You Called Our Food ‘Smelly’ — Then Mocked Our Need for Safe Spaces: Racism in York NHS. York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, we see you

Mocking Safe Spaces While Policing Our Culture: Racism in NHS York

Can you believe it? This HCA is taking the NHS to an Employment Tribunal

The voice in the video is that of a white Healthcare Assistant (HCA) at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

This is not a senior manager. She is not an executive. But her words represent a much wider problem when racism isn’t just tolerated by leadership, it trickles down and emboldens everyday staff to mock, minimise, and challenge even the existence of safe spaces for people of colour. Her remarks were made publicly, confidently, and without hesitation because in the culture of NHS York, she felt safe enough to say them out loud.

This isn’t just about a HCA. It’s about the environment that made her feel protected while mocking anti-racism work. It’s about the leadership that remains silent when staff of colour are publicly dehumanised, but finds its voice to defend those who uphold the status quo.

While she was flabbergasted by safe spaces, this was hanging on a wall inside York Hospital

Racism Laminated

This sign wasn’t a mistake. It was printed, laminated, and displayed in a public NHS space singling out South Asian food as “very smelly.” That’s not just offensive - it’s racist. And it tells us exactly why Black and Asian staff do need safe spaces: because the environments we work in are still not safe.

York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, we see you.

A sign in your hospital library banned all food but made extra sure to name samosas, pakoras, and filled chapatis, labelling them as “very smelly.”Let that sink in.

This wasn’t just about food policy. This was a public, institutional insult to South Asian staff and patients. A clear message: your culture is unwelcome here.

It’s not the first time racism at York NHS has shown itself but this one was written down, laminated, and proudly displayed. Not “accidental.” Not a slip of the tongue. It was planned, printed, and put up in a hospital.

Now, as if to confirm just how unsafe and hostile the culture really is for Black and Asian staff, one of the Trust’s own speakers (The white HCA) was filmed mocking a BAME-only leadership programme. In the clip, she says:

“Apparently, they need a safe space away from their non-BAME colleagues to be comfortable. I was just flabbergasted. I just thought, this cannot be right.”

Let's be clear - This is white privilege speaking

This is what it looks like when those with power, comfort, and representation feel threatened by even the tiniest shift toward equity.

What she calls “segregation” is in fact reparation a small, voluntary programme designed to uplift those who have long been left out. What she calls “wrong” is actually necessary.

Because when your staff are subjected to signs mocking their food, their culture, and by extension their identity, they do need a safe space. They need it to survive the violence of systemic racism within the National Health Service. They need it to develop leadership free from judgement, exclusion, or erasure.They need it because NHS York has shown time and again that it does not see them as equals.

Ask yourself

Would such a sign have ever said, “no cheese and onion crisps or no Fish and chips they’re smelly”? Would a training course just for white staff be labelled a “safe space”?

No — because whiteness is never questioned. It is centred, protected, and privileged.

We’re Naming It

York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust the speaker in that video is a Healthcare Assistant working under your name. She spoke with full confidence, on record, mocking the idea that Black and Asian staff need safe spaces to learn and lead. She dismissed their lived experiences, rejected their right to feel safe, and questioned their ability to lead diverse teams all because they dared to ask for a space that centred their voice, not hers.

She is not a manager. She is not part of senior leadership. But that’s exactly what makes this so dangerous. Her comments show that the problem runs deep into the culture where everyday staff feel emboldened to undermine anti-racism work, because they’ve been protected by silence.

This isn’t just about one voice. It’s about the environment you’ve allowed to grow and one where Black and Brown professionals are treated as outsiders, over-scrutinised, and denied space to grow without white surveillance.

So now, we’re asking you:

• What action have you taken in response to the HCA's comments?

• How are you educating your staff about the difference between equity and exclusion?

• What does your anti-racism training actually include and is it working?

• How are you protecting the staff of colour who were targeted by her words?

  
  

An apology isn’t enough. We want accountability. We want change.

To our Black and Asian colleagues

You are not “too smelly.”You are not “too sensitive.”You are not “the problem.”You are the future of healthcare and you deserve space, safety, and leadership.

Let’s stop calling racism “a mistake.”

Let’s call it what it is: a pattern and one that must end now.