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

[DottyHarmer]

It does remind me of when on radio 4 a while ago some woman was saying that poor people found it hard having no money because they liked to buy more stuff than wealthier people . I guess she was trying to make a point clumsily but whaddayado?

Regarding the heritage stuff - well, that's just barmy. Totally depends on where you live. And what if I am of rather obscure heritage? You'd pass the test with flying colours if you could swear that you couldn't find Madagascan food in a supermarket or Madagascan managers to complain to.

I still think it's like a witch trial. If you deny it, you're drowned for lying. If you admit it, you're drowned for being privileged. Or, in the case of Kent, probably a big Black Mark on your student record.

[andyoldlabour]

I started this thread, because it really struck a chord with me. When I was young, we lived in a council house, dad was a painter and decorator, use to go to work on a bicycle, mum made hats for a living, working from home. We had an outside loo, ice would form on the inside of my bedroom window in Winter.When we went on holiday it was caravans. We didn't have a car. The first time I went abroad, was a school daytrip to Calais when i was 15.
I had S/H Christmas presents, which I loved, particularly the train set and scalextric.
When I was 15, I bought a used pair of Adidas football boots at a school jumble sale and the other kids took the piss out of me - which really made me feel privileged.
The people who are now lecturing others about "privilege" have never experienced abuse, poverty, neglect or underprivilege in their lives.
They are total hypocrites.

[applechips]

The people who are now lecturing others about "privilege" have never experienced abuse, poverty, neglect or underprivilege in their lives. They are total hypocrites

I completely agree with this (I’ve just said it on another thread but this is much more articulate!)

[Jaysmith71]

I do not doubt that the lack of correctly-shaded sticking plasters and haircare products must be a constant irritation and a constant reminder of your minority status in this society. There's a 'but.'

But, you know, women in Afghanistan losing their jobs, girls unable to go to school, told to wear binbags and threatened with forced 'marriage.' Women in Xinjan put to work in slave factories to help the Chinese export drive. People in Burma, Belarus and Hong Kong denied their democratic rights. Etc.

And there's you with your wrong shade of hair dye.

Really?

[HouseOfFire]

@Jaysmith71

I do not doubt that the lack of correctly-shaded sticking plasters and haircare products must be a constant irritation and a constant reminder of your minority status in this society. There's a 'but.'

But, you know, women in Afghanistan losing their jobs, girls unable to go to school, told to wear binbags and threatened with forced 'marriage.' Women in Xinjan put to work in slave factories to help the Chinese export drive. People in Burma, Belarus and Hong Kong denied their democratic rights. Etc.

And there's you with your wrong shade of hair dye.

Really?

Just because someone has it harder than you, does not diminish the things you experience

OK 2 broken legs are worse than 1 broken leg, but they both need care and attention.

I'm white, and plasters (almost) match my skin colour, so I dont need to think about it. But for someone who is not white, its a daily reminder that they are a minority and thats not right

[Jaysmith71]

It is alienating, but that's Capitalism, kids. There's a market, and supply caters for demand.

I'm left-handed and I live in a right-handed world. It pisses me off.

[Cailleach1]

So it is the accessorising that is important! Think of the poor sods who have to wear blue plasters so that they don't come off and end up in food or other inappropriate places.

Are you being disingenuous 'House of Fire'? When my offspring was little (and not so little), fun coloured plasters with superhero and animation characters where the ones we used. Brightly coloured and cheerful.

I'll happily use them. Also, transparent plasters exist, you know, if you don't want to use the tan ones.

[GCAcademic]

I'm white, and plasters (almost) match my skin colour, so I dont need to think about it. But for someone who is not white, its a daily reminder that they are a minority and thats not right

I'm not white and couldn't give a shit about the colour of my sticking plasters. In fact, if that was something I had to worry about I'd consider myself pretty privileged that I could focus on such a non-existent problem.

[Mochudubh]

@KittenKong

Food - mmmmm McCowans toffee, square sausage, tattie scones, plain loaf, proper oatcakes, caboc/other cheeses, Scottish honey, Tudor crisps, anything tunnocks, scotch pie... irn bru, millionaires shortbread,

Presumably all available in Tesco Canterbury, or maybe not. If the manager has ginger hair and freckles can I assume they match my heritage?

[KittenKong]

I don’t think can even get mccowans toffee anymore... and definitely not plain loaves, caboc is hard to get a hold of and I’ve never seen square sausage down here.

[AlfonsoTheDinosaur]

I'm white, and plasters (almost) match my skin colour, so I dont need to think about it. But for someone who is not white, its a daily reminder that they are a minority and thats not right

I use bright blue sticking plasters. I don't know whether to cheer or mourn that they don't match my skin colour.

[Jaysmith71]

Iceland has square sausage.

[AlfonsoTheDinosaur]

"Food to match my heritage...."

They'd better have oysters, lobster and roast beef, because that's what I was raised on and they didn't I'd be sueing for discrimination.

[YetAnotherSpartacus]

I don't actually like the food that matches my heritage.

[Jaysmith71]

The History I studied at school was very lacking in coverage of my anscestors and was mostly about Normans, Plantagenates, Tudors & Stuarts (none of them English) and assorted other ruling elites.

[YetAnotherSpartacus]

The history I studied in school was mostly about men.

[Jaysmith71]

@YetAnotherSpartacus

The history I studied in school was mostly about men.

It's His-story, after all.

[NewMutiny]

@Cailleach1

So it is the accessorising that is important! Think of the poor sods who have to wear blue plasters so that they don't come off and end up in food or other inappropriate places.

Are you being disingenuous 'House of Fire'? When my offspring was little (and not so little), fun coloured plasters with superhero and animation characters where the ones we used. Brightly coloured and cheerful.

I'll happily use them. Also, transparent plasters exist, you know, if you don't want to use the tan ones.

I do also think this focus by institutions - largely staffed by white middle class people - on micro-agressions and privilege obscures a lot of really overt racism which still exists for people in Britain right now.

My friend recently sat on a (London, Hackney) bus next to a woman who muttered the n-word continually at her throughout the journey. Those tweets people sent Marcus Rashford weren't telling him he was a great dancer or asking to touch his hair were they? There are people among us who would still be happy to do a monkey chant and throw bananas at football matches if they didn't think they would get kicked out. That's the reality for some people right here, right now. Not just being unable to find plantains in Tesco.

[IsThePopeCatholic]

@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!

Agreed. Think Dominic Cummings: a (white) man with power. He could afford to look scruffy and not follow the rules because he was already in a position of power.
I think privilege has more to do with class than race.

[HouseOfFire]

No I'm not being disingenuous its an example, obviously to some people it doesnt matter - well bully for you, other people its another thing that can make people feel inferior. I'm not here to help you work it out.

I know there are blue plasters, and superheros etc

Its the hair dye, the plasters, its a death by a thousand cuts, its not 1 thing - if it was 1 thing, then that wouldn't be a problem.

[AlfonsoTheDinosaur]

Think of the poor sods who have to wear blue plasters so that they don't come off and end up in food or other inappropriate places.

Eh? I wear blue sticking plasters because I like the colour blue and the beige ones show dirt quickly. And it's good health and safety practice to wear brightly coloured plasters so that they can easily be spotted.

[Jaysmith71]

"I can arrange to be in the company of my own race most of the time..."

Doesn't that one just scream America?

Potentially illegal if you post stuff like that online or put it in invitations.

[KittenKong]

I remember at DSs little school the plasters were hideous terracotta colour and stuck like flipping superglue.

[KittenKong]

@AlfonsoTheDinosaur

"Food to match my heritage...."

They'd better have oysters, lobster and roast beef, because that's what I was raised on and they didn't I'd be sueing for discrimination.

I’m a 70s kid . If they don’t have Findus cheesy pancakes...

[Jaysmith71]

And now I'm thinking that the second-hand clothes thing may also be American in origin. To quote Billy Joel

Aint you heard about the new fashion, honey? To dress trashy you got to spend a lot of money.

In US higher ed, you have scholarship kids and trust fund kids, and the distinction is reinforced via their vile fraternity/sorority systems.