Diversity schemes for young people - mixed race child.

[Florencesndzebedee]

I have a dc who is currently an undergraduate. I am mixed race, my dh is white. Dc is fair skinned but, through my heritage, also has black heritage (my dad is from the Caribbean).

The landscape is tough at the moment getting work placements/internships but some of these schemes are open to dc of black heritage only. My dc is reluctant to apply as he said he’d feel like a fraud, purely on looks - he looks like he might be Spanish or Greek but has blue eyes. The criteria are quite vague other than under represented people )within the organisation) of black/african /Caribbean heritage. I feel like he is entitled to apply and these schemes would give him more options.

Does anyone have any experience of these particular schemes or how they select?

blackmumsnetters for example states it a lot

Why do you spend so much time on black MN. Are you black or is it a niche interest?

I don't comment on there. I understand that would be disrespectful. But It's useful to increase awareness of current issues. That's actually how I learnt that it was not ok to use proximity to blackness as a way of claiming better insight. I just don't need to shout about it and I still don't believe in positive discrimination. But repeating myself, I'm not racist. I enjoy learning things to help the cause. I'm just not part of the shouty brigade.

Also I never claimed to spend a lot of time on there. That'd be odd. you said that.

You've been referring to the two black ladies you know since page 4 (if not sooner, I'm not sure since so much has been deleted). They've been pretty central to your argument since the start. Perhaps you should take your own advice...

How is that relevant?

I know hundreds (literally) of black people !!! We don't all live and work in a "white" place !?

My illustrated example was to illustrate.... Black people are just... people. and that's how I judge them. As people.

I never once pulled examples of people I knew to back up a point that "I can speak for black matters that affect black people because I know black people "

It's you and others on here doing that.

You've been using your proximity to blackness since the start. You can't berate other people for expanding on the basis of their opinion or strength of feeling, when you've been doing it all along. You're such a hypocrite. It isn't different when you do it just because you say so.

For @Digdongdoo you can't have read this.

Read it again.

I have never used my proximity to black people to preach for what issues affect them and how. Again: me telling you how i treat people (based on their personality and conduct) is in no way me using proximity to blackness to tell them how they feel and what I think is best for them.

There are many many White people on this thread suggesting rather vehemently and passionately why we need positive discrimination. There isn't many black voices unfortunately on this thread. But one person who is not white that posted on the last page, funnily enough, posted to the contrary.

I personally do not feel positive discrimination is beneficial and is an ill thought out idea. That is my thoughts. And not once have I grabbed a black person out of my life to give examples of it.

My examples were of how i treat and judge people- including black people!!

I think you may need to read how proximity to blackness is used and the context.

No, sorry. You've been doing the exact same thing you tell other people off for. You are using (very vague) proximity to black people as justification for dismissing racism and inequality.
I do not, and have never claimed to speak for or represent anyone. I am an individual speaking to other individuals.
"And not once have I grabbed a black person out of my life to give examples of it." - yes you have, several times. You called them Sharon and Yvonne . We even know their names. I think you need to spend some time reflecting and rereading your own posts honestly.

Example of using proximity to blackness:

Woman (who is black) : "I've heard that there is a fair bit of overt racism in Village x - can any fellow black mums confirm or deny ?"

Poster (who is white ): "I'm not black. But my DH is Ghanan and I have two mixed race DS's : I can confirm Village X is absolutely lovely and we've never felt racist vibes "

OP: "with all due respect, you're not black, so perhaps you are not aware "

that is an example of using your proximity to blackness.

I have done no such thing

@Digdongdoo see my post above and stop chewing the bone you've got in your mouth. You're now starting to make yourself look a bit silly.

Ps I assume you've never heard of pseudonyms : aka Sharon and Yvonne . I'm starting to think you're hard of thinking.

I'd just stop it now.

If you stop digging yourself in a hole (made worse that I'm having to explain what proximity to blackness is to you- when you're the one with a black /mixed family) and I'd be happy to stop the back and forth conversation you're continually trying to revive and "win"

Yeah thanks I can read. Still not seeing it's different when you with Sharon and Yvonne. But whatever. The existence of people like you is why these schemes matter.

Wow.....

"People like me " people who believe individuals should be judged on merit and personality, skill, experience, not what 'code' they cross in the data collection box?

I think it's people like you why the schemes are a really bad idea. Judgement based on how black you are , not how good you are. How terribly patronising and short sighted.

Anyway, I'll take that as a door slam and a flounce...

Oh wow - what an absolute shit show. I'm not surprised op bowed out pages & pages ago.

These threads always seem to end the same - white women arguing about who's racist, or who's the most racist.

Aren't you all exhausted....🙄🙄🙄 It's pretty exhausting for the rest of us reading it.

How do you know what colour every poster is @GypsyQueeen ? (By the way are you of Gyosy heritage? If not why are you doing cultural appropriation 🧐)

I was referring to the last couple of posters. And no, I'm not of Gyosy heritage.

I can't even...🤭😂😂😂
You people are wild 😅😅😅

Learn to spell before you address me again.

I wasn't calling anybody racist.

The previous poster was like a dog with a bone and I felt my replies were fair and addressed her accusations.

If someone tags someone (especially with defamatory accusations) I have the right of replying surely.

Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it @GypsyQueeen.

There’s a difference between a typo and a spelling mistake btw. Eg “queeen” 🤩

It's always interesting to me to see who gets a lot of these kinds of special places reserved for certain minorities. Occasionally it is someone who is really from a deprived background. A lot of the time it is from someone very privileged.

I once saw an interesting interview with a guy about diversity initiatives in his sector. It was a very upper middle class dominated sector, lots of the people there went to very exclusive private schools. What was interesting was that he said when you looked at the non-white people in the field, they were actually even more privileged class wise, from very wealthy prestigious families with expensive educations.

idon't really see why it wouldn't make more sense, if we must have special places, to give them to people entirely on the basis of class. What does it matter if you are black or white if you grew up in some shit-hole with bad shoes and bad schools? You need the help. But does a kid from a comfortable middle class home with piano lessons and holidays abroad and a great education, just because he isn't white, really need that leg up?

I think it's more of a cynical attempt to boost stats rather than a real desire to give opportunities to those who might have less access to them.

If I can't take what? Someone coming onto a thread demanding to know my ethnicity?

You've shown yourself to be rather ignorant.

You assumed it was white women discussing things on this thread. You literally assumed people’s ethnicity - with quite some pomposity to boot. I made a joke about your username. And then you called me “ignorant” for calling you out. Do keep up!

I was referring to 2 particular white women. I knew they were white from the discussion they were having. And how they had derailed the thread (and how this is not unusual on here).

I did not assume everyone on this thread was white. That would be ridiculous. Especially given the op who started the thread.

I called you ignorant for feeling the need to 'joke' about a Romani woman's username & demanding to know my ethnicity.

Do keep up.

And I'm not sure what exactly it is you think you "called me out for".....

OMG is there someone actually recommending reading this abhorrent literature. Robin Diangelo was shown for the absolute fraud she is and was laughing stock for the entire USA after she was exposed in the box office hit film 'Am I Racist' directed by Matt Walsh.

Part of the book tells people they're racist if they smile too much at black people I the street. If this book was published 20 years it would have been obvious to everyone that the author was a quack. Why we're devolving into this lunacy now is disturbing to say the least.

It's obvious on this thread there is a clear distinction between who 'thinks' they're informed as they've absorbed the mainstream narrative and accepted what has been fed to them, and those who are actually informed, who havent accepted the narrative without checking the facts from both sides and then used critical thinking to reach a more logical, informed understanding, closer to the actual truth and reality.

We live a wonderful country that probably amongst the least racist and most accepting, diversive country on the planet. It's strange that everybody wants to come here if it's such a racist place. I believe those who claim racism on behalf of others are amongst the most narcissistic people in our society and it's used as a tool in an increasingly online world where only people's words rather than their actions are the first or only thing seen by others. Racism is their 'action' to signal to other people how much of a good person they are. Like a "look at me, I don't like bad people". Unfortunately the are either to young or naive to realise that being a good person starts with a whole lot less "look at me". Racism for the most part and for all intents and purposes ended in the 90's. No one I knew even considered it. If someone was black, they were just black, you noticed it but there werent the kind of societal layers and blankets over them like there is today due to all the reverse victimisation by the political left.

This 'proximity to blackness' sound like another nonsense buzzword thought up by the political left as another cog in their propaganda wheel of nonsense.

I do not need to be black to notice the presence or absence of racism.

My husband is acutely aware, certainly as much as I am if there are instances of misogyny occuring.

One doesn't have to be the colour of a particular group to notice discrimination towards that group. That's absolute bullshit, it's called an making an argument from authority. Complete nonsense.

Thanks for this and apologies for the late response, I’ve had issues with connectivity whilst working away. I work in an area where anti racism and decolonisation is at the forefront of what we do, so I will certainly think about the view you’ve expressed, particularly your last comment about racism being over as it’s not been the experience of people I work with, or for that matter, my neighbours.