We, the Chapel Project members are sad to read the comments published about the racist/ xenophobic incident that allegedly took place here while we hosted a cinema night. All of us are strong believers in inclusion and multiculturalism, despise those alleged remarks and are sad that the evening of some participants got spoiled by somebody?s misconduct. We?ve hosted a variety of events and workshops and this is the first incident of this kind we have heard of. We are all disgusted by it. Those making the remarks were not known to us, but following the incident, our doors are no longer opened to them. This is even more sad because the offender seemed to have a pathological background, and further exclusion is unlikely to help her. However, we need to protect our position and set a standard of what is acceptable and what is not. As a community space, a variety of public participates in the activities and events being organised. We expect community to be tolerant, polite and respectful, but we can?t control what people will say/ do at all times. We will act upon being informed, much alike employees in the cinema will react upon knowledge of misconduct by some spectators. Neither of Chapel Project members was witnessing this incident. Those witnessing it and not reacting were other community participants, but we the Chapel Project can not be held responsible for the inaction of the community. We think it?s quite likely that much of the audience, many of them not proficient in English, was not insensitive, but rather was confused about what was going on. We encourage and welcome those writing this feedback to participate in other events and check for themselves that this has been an isolated occurrence and not a feature of the Chapel Project.
