Structural racism at the University? MAU supports Black student

As association Model African Union Bayreuth e.V. we stand united behind Sade, whose case also moved us personally. Some of our association members were present during the court proceedings in Bayreuth in January and are therefore witnesses of the event. Send a signal that someone who feels discriminated against can speak openly about this without having to fear being prosecuted for this statement by supporting Sade financially!

Please find the link to the detailed version of the statement, our plea and the possibility to donate directly to MAU here!

We collect the donations for Sade, 21 years old, a student at the University of Bayreuth and daughter of a German mother and a Nigerian father. In a seminar at the University of Bayreuth in autumn 2018, Sade felt racially discriminated against and looked for help in various places at the university as a result. The white lecturer who held the above-mentioned seminar sued Sade in January 2020 at the Bayreuth Regional Court, where a settlement was reached. After we, as witnesses of the trial, were initially relieved that it at least did not turn out against the student, we were saddened to learn the settlement also means that Sade now has to pay about 800€ of legal fees to the lecturers’ lawyer. Yet the student simply did not want to accept the feeling of being racially discriminated against in the seminar.

Why do we want to collect the money for the lawyer's fees of the lecturer?

After more than a year the case finally ended up at the Bayreuth Regional Court, whose trial was attended by some of the MAU association members out of solidarity. However, nobody from the University of Bayreuth was present. Sade was sued there by her lecturer for omission and finally agreed to a settlement in which the court was left to decide on the costs of the lawsuit. The court decided that the lecturer should pay 1/3 [sic] and Sade 2/3 of the costs. In total, Sade now has to pay € 783.65 plus taxes to the lecturer's lawyer in the course of the decision of the Regional Court of Bayreuth to determine the costs. These costs burden the student not only financially, but certainly also psychologically.

All the information we publish in this campaign comes from the public court case, so details may not have been presented in their full detail. However, the fact that the case has ended up in court shows us once again that racist structures are widespread and could not be prevented even at the University of Bayreuth. On the contrary: The fact that Sade turned to various offices at the university served the claimant as additional material to proceed against Sade in court to accuse her of slander. We can only guess how Sade is doing psychologically after almost 2 years now that the incident in the seminar and the prosecution are keeping her occupied.