Diversity course at University of Kent

[andyoldlabour]

The university of Kent is introducing a mandatory 4 hour diversity course for students where it will be concentrating on topics such as White Privilege, Microaggressions and Pronouns.
Apparently seconhand clothes could be seen as an example of "white privilege".
"The course, titled Expect Respect and seen by The Telegraph, includes a white privilege quiz where participants are asked to pick which of 13 options are societal benefits allegedly enjoyed by white people in the UK.
If the student ticks all 13, a gold star is awarded, and if not, a button appears directing them to retry.
Staff have also been emailed by faculty managers to consider adding trigger warnings to exam papers, and carry out “pronoun checks, make a note of them and use them correctly” when meeting new students, such as they/them or ze/zir."

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/wearing-second-hand-clothes-an-example-of-white-privilege-students-told/ar-AAOSULh?ocid=mailsignout&li=AAnZ9Ug

I can bet the people who devised this have never worn second hand clothes in their life.

@SoManyQuestionsHere

Okay, so: I'm white! A white, professionally successful, functionally very upper-middle-class but from a very rural working class family woman, actually (and, yes, this all sort of matters):

Here's the thing about the diversity markers situation: SOME of this stuff is actually very valid. Such as, frivolous as it may seem, the "wearing 2nd hand and swearing" thing. You see, I don't sound rural working-class. That'll be because I won a scholarship to a naice school as a child and speak as though I could trace my family tree back to roughly around the 9th century. Which I most certainly can't. It's just that "oh, do fuck off, dear!" out of my mouth, spoken in clipped RP, comes across as a hard but surgical strike of a reprimand. This works neither for my British black working-class subordinate (taken as "uncultured") nor for my much more "cultured" (can actually trace his pedigree) but very German boss (taken as "2nd language speaker who hasn't quite grasped the nuances"). Same goes for dress codes, by the way: in the corporate world, you can turn up in basically anything, so long as you're the sort of person people will assume does it due to individuality or arrogance rather than not knowing any better. My "personal best" happens to be "yoga pants - for a contract negotiation". Underdressing is, genuinely, a way to posture and outwardly signal "power". If you are a person who already has significant power, that is! Nobody will invite you to a negotiation over millions without assuming you own plenty of suits - and you turning up looking casual is an effective way of saying "this is small-fry, I haven't even bothered to dress up for this" and hence: negotiating tactics.

Having said that, I generally tend to agree that it's all a bit silly - and I'm steadfastly refusing to do pronouns on the grounds that I happen to think it's all vapid virtue signalling. But, then again: privilege is real, I have it (except on sex) and that is precisely why I get away with it!

No harm in a little self-awareness here and there!

Ever thought you might be guilty of over-analysis?

All this bullshit seems to be the modern version of 'know your place' attitudes that have traditionally riddled British society. It is just a novel way for the new secular priesthood to talk down to peoe and tell them they are lucky for what they have got.

The greatest privilege of all is being the person who grades everyone else on their privilege. The greatest act of rebellion is to tell them were to stick it.

There is something in second hand clothes that I would say is more class based than ethnicity based but the two can align - nice middle class family send kid to nursery in stained clothes - nursery think mum is eco conscious and practical, working class but rough mum sends kid to nursery in stained clothes = social services referral for neglect. You see this with certain populations such as Irish travellers who always are dressed immaculately to avoid being labelled as dirty.
I’m not sure it’s got much to do with white privilege tho

I think making a diversity course compulsory for students is wrong. Diversity has become so political and there are different views on the issue. Another example of stamping out independent thought, not everyone has to agree with the new agenda, and they should be free to hold different views

Is there an environmental group that can weigh in on the second hand clothes? New clothes destroy our planet and these students future. Privilege is buying all new because you’re wealthy enough it will only destroy other peoples future (still sucks for the privileged peoples grandkids though)

SoManyQuestionsHere. Interesting post! It's fascinating the myriad of ways humans signal things about themselves and how other humans interpret these signals. Communication is way more complex and nuanced than just words. Clothes in context tell us lots. Certain clothes can be prescribed or proscribed but unless we all go about naked, the game will morph and continue.

As Dolly says "You would be surprised to know how much it costs to look this cheap".

To do this properly it should be a thoughtful discussion and have students draw their own conclusions.

Not a bizarre sounding checklist with right or wrong.

Yes discrimination is prevalent. Yes people don't tend to think hard on things that do not apply to them.

It's a nuanced topic and the history is important as well.

The swearing second hand clothes thing has a major problem.

Women are no where nearly as free to swear as men mostly.

Women are more likely to be clocked in second hand due to the large and frequent changes in fashion for us.

They didn't really think about that properly did they.

I wonder if sex is covered on this training...

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.

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.

@GeorgiaMcGraw

Secondhand clothes a sign of privilege? Good to know the identity polutics lovers are finally openly shitting on the working class. Poor? That's a privilege! Careful about waste? Privilege! The whole thing is awful. 4 hours of totalitarian shit. The Unis need gutting.

I’ve shopped the charity shops in Canterbury, privileged indeed they are, elsewhere in the uk, not so much.

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.

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).

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.

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!’?

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

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.

@Jaysmith71

....And it's all the ususal "White Privilege" shit. The more than a little racist assumption that all white people are the same, all descend from slave-owners and beneficiaries of slavery and the triangular trade, and all have the same status in society in the eyes of people in power and authority.

No acknowledgement of class, wealth, education or any other social variable.

Fuck This Shit.

Oh yes, how I agree with you. Life is so much more nuanced than '4 legs good 2 legs bad'.

[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.

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?

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?

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.

toomanytrees

"Aren't the students arriving at university already beaten into submission with this drivel during their school years? It might be more useful if the university put on HGV licence courses. This is cult like: students paying huge amounts to be berated and insulted."

This a thousand times over. I find the whole thing very racist and divisive.