Diversity course at University of Kent

Thanks for the share token for The Times article.

A student who ticks all 13 gets a gold star, otherwise a button appears telling them to try the quiz again.

How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?

damn meant to say

and it comes from white people who simply do not have a clue that all white people are NOT as priviliged as them

why should any one else listen to their lectures?

This is racism against white people and is not helping anybody

and it comes from white people who simply do not have a clue that all white people are as priviliged as them..

I have worn second hand clothes all my life and noticed varying attitues. My nan called herself the jumble sale queen and prided herself on bargains for all the family. She even bought M&S stuff and took it back to the actual shop to exchange it for other stuff. She used to take us with her and we loved it too. It never worried me wearing that stuff but soon learned that some other kids took the piss. At university it became a cool thing to do. Now, have a relative who buys stuff on ebay for special occasions and then moves it on again, never wirhout a different outfit and costs almost nothing. There are all sorts of second hand clothes, some I would not wear, there also all kinds of attitudes rowards them and cannot easily be demarcated by the race of the user. I never knew being canny was a privilege. Why is it that those who are so bloody keen on diversity always want to impose their narrow views on everyone else?

I m sorry for the students going to Kent University. This is racism against white people and is not helping anybody. How can somebody possible think this is the right approach?
I would encourage the defunding of these universities from taxpayers money if they get any.

DD is at Kent atm, she's going to investigate and report back. She'd heard something about the second hand clothes (I assume via Twitter) but nothing official so far

When I was on the dole in Hackney I had a part time bar job 2 nights a week ( I doubt they will extradite me for fraud after all this time) Anyway I got an old tweed jacket in the Oxfam shop - £5
You couldn't get cold in this thing even if it was a bit worn looking. But the landlady said she would sack me if I ever wore it again. A moral victory to me though and an example of my privilege.

Has anyone at the university challenged the author of all this? Or would that mean instant cancellation?

Author of what? I'd rather criticise something based on its actual content than because the Telegraph doesn't like it. It smacks of the tabloid hysteria whipped up claiming Baa Baa Black Sheep was being banned in schools or books featuring gay couples were made available on request to school libraries.

There is plenty of snake oil being sold in the field of diversity training, those statements don't look controversial to me.

How could you possibly tell if someone's clothes were second-hand or just old?

I wondered that.

Has anyone at the university challenged the author of all this? Or would that mean instant cancellation?

This is all getting a bit Cultural Revolution. How long before the gender Red Guards beat an academic to death for being a running dog of imperialism?

[quote Igneococcus]Times also covering it:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/79217884-206e-11ec-8cb7-e60ba8dbca61?shareToken=a22f6a0fdeb62408b255c8184fd68709[/quote]
I can't read the Telegraph links but have a Times account thanks. The Times article seems to be reporting on the Telegraph article rather than the course and doesn't seem to have a link to the course materials.

At the moment I can find lots of reports of "PC Gawn Maad" but no links to the actual materials under discussion beyond those stock examples which do reflect minority experiences.

Good to see Frank Furedi isn't on board with this shit.

I blame Tony Blair and the 50% target. This has been thoroughly colonised by the dim offspring of the well-off and sharp-elbowed for whom there must never be the downward mobility they so thoroughly deserve.

Times also covering it:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/79217884-206e-11ec-8cb7-e60ba8dbca61?shareToken=a22f6a0fdeb62408b255c8184fd68709

Will the students sit and nod wisely - or (as would have happened when I was a student) cackle,
Heckle, whoop and yell ‘aye an’ that’s a pile a shite!’?

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/27/wearing-second-hand-clothes-example-white-privilege/
However, it has sparked a backlash from professors, who told The Telegraph they are refusing to comply and branded it a “philistine” betrayal of academia’s core values.

“I’ve said I’m not going to do it (add trigger warnings or decolonise reading lists) and I'm not going to tell students to do this module either,” said Ellie Lee, a professor of family and parenting research at Kent, adding “quite a lot” of colleagues had followed suit.

Is there a link anywhere to the actual course materials for the full context?

The example statements on that page are stock examples of daily life experienced by minorities of the type you would find in any discussion about minority experience in the UK.

I can't access the Telegraph page but its track record is hardly impartial when reporting on minorities and/or WC people (and minorities in the UK are also more likely to be WC).

So, just musing on the dressing 'down' can be a sign of power and privilege, which others without said power and privilege would not be able to get away with.

I'm think of the males who 'identify' as a woman some days. They turn up at work in inappropriate and highly sexualised clothes that any woman would be reprimanded, and maybe sacked if persisting, for wearing at work. The male wearing them is given a free pass, and indeed photo spreads.

Sorry, virtually everything my child and I wear is second hand.

Mix of charity shops, jumble sales (sadly missed recently), hand me downs from friends and eBay purchases.

Mainly it’s because I earn a low wage and I like clothes. Children’s clothes can be expensive. A winter coat for £2.99 isn’t going to be passed up so I can hide my privilege, thanks.

But there’s also a move to make clothing more sustainable. Wear, donate, buy second hand. I agree with this, but it’s not my primary motivation.

I also like vintage clothing- I’d say they’re the only items you would know were second hand. Because of the age of them. Clearly I did not buy a 1960s mod dress at the time. I have a lot of my mum’s clothes.

The rest you would never know because it’s all Topshop, H&M, River Island etc that’s ended up in the charity shop.

I remember in the 90s (?) where all the broadsheets (I’m looking at you Guardian) were all over “Primani” for great cheap clothing, until it became obvious workers were often low paid and in poor conditions. But for a brief time some pretty privileged people were all about Primark and how awesome it was. Funnily enough when it was time to criticise it it wasn’t them that were wrong, but the skint women trying to clothe their kids and look nice themselves.

I think the second hand thing is moving that way. I can tell you the people I see in the charity shops are not wealthy, we are a poor town. We shop there for value. Not as a niche hobby that we can drop when the next cool thing comes along.

I totally agree with the "fuck this shit" comment.

It must be incredibly confusing for a young woman from a working class background to disseminate this. I just hope they reach the same conclusion - fuck this shit.

It also seems really poorly written, where is the evidence? Is this based on research or just opinion.