Everyone warned me before I went to Durham University that it was full of posh people. Everyone said to me that I wouldn’t like them. Everyone implied that it wouldn’t be easy. Turns out everyone was right. And here I am, just a girl, writing an article for you about the things posh people have said to me over the past two years.
It all began in freshers’ week 2018 when me, a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, innocent, state-schooled, Geordie girl, sat in a room full of white, posh, middle-class, mostly privately-educated southerners. From the moment I opened my mouth, it was ‘where are you from?’, ‘what did you say?’, ‘say that again’.
By the end of the week, it was incessant repetitions of them saying ‘book’, ‘cook’ and ‘hook’. This went on for about a month and a half. It was: ‘if you say book, why don’t you say look?’ Every time I opened my mouth it was non-stop picking.
At the time, I wasn’t bothered really. It was fine. I just thought it was normal. After all, I do speak differently.
Then after a while, when things started to become apparent that I was actually different altogether, I realised that it wasn’t fair at all. For starters, I go to Durham Uni. And I was made to feel like I was an alien in my own corner of the country. It’s not like I’d gone to Exeter. I went 30 minutes down the road.
But things got interesting when a few times I was called a ‘degenerate’ as a joke and ‘northern’ as one too. There was a comment once that we were all ‘feral’ in the North East. Again, when it was all said to me, I thought I was being stupid for feeling a bit uncomfortable. But if you look at all of this, I think it’s quite clear that these weren’t isolated incidents – especially as they were from two members of a group in particular, and were laughed at by all of the group.
It was only when I said once that ‘all you southerners come up here and take uni places in the north but always say it’s disgusting’ that one girl said to me: ‘Yeah, and all you northerners go down to London and take our jobs.’
At that moment, I realised I was talking to a bunch of strangers.
Then one of the boys said that there ‘must’ be more knife crime in Newcastle than London because it’s ‘rough’. I pulled up the statistics to challenge the statement which clearly shows London as the knife crime capital and I was told I must have been wrong.
Now, all of this pales in comparison with what I’m about to say next. I once met a privately-educated friend’s parents who took me and another northern friend out for dinner. Halfway through, their mother leaned across the table and asked me if I ‘struggled to read because books aren’t written the way [I] speak’. In all honesty, that moment felt surreal. For about ten minutes, she couldn’t get her head around the fact that I could read and write Standard English. All because I speak with a Geordie accent.
I think this particular incident is worsened by the fact that she had spent the day in Newcastle and, within five minutes of meeting me and being told where I am from, told me my hometown is a ‘sh*thole’ and she hated it.
So, that’s what posh people have said to me. What’s sad, I think, is that it was only after about a year that I realised what these people are: rude, obnoxious and disrespectful. For people who think that the North East is feral, they have no problem coming up here for uni, buying our cheap drinks and visiting our gorgeous coastline.
And for people who think Geordies are degenerates, they sure have been raised atrociously themselves.
Good for you queen gorgeous girl inside and out love your family ,if people can’t handle it , stuff them xxxx
Geordies rule, southerners always think they are better than everyone, guess what we live in gods country
beautiful read
How awful for you Lauren. Well done for staying with Durham and your course.
There a bunch of shit houses
I had an offer to go to Durham last year and I’m so glad I rejected it. On the Offer Holder day, I stayed at the college and was told my accent was too deep and that I couldn’t be local because people from Durham didn’t have Northern accents. It’s disturbing how this toxic, classist environment is just accepted by the University. They’re all talk about increasing the amount of working class students and yet barely acknowledge the social culture that exists within colleges and the University itself. Disgusting.
Just read an article in The Guardian about your report on the northern student experience at Durham. I am not a northerner, but rather a working-class southerner, and the perverse attitudes that you have in this article are exactly why I turned down my reduced offer to Durham.
Just read an article in The Guardian about your report on the northern student experience at Durham. I am not a northerner, but rather a working-class southerner, and the perverse attitudes that you have highlighted in this article are exactly why I turned down my reduced offer to Durham.
Disgusting. Our accents from all over England are the actual and natural English spoken language. We should be proud of our many accented language. It’s time to break up the system that produces people who despise us.
Time to challenge these snobs loud and clear, they obviously have a problem thinking straight with their inbred brains. Universities are failing on so many levels – contemptible. I live in London and it is clear there is a divide between those with degrees and those without, and I don’t mean brains, there is a lack of humility, gratitude for the opportunities given to them, that their ancestors did not have, and a arrogance that is so unwarranted.
I am a local and I worked in an academic post at Durham university in the late 1990s. I saw what you describe first hand. I will add that I did my first degree at another university full of public school boys and had no problem there at all even though I have a broad accent – it was great. There is something about Durham university that attracts these ignorant snobs – the students are fucking horrible.
You’re not alone Lauren, I’ve experienced similar as a post-doc researcher. There’s a copy of this in the comments section of the Newcastle Chronicle article covering your story.
For reasons I’ll not go into, I’ll remain anonymous. I’ve been careful not to name anyone or mention specific events.
I took up a research job at Durham University many years ago after completing a PhD at a “New University / ex-Polytechnic” (I’ll not name the place as this will be enough to identify me) and yes, I have a clear North East accent.
I was first welcomed after interview. But on starting I was talked about as though I wasn’t there, with me being described as a stop-gap measure. Another intimation was as my qualifications were “New University” they weren’t of the same standard.
I ended up interacting with more senior members of staff as little as possible. I made mistakes but feel many of those mistakes were avoidable had I been made more welcome & I’d been able to approach other staff members about procedure. Technicians & people with non-Southern accents were more approachable, so the way I spoke seemingly didn’t help, but neither did not coming from the “club” (i.e. an older University).
So, it’s not just students with the wrong background or accent that come a cropper.
It wasn’t just me & I was not alone. I heard that of 6 “New University” people making similar moves, 3 were told to leave unexpectedly for reasons unknown with money paid up to end of contracts . I saw my contract out but staying or them wanting me to stay was not an option. Only 1 saw out their contract normally & was able to go elsewhere.
I’d nearly decided not to take the job due to a story I’d heard about the temperament of my line manager (a senior academic), however, I’d decided that other incidents he might have been involved in were none of my business. I would just knuckle down, & concentrate on my job. How wrong I was & concentrating on my job given his & other people’s behaviour just wasn’t possible.
I’ll add I’m no snowflake noting other remarks. I can handle banter as well as the next person, football, workplace, etc. What I was at the receiving end of was not banter. It was some people not wanting me there because, as I have described, my face didn’t fit. Although I was not a student anymore, I understand exactly what students at Durham who “don’t fit in” will face. Another remark I heard of directed at the North East in general was it was not part of the country that mattered.
I posted the below link on the Chronicle article and noticed the link to here. It just seems anyone who is different is a target for mockery at Durham. I don’t know what’s the matter with students there.
In the story I’m providing a link for I found in a discussion on the behaviour you experienced on a Sunderland football forum (Ready to Go for reference), LGBT were targeted in a ZOOM meeting hijacked by bigots for the want of a better word.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-54648103