Rapper AJ Tracey has announced a fund for Black students at Oxford University, which aims to address ‘historic underrepresentation’ at the institution.
The criteria is ‘pretty vague’ as Tracey doesn’t want to limit who the fund is going to help. However, the desired outcome is clear: to help minority ethnic students through their time at Oxford.
Tracey is hoping the fund will inspire young people to think they ‘have the right to want to go [to Oxford]’ and wants to tackle the issue of ‘really, really bright’ pupils thinking that kind of ‘upper echelon is blocked for them.’
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‘The whole country is catered towards white people’
The rapper’s decision to set up the fund stemmed from his own experience with education. He told The Guardian: ‘I truly believe that I had the potential to go [to Oxford or Cambridge], but it was just understood that if you’re from an impoverished upbringing or ethnic background it’s very hard to get in.’
He explained that even for intelligent pupils, attending an institution such as Oxford ‘just feels out of reach.’
For the first three years of the fund, Tracey will donate £40,000 a year, and after that it will be reviewed.
Fellow musician Stormzy set out on a similar venture in 2018, when he announced that he would be funding scholarships for Black students at Cambridge University. He received mixed reactions, while many people praised the rapper for his philanthropy, others branded him ‘anti-white.’
Tracey is not concerned about facing this potential backlash, and said: ‘I think, in general, for anyone who doesn’t understand why Black people who have managed to become successful want to help Black kids, it should be self-explanatory.
‘The whole country is catered towards white people and we’re just trying to level the playing field by helping Black kids.’
For Tracey, success with the fund could be as small as the current students ‘saying that their time [at Oxford] was a lot easier.’ However, he is optimistic, and ‘genuinely; believes one of the pupils supported by the fund could become a future prime minister.
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