To think Nihal Arthanayake is being ridiculous

[Sausagenbacon]

He lives in a country where the majority of the population is white, but says it has mental health problems from a workplace which is mainly, yes, white. However does he deal with everyday life?
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/bbc-diveristy-nihal-arthanayake-radio-5-journalism-diversity-fund-b1123658.html

This is so true.

If you don’t understand why seeing a lack of diversity and representation is more upsetting to POC than white people, you’re either extremely unaware or being obtuse.

People hire people like them - whether it’s looks, sex or socioeconomic background. The point of conferences like these are to challenge that and offer increased opportunity to people from underrepresented groups.

He said the lack of diversity was affecting his mental health, not that "working with white people was giving him mental health problems"
As someone who is very very frequently the only woman in the room I sympathise. Its exhausting to be "representing" a viewpoint that should be unremarkable.

And I still don't see the problem with someone talking about their own perception of their workplace

I used to quite like him, but as a PP said, he's become increasingly obseqious towards his guests which started to annoy me. Then he had an interview with another man (whose name escapes me) a few months back and they were both saying that women who ask for single sex spaces are transphobic. Turned the radio off there & then & haven't listened to him since.

Can't really comment too much on one line from a speech he gave, but he must have known it would have been picked up on. It was, with the kindest of interpretations, clumsy at best.

@Reugny I do know about what people want to raise and why but I don’t have to agree with them.

Another racist thread on MN. What the fuck is wrong with this place at the moment?

@RosaGallica and @CurlewKate I have reported your Islamophobic comment and additional slur to MN.

Another racist thread on MN. What the fuck is wrong with this place at the moment?
Perhaps you'd like to explain what exactly about it is racist?

@Sausagenbacon No, I'm not wasting my time explaining racism to you.

The BBC had 58% white ethnicity- hardly overwhelming

OK, fine.
Just love to know how you'd feel about a white person, brought up in Sri Lanka, and who had a prestigious, well-paying job there, if they complained that there weren't enough white people in their office.

Here is a link if you want to understand the frustration of some British ethnic minorities:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/30/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race

So my (hypothetical) example doesn't amount to racism?

Lol, my post was deleted for reporting what Nihal said. It's not an ethnic slur if I merely repeat the term, MN.

Anyway, Lawrence Fox and Tommy Robinson have leapt in to set Nihal right and show him the error of his ways. That will improve matters.

Nihal was exceptionally clumsy. That said, I have more or less given up talking to white people on race myself, and need to stop on MN too.

This is a ridiculous post that draws stupid parallels between very different things.

The BBC is a publically-funded body which has a duty under it's Charter to reflect the diversity of the country that pays for it. This is the situation that Nihal Arthanayake was reacting to. His claim is that the BBC in Salford is not reflecting that diversity.

(There is not the merest hint of a suggestion he is calling his colleagues racist. There is not the merest hint of a suggestion that he expects to see large numbers of Muslim people of colour around him at all times.)

A private business selling a product targeted at Muslims has no such diversity requirement. A fishing business in Shetland is likely to have a very different ethnic mix amongst its staff than a Chinese restaurant in Soho. Completely different situation to the BBC.

Me too.

Hear hear!

And anyone who thinks he is being ridiculous should remember that nearly 1 in 5 people in the Uk are not white. So he shouldn’t be walking into a newsroom and being the only person of colour. It’s shocking that can happen at the BBC.

These days you can be arrested for even thinking the 'word' white! What's the world coming to! Imagine if a white person said this! Just imagine!

Gosh that’s terrible, could you give a few examples of people who’ve been arrested for “thinking the word “white”.

Yes that was silly really. But how about addressing the second point made, the one about a white person saying such a thing?

It's not comparable to what Nihal Arthanayake said..or at least reported to have said.

The Standard have done a real hatchet job on this.

They have cherry picked certain quotes and given no context.

This was an interview.
When he said "It’s really affecting me that I walk in and all I see is white people.” - what question was he answering? In what context is it affecting him? Is he talking about work or some other situation? Was this a specific incident? What else did he say?

The truth is, we dont know because The Standard have not given any background or any other context for this comment.
You and others have jumped to the conclusion that he is complaining about working with white people or working with white people is affecting his mental health.
But he didn't say that - or at least that's not what the quote is saying.

I'll give you example, ive seen some posters on Mumsnet do this and you've probably seen it too:
You post on a thread, giving an.opinion on something. It's quite a complex thing and lots of nuance and you explain why your opinion is xyz.
Someone then comes along and picks out one little bit of what you said. They quotes only that one little bit, take it out of context, and then accuse you of saying something you didn't say.

It's bloody frustrating. They have taken a couple of words or one sentence from a well thought out opinion and out of context they have twisted it to mean something else.

Have you seen that?

I find this train of thought bemusing. The notion of 'imagine if a white person said it'. It's like a cartoon sketch where you see the character's thought bubble emerging slowly yet with certainty then it just vanishes like a puff of smoke followed by a blank stare.

Thing is many white people do say these things, indeed entire political landscapes have shifted based on white people saying these things, and increasingly other demographics hoping to get a crumb. It's the cognitive dissonance of the white people who do think these things but hesitate to air them openly. Therein lies the issue.

I enjoy the WFH threads, all the talk about how it's damaging for women, and all the talk about the benefits of a work/life balance. Pages and pages full of the benefits of WFH. WFH is truly a revelation for many PoC and it has absolutely zero to do with the ability to put on a wash between Teams meetings, nor popping out to collect the kids after school, and nothing to do with saving commuting time. All of that is nice but it doesn't even come 10,000 olympic sized swimming pools' length close to why WFH is amazing.

It seems like talking about ‘mental health’ has gone from one extreme to the other. From people never discussing it to most celebrities banging on about their own mental health constantly. Declaring that having to work with majority white colleagues being a mental health challenge is surely an exaggeration? If not, I’m surprised he has done as well as he has with such little resilience.

I do think that radio 5live has gone down hill over the last few years. Not Nihal particularly, but most of the presenters are not up to scratch.

I think there are maybe better "divisions" than Radio 2 to use as an example, because I think it's hirings probably aren't representative of the BBC norm.

A lot of Radio 2 presenters are people who were on Radio 1, before somebody decided they weren't young and cool enough any more! You'd expect their mix of diversities to be similar to Radio 1 15/20 years ago. Radio 2 doesn't tend to hire in many 'new' people.