount and everything
and then he came to me and told me that so like some people actually went out of
their way to include me in different things so I think that was really good
That's insane! yeah it was also during freshers week as well so Wow you never know
and like now we're really close friends I meet up with oh yeah Islamic society
Islamic society is great like if you I always tell there's people
here that in London like although I had lot of Muslim friends it was just like
because everyone's Muslim is like whatever but because we're a small community
we're much closer and there's a lot of events that like you could do with them
and it's really fun then we I meet them like regularly and we're all from different um
like year groups and we do events like charity week or selling cakes and stuff
and by doing these kind of events also helps us to speak to people because oh
oh yeah and there's another thing I just remembered: we were doing charity
week and it was the open day and there was a mother and her son that were there and
then she was just talking to me and she was like what charity are
you and I said we are Islamic relief and surprisingly she said that in her town
there was like a massive flood and Islamic Relief were the only charity that
actually came and that changed her whole view of Islam and like it surprised me I
was thinking wow like you never know like that was a really pleasant to hear
and she was so happy she gave like 10 pounds so every day different things
happen and I feel like also people are much more because it's a small time you
could talk to anybody on the street and like things like that but in London it's
not like at all that but as a Muslim it's good it's good here how's the integration oh
first of all two of my flatmates are white yeah I lived with them
and also I do English literature so there's like 300 of us and
only six people of color so I have still have friends within the English
literature group and I meet up with them and also within English we do lots of
stuff like this (...) theory so there's race and culture and
feminism like these things we have like discussion so through that I've met
people who like like became friends with me and would ask questions and even
stuff some of the literature we do is kind of relevant to me so people will
come and be like oh you know I have something to do with Iran and do
you know anything about and I was thinking blah blah so it kind of... I
wouldn't feel isolated even though like literally other than six people everyone
else is white people are still on the course I have lots of friends that I
study with on a regular basis and in general at first I would say that the
topic of religion came up a lot when people first met me and it was kind of
annoying but it made me realize how much I didn't know! Like there were so many
questions they were asking I'm like I don't know I don't know so I started to
like research more but after the introductory period you're
just a normal person like they they're curious at first or ask you questions but
don't think that's it you're just the educator of Islam that's your
purpose in their friendship group like after they understand
you and like they won't say anything when I say oh I'm gonna go pray now or after
they understand the small things I just you know I go to town with them and
different events and actually I'm going to watch a film with two people tonight
in the campus cinema so it's just normal so yeah