Oh Equity - Lawrence Fox... what happened next....

[Lordfrontpaw]

Equity apologises to Laurence Fox, and its Race Equality Committee resigns.

Tweet:

'On 17 January a series of tweets were posted by the @EquityMEM Twitter account about Laurence Fox's appearance on BBC Question Time. We are sorry that in the tweets he was called a 'disgrace' by Equity. Please read Equity's full statement. 'equity.org.uk/news/2020/march/laurence-fox/

Laurence Fox is a priviliged twat who doesn't know how lucky he is. But all priviliged twats, many of whom are Equity members, have the right to Freedom of Expression.

equity.org.uk/news/2020/march/laurence-fox/

I rather like him. But I appreciate anyone who stands up to the woke stasi.

Is this another example of an organisation letting the Red Guards its inexperienced social media team work without adequate supervision from more senior colleagues?

Then this happened:

twitter.com/EquityREC/status/1238390859135168512

A surprising incidence of awareness.

Wait, they skipped the write-a-letter-to-be-‘seen by the Guardian’ step?

Shoddy.

I'm not a big fan of Lawrence Fox, I think he's one of those people who (thanks to his public school affectations) sounds a lot smarter than he is. However, this really does set a precedent that organisations cannot go around slurring and smearing other people (especially people they're supposed to represent!) with impunity. I hope this acts as a warning to all the other self-righteous SJWs running these "committees".

Whatever you think of him (I’m not a fan but I don’t dislike him) - for a part of the union to go off and do this without checking with anyone or permission is pretty rotten.

They seemed to think that they had absolute power that trumps guidelines or good practice - no permission necessary. Can you imagine any other internal committee/group (that isn’t the C-suite or PR) running off and publicly doing this?

Wow, that twitter response is interesting. There are a lot of people there who think that the whole equity board is an inherently racist idea.

I'm not a big fan of Lawrence Fox, I think he's one of those people who (thanks to his public school affectations) sounds a lot smarter than he is.

Christ, that's harsh. You must think he's really thick :-)

However, this really does set a precedent that organisations cannot go around slurring and smearing other people

Sadly, I bet it doesn't. This weird thing of every public and private organisation feeling the need to virtue signal and jump on bandwagons is endemic. Most people don't have the resources LF has to force an appology.

I see that all members of Equity’s recently renamed Race Equality Committee (formerly the Equity Minority Ethnic Members Committee) felt they had no choice but to resign over the apology.

I love this response.
.Mortimer@amysteron
Replying to
@EquityREC
and
@EquityUK

I can't reach your server at the moment to read any of this. Have you, perchance, no-platformed yourselves in one, last, flamboyant, act of irrationality?

People aren't holding back are they on that twitter thread?

Brilliant!

I'm glad that Lawrence has won this but reading that Twitter thread you can see that he is part of a dangerous backlash against identity politics. I'm no fan of identity politics (if I read another diatribe about the oppression of a millionaire actress royal family member I will scream) but, of course, class/sex/race factors greatly in the way we're treated by society. Unfortunately the stupidity and extremism of both factions (e.g. Mr Fox vs. the Equity Race Committee) is removing any space for nuance. Meanwhile the wokerati are too stupid to realise that flouncing out and shouting no debate is the main reason the backlash is gaining momentum. You cannot win the argument if you refuse to take part.

What were the original tweets? They've gone now.

Nothing in Equity's later statement was intended as a slur on his character or views or to suggest that he should be denied the ability to work. We would like to make that clear.

What the hell did they say?

a dangerous backlash against identity politics

No - it is identity politics.

It's naïve to think that the knuckledraggers among us won't assert their own identity, just as all manner of other groups are busily being encouraged to do.

I assume Fox is/ was a member of Equity. That means he would reasonably be entitled to expect them to support him if someone called for him to be denied the opportunity to work due to his beliefs. So I think it would be a rather unpleasant shock to find that they are the people calling for him to be denied that opportunity (without even consulting anyone). Whatever his beliefs are.

Do we really want to start making people in the arts all sign up to the same belief system - a sort of McCarthyism?

but reading that Twitter thread you can see that he is part of a dangerous backlash against identity politics. I'm no fan of identity politics (if I read another diatribe about the oppression of a millionaire actress royal family member I will scream)

Identity politics is dangerous- I'm glad there is a backlash.

I see that all members of Equity’s recently renamed Race Equality Committee (formerly the Equity Minority Ethnic Members Committee) felt they had no choice but to resign over the apology.

This is how idiotic things are getting.

Equity posted a series of tweets suggesting that Laurence Fox should be blackballed and including possible defamation about his QT comments. Laurence Fox got lawyers involved and Equity's lawyers clearly thought it was better for them to settle than to defend the tweets in court. Equity then wrote an apology-come-joint statement agreed with Fox and his lawyers.

And this sub-committee resigned over this? What did they want to happen? Equity to go to court and, very possibly, lose? Wasting their subs on very expensive, probably unwinnable, court cases?

I think Fox is funny sometimes and an utter wanker other times. I think his analysis of racism is a mile wide and an inch deep (I think IDpol is similarly shallow but in the other direction because it fails at class analysis). But he's allowed to express his opinion on QT. It's a political debate show FFS.

Unfortunately the stupidity and extremism of both factions (e.g. Mr Fox vs. the Equity Race Committee)
Fox isn't an extremist. He disagreed with a member of the audience who from his perspective insulted him. I have totally had it with identity politics, all it does is dehumanize everyone. Suggesting someone shouldn't be employed most certainly is discrimination and a kind of violence. It has to stop because it will not end well for anyone.

What did they want to happen?

To me "What do they want?" is a key question when it comes to many of the activist movements, whether it's The Woke, Antifa, trans activists, etc. I watched Benjamin Boyce's series on Evergreen College and the thing that continually leapt out is the incoherence of the demands. Eventually I realised that the shifting kaleidoscope of demands basically boiled down to the right to identify targets, to attack them in whatever way suited, without repercussion, while the target had no right to defend (indeeed the target defending is "violence").

Call 1: What do we want?
Response 1: We can't articulate it!
Call 2: When do we want it?
Response 2: As soon as we demand whatever it is!

Apparently he's not a member of Equity.

There was a recent article in the Grauniad by Ellie Mae O'Hagan about how the liberal consensus that had existed since the 90s was now under threat from anti-woke types.

But I don't remember anyone talking 'woke' back then or even in the 2000s. The reaction is against a new thing: the idea that we're all tainted by inherent bias - a new form of original sin that we must pluck out by the roots.

The woke/SJW phenomenon is an import from the States. It's rooted in America's appalling history.
liberal consensus that had existed since the 90s was now under threat from anti-woke types. I think it's the other way round. The arts has become dominated by this thinking, books are not bring published, authors attacked by other authors. Free Speech is being strangled, whatever this is it's not liberal.

It's "progressive"- a term that has been replacing "liberal" over the last few years.