Imperial College is under fire for telling students to have “hard conversations“ with friends and family over the Christmas holiday period who deny white privilege. The Daily Mail has more.
Guidance from Imperial College London tells students to “understand that you have white privilege“ and to “educate others in your community”.
It adds: “If you have friends or family who take a different stance on these issues, now is the time to have a hard conversation with them and ask them to rethink their views.”
The university’s equality, diversity and inclusion page on its website also encourages students to “take action” and become a “white ally” by donating to the controversial Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement – a mission dedicated to “eradicating white supremacy”. BLM has faced a backlash over its far-Left demands, which include defunding the police.
The phrase ‘white privilege’ is used to describe the inherent advantages possessed by a white person on the basis of their race. It can apply where people are living under the same social, political or economic circumstances, or in a society where there is racial inequality.
A senior academic has warned that staff at Imperial are afraid to express concern over fears they will not get promoted or lose their job. John Armstrong, Reader in Financial Mathematics at King’s College London, said the guidance has created an atmosphere of silence at the university. “People do not want to endanger their promotion prospects and come across as awkward,” he said.
“It just sets up an atmosphere where people feel it is safest not to talk about it, especially if they have contrary views.
“Diversity is a serious issue. Imperial making a laughing stock of themselves in this way is unlikely to help them improve the experience of minority groups. Guidance which promotes a particular political viewpoint inevitably encroaches on academic freedom. Imperial should scrap this guidance.”
Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, said: “This bizarre guidance gives the impression that Imperial has fallen into the hands of a weird religious sect – a Left-wing version of the Moonies – and I fear that’s exactly what’s happened.
“Any alumni thinking of giving money to Imperial should give it to the Free Speech Union instead. We’ve become experts on this nutty cult – which is running rampant across Britain’s higher education sector – and with the proper funding we can set up a deprogramming unit.
“There are thousands of university administrators who have fallen into the hands of this cult and with our help they could regain control over their own minds.”
Worth reading in full.
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Any organisation where Neil Ferguson becomes a professor already has serious issues.
Too right!
Too left!
BINGO
Great response Toby.
I find it astounding that idiots are prepared to borrow £30 – £40,000 a year to be indoctrinated with this propaganda.
Any family member of mine who was that stupid would find him/herself having a very “hard” conversation with me.
I’d just point to the door and tell them not to let it hit them in the ass on the way out. They can have whatever views they want, but I wouldn’t allow anyone to attack me or try to make me feel bad in my own home – particularly when they clearly have no qualms enjoying the hospitality I provide through my ‘white privilege’. Nor would it occur to me to have a go at a guest in my home and make them feel uncomfortable.
They are intentionally out to make us plebs fight with each other, be it over skin colour, religion, liberal versus conservative views – just keep us foaming at the mouth and fighting each other.
There’s been a news item going around called Merry Christmas Jay, where some chap who got caught out in a blizzard in New York State broke into a school and then went to help other people he saw caught out in the storm. A picture was taken of the group afterwards, and it is a mixed group of people, and that’s how it should be – people were in need, someone in a position to help, helped whoever he could, no one will have given a toss about race.
We’re in a war – a fight for our lives and the future of Western Civilisation. Every inch we have given these bastards they have taken a mile. They will not stop until one side is destroyed.
Probably, and the politicised police aren’t leading the charge, dressed in their paramilitary riot gear, for the enemy?
I’m no fan of the direction in which policing has gone, at least in the UK. I know less about the US and suspect it varies enormously from place to place. But they do actually sometimes investigate crime, arrest people etc. We can’t simply remove them, without replacing them.
They recently arrested a woman for praying silently. And a senior police official only yesterday referred to pedophiles as minor attracted people. A feminist activist is being investigated for being “untoward about pedophiles” on her podcast. They escorted men dressed up as highly sexualised women to participate in drag queen story times in UK public libraries. They are making it up as they go along. We shouldn’t be paying for them or giving them a mandate to do that.
As I’ve said I don’t like the direction in which they are going and share your views on the incidents you mention. However IMO if they are simply removed the results would be catastrophic. They are not really the problem, just a symptom.
In their present form and with their present reach, infrastructure and political woke leadership they are the problem.
Not sure what you’re saying. THE problem? Are they not just a reflection of the establishment in general, which is equally captured and woke? They are all in lockstep.
It’s the whole establishment that is rotten to its very core not just the senior police.
I wholeheartedly agree tof. We are in an us or them situation.
As someone once pointed out —-“All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to remain silent”
And that is why commenting on here is so very important. There really is strength in numbers.
“BLM has faced a backlash over its far-Left demands, which include defunding the police.” I don’t really have a problem with this, the police are part of the problem, as are the NHS, the civil service,academia, the judiciary, everyone in the Westminster bubble, local government, the BBC, the MSM. In a nutshell, The Woke Establishment.
Defunding the police is not the answer
Neither is funding the police as it stands.
I’d love to see a change of direction but failing that I will take what we have over a complete breakdown of law and order which is what we would see.
We already have a breakdown of the rule of law.
Up to a point
It’s only going to get worse if we carry on giving them money to do more of the same.
Probably, but everything else will likely get worse too. The police is not a problem to solve in isolation – there is only any mileage in addressing it when the general drift, which they reflect, is corrected. In the meantime, I am happy for them to occasionally arrest muggers, murderers etc.
What is the plausible alternative?
BLM want to defund the police so their supporters can commit more crimes with impunity. It’s a completely different issue to the politicisation of the police.
Please see graphic
Says it all.
There are two groups that want the police out of their way. Organised crime (or any crime) and Cultural Marxists.
“To produce a maximum of chaos in the culture of the enemy is our first most important step. Our fruits are grown in chaos, distrust, economic depression and scientific turmoil. At least a weary populace can seek peace only in our offered Communist State, at last only Communism can resolve the problems of the masses.” – Lavrentiy Beria
You are oversimplifying. The police that we currently have are organised crime. And we continue to fund them.
You have a point. They have been taken over by the woke left so that they take the knee for BLM, provide water and refreshments for XR, arrest people for praying or ‘hate’ crimes, while stop and search and keeping the peace has gone because it’s considered institutional racist. However, it is possible to correct all that, otherwise without any police we are cutting our noses off and we will be ‘policed’ by the lowest common denominator. There has been a progressive and persistent undermining of the Police. For example, following one of the Islamist atrocities in the Capital the Guardian questioned whether the Police could have done more, or that they contributed to the situation. The confected outrage against the Police in the US was wrong because the supposed racism against blacks is not evident in the data – but that doesn’t matter if you are a Marxist Revolutionary.
“To speak the truth is a petit-bourgeois habit, a luxury of worry-free and aimless people. To lie, on the contrary, is often justified by the lie’s aim.” – Lenin
Considering Imperial College has a long history and must be staffed by people who are highly educated and worldly, I would hope someone there has knowledge of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and what happened?
Here is just one small example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXAOTjNheVg
“Still ashamed of my part in Mao’s Cultural Revolution – BBC News”
Unfortunately, for many people to see something, it has to be *exactly* the same, or they don’t see the parallels. Education is not the key – you can either think for yourself or you cannot, regardless of education level.
When people were pointing out that the treatment of the unvaxxed last year was similar to the treatment of the Jews in 1930s/40s Germany, a lot of big mouths shouted that it was in no way the same, and shame on people for making the comparison.
Were the unvaxxed being carted off in trains into camps with gas chambers and ovens? No, of course not, no one was saying they were. But were they being othered? Were they excluded from their fundamental rights and increasingly from society? Were they being scapegoated, first for a man-made disease, then for the failure of government measures to contain said disease, then for the failure of the
poisonvaxx against said disease? Were governments across the world outright encouraging their populations to blame the unvaxxed, were they suggesting that unvaxxed should be further deprived of rights, even of the right to hospital treatment?The answer to all these questions is a resounding yes. Too many people only focus on the concentration camps, not on the years leading up to it, in which Jews were singled out, deprived of rights and scapegoated in the same way as the unvaxxed were last year. Austria was already on the road to incarcerating the unvaxxed and people would have stood by and let it happen, just like they did before.
Same with China’s cultural revolution – people look at Mao’s China and the outright war on its traditions and do not see the parallels with the current situation, where the onslaught it more low-key and insidious – but just as lethal.
My German relatives got very upset when I compared Covid tyranny with other recent tyranny in their country- apparently not the same thing at all because the current tyranny is for the public good. Morons.
2023 – 1945 = 78
This means no German of 78 years or less has ever consciously lived under NSDAP rule. Don’t you think it’s about time to stop bringing up this topic at every opportunity? I mean, anti-German prejudices are nice and dandy but what about updating them every once in a while?
I have no anti-German prejudices. I’m simply aware that in living memory they have gone through periods of dictatorship and from what I understand a big deal is made of this, in terms of avoiding a repeat. That side of my family are from what was the DDR for a while, and they didn’t see any parallels there either. I was simply pointing out that even those who you would reasonably expect to have a heightened awareness of the dangers of government overreach don’t seem to. The same could be said of Israel, which saw some of the most severe covid restrictions. People alive now of my age will remember many conversations with their parents and grandparents about NSDAP rule – I know I do.
This was reportedly a hot topic for a vocal minority of boom babies seeking to abolish whatever parts of Germany managed to survive it being freed from tyranny by almost 50 years of military occupation (the Germans had to pay for) in favour of creating something more American instead, ie, the current, ruling establishment. But that was about 55 years ago and a lot of things have happened since then. You should also take into account that such comparisons are illegal in Germany or at best, semilegal, and that these laws are draconically enforced. Roughly at the level of Discuss the wrong stuff — interior secret service comes to blow up your door in the early hours of the morning.
BTW, how many Americans did you tell that the American policy the people administrating Germany on behalf of the USA more or less voluntarily imitated amounted to Nazism?
I don’t know any Americans. I use whatever I have to hand to try and make my case with people I know. If you want to interpret that as “anti-German”, feel free.
I was ambushed and ganged up on by some (public sector employed) old friends and their brainwashed children at a dinner party in August 2020 because of my views on the toxic jabs. It was very unpleasant. A similar thing had happened on a previous occasion regarding leaving the EU, although the discussion on political and geographic sovereignty was a lot less sinister than the discussion on personal sovereignty.
I wonder how your friends feel about the jabs now – or in any event their children. I bet at least some have changed their mind, even if they won’t admit it – many won’t, but you can see it in their eyes and how they change the subject if someone starts talking about the poison.
Further invitations haven’t been forthcoming, which is regrettable but ok. I was tempted to text them to urge them to have their boosters.
The forces and mindsets that drove the horrors of the 20th century are all still intact. The environmental movement which precedes the current safety-ism harbours some pretty terrifying individuals that have managed to avoid scrutiny because they have ‘good intentions’. And here are samples of sentiments that would not be out of place in 1930s Germany, but are probably far worse for where they could lead:
If these asswipes actually believed this, they’d lead by example and top themselves and have no children. Some may well not have children, but I suspect quite a few do. Look no further than BoJo, who wrote an article some years ago saying the world had too many people – he should know, he seems to be trying to repopulate it single-handedly.
I’m not entirely in disagreement that there are perhaps more people on the planet than the planet can comfortably sustain over time – or for people themselves to abide, looking at their penchant to start slaughtering each other every so often. I just don’t think I have any greater right to be here than anyone else, contrary to the people you cite. If this results in a melt-down, so be it, part of the cycle I guess.
What I have noticed though, is that most Western government policies are still geared towards providing assistance for families regardless of size, and leaving singletons and the childless high and dry. There is no easy solution, children should not be suffering because they have dumb parents, but all “carrot” solutions (e.g. the tax code, benefits) are geared to families and not singletons. The current push to convince all young people they are gay and/or transgender would be one form of getting their way – except that they do nothing to try to stop surrogacy or IVF, quite the contrary, which seems to defeat the purpose of what they claim they want.
Very impressive list of quotes, did you put this together yourself? It’s worth reproducing where you can, more people need to see that the idea of depopulation is not a crazy conspiracy. Not that it’s proof it’s happening, but it is proof that there are plenty of people who would be happy for it to happen.
This is a collated list as there are more. The credit must go to c3headlines.com which has other interesting ideas and information. Anyway, the full list of quotes is here: https://www.c3headlines.com/global-warming-quotes-climate-change-quotes.html
The world is not over populated or going to explode. We have had more than 200 years of industrialization that has done more to raise the most out of poverty than any of the revolutions. Also, I can still go outside and breath fresh air and swim in the seas that are perhaps cleaner than they were, at least in old developed countries. All the problems we have are being addressed, or should be, and can be. Global Warming, or Climate Change or overpopulation are not real problems. Where ever industrialization happens, people generally become wealthier and family sizes decrease – my mother was 1 of 13 – I am 1 of 4 – I have 2 children. Family sizes are falling across the planet and across religions. Hans Rosling wrote an excellent book, ‘Factfulness’ which explains that humanity has never been in such a fortunate position and with great prospects. I sense that for the control freaks, general human success is a problem, because their threats of doom and their solutions are no longer of value or needed.
Another person you may already know and who IMHO has great wisdom is Thomas Sowell.
“Not that it’s proof it’s happening, but it is proof that there are plenty of people who would be happy for it to happen.”
Take a look at this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXePtV8AX1w
<Lefties losing it: Canadian Army Veteran offered euthanasia instead of chairlift>
Also, I’m hoping Jacques Cousteau’s comment was taken out of context as that is particularly disappointing. What is interesting is we have Mr Cousteau and Mr Attenborough, both of which are revered for their films on nature, and yet David Bellamy, who was an actual Biologist, gets cancelled for going against the man made climate change narrative.
‘… students to have “hard conversations“ with friends and family over the Christmas holiday period who deny white privilege.’
There is no such thing as White privilege; it is an abstract term used by racists to try to reduce the status of White people to sub-Humans and promote Black people as the new master race.
Personally, I would be delighted that some snotnose, know-nothing who hasn’t contributed anything to the economy or society and who would find picking fruit an intellectual challenge, had a ‘hard conversation’ with me It certainly would be hard for them as I wiped the floor with them.
The problem is these putty-brained blobs can’t hold a reasonable conversation, just scream slogans and abstractions they have picked up and repeat like parrots.
Me too, I can’t wait.
Does black privilege exist? I only ask as a fellow student at my university is a senior member of Socialist Worker (he was in the socialist worker student organisation at the time) and also a senior member of black lives matter. Prior to university, he’d attended a good public school and used to get driven up to university by his father’s chauffeur.
I suppose someone who is black and living a privileged life can be said to have ‘black privilege,’ but I doubt you would be thanked for pointing this out to them.
Still, making the point to a privileged socialist who also happens to be black should probably be sufficient to spark a conflagration
As I understand the term “white privilege” it is supposed to mean that you are advantaged in life based on your whiteness. I suppose they would argue this applies primarily in white-dominated societies but perhaps also globally because the world is dominated by rich countries that are often white or with a “white” culture (capitalism?). So I think in their terms “black privilege” could only really exist somewhere run by blacks where whites were disadvantaged. I’m not sure such a place exists. Perhaps Zimbabwe. They’d probably call that justice though. I imagine there is “Han Chinese privilege” in China, and some set of castes in India would be privileged. But I don’t think the people that push this are overly interested in forming coherent arguments, just in pushing their agenda.
I think you have hit the nail on the head and this is probably true of every current woke meme
“There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs-partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.” – Booker Taliaferro Washington
There is an arrogant assumption that they are correct in their views, but I don’t recall democratic debate on the topic. Perhaps Labour should run on an anti-white-privilege ticket and we will be able to judge.
I think even Labour are not quite daft enough to go too far in this direction, not just yet, though somehow the US Democrats persuaded lots of white people to vote for them, goodness knows why they did.
White people voting for anti-white parties is why we’re in the hole we’re in.
Exactly how stupid do you have to be to have found the BNP unacceptable on racist grounds?
I don’t know much about the BNP but yes I think a lot of white people are deluded and/or confused about “racism”.
Essentially: non-Jewish white ethnocentrism is utterly disgusting and should be criminalised.
Other ethnocentrisms should be applauded and subsidised by the state using taxes paid by whites.
Yes, I think that sums it up. If enough people ever wake up to this, it may well be too late.
Isn’t it amazing that there are supposedly educated people in the UK who’ve never heard that particualy, angry undertone in the question Are you Polish? (or – for that matter – have been greeted with mock Hitler salutes by strangers). I’m really glad that I’m so privileged to have experienced both and that I’m not bothered with a right to vote which apparently drags all the oppressed minorities who have it so much down.
Why would educated Englishmen ever have been asked whether they’re Polish?
Good! I think it’s an excellent idea to challenge the propaganda these kids have been indoctrinated with as they emerge from the echo chamber. I look forward to those hard conversations; bring ‘em on.