The college I currently attend is very racially diverse, and that is one of the reasons I love it. I myself am half Cypriot and half Indian, born and raised in England with two sets of immigrant grandparents, so adapting to and celebrating different cultures has always been an integral part of my life. I came to college with a very multicultural friendship group, with friends from India, England, South Africa and Hong Kong.
One of the things that I found remarkable about my college (at least on the surface) was that not only did it acknowledge this diversity, but also celebrated it. I was taken aback by the numerous focus groups, EDI boards and clubs, and initially, I felt inspired by the richness around me. However, this feeling quickly faded.
I first became concerned when our tutor was presented with a lesson on Black History Month. Personally, I have never been keen on Black History Month – I have never been able to relate to it, and all the historical figures shown seemed to have been crammed in as a progressive tokenism.
The slideshow itself was typical – a few pieces of information on the Windrush Generation and the discrimination they had to endure once arriving in the U.K. My issue came when we had to discuss the slides.
Our tutor (who happened to be white) expressed his inability to teach the slides properly due to his white privilege, claiming that he “was the problem”. Immediately, I could feel every other white student seize up. My white friend looked at me awkwardly, as if she wanted to speak, but was unable to. I recognised that with that one claim, the entire conversation had been silenced – our tutor’s guilt had unfairly been projected onto every student who happened to share his skin colour.
I raised my hand and respectfully pointed out the toxicity of the tutor’s statement. I elaborated that, assuming that he had not committed racism against another individual, he had no reason to apologise. To assume that he had wronged me simply by being born with less melanin than I had, and thus deny him access to the conversation, was as morally flawed as the logic used to deny African Americans access to restaurants and seating areas in the Jim Crow Era. Of course, I stated my race to validate such a statement, something I have always hated doing and hope I always will. My tutor responded simply that he had not thought about things that way before. I refrained from asking how he had ventured to make such a generalising claim without thinking.
After that tutor session, I began to view the EDI focus at the college differently. After months of thinking over this discomfort, I have isolated three specific issues.
Firstly, the over-emphasis on diversity within education feels degrading. I am no longer a student with individual hopes, interests and motivations; I am now just mixed-race. My most noteworthy attribute is no longer my faith, my passions or even my culture, but rather the colour of my skin. Suddenly, I and everyone else who is not white are reduced to one of the most immaterial aspects of our character. Paradoxically, we are robbed of the ability to be recognised as equals. Moreover, we are suddenly different. For no reason other than our skin colour, we are now regarded as ‘other’ and integrated into a system of acronyms and victimhood.
Secondly, it is also incredibly divisive. As seen in the tutor session, racism suddenly becomes an issue only for ethnic minorities and entry into the issue is based on race rather than experience or knowledge. The fact of the matter is that racism is a universal evil that can be experienced or perpetuated by any of us – white or otherwise. To teach racism through the untested lens of the social justice movement and Critical Race Theory is not only to segregate the classroom and betray the blindness of education, but also denies white people the ability to empathise and unite over the issue. History has proven that racism is not a plague that can be purged through division and resentment, but rather through unity and a common understanding.
Thirdly, tackling racism should not be a priority within education. Schools and colleges exist to educate – to raise a generation fully equipped to approach, tackle and embrace the world. Of course, racism is still present and achieving a proper view of the world cannot be achieved without being equipped to tackle and overcome it, but the contemporary anti-racist methods are not the solution. My own college is outstanding on this issue – our courses have retained the canonical criteria for quality, and overall, every student is appreciated and inspired as an individual. However, I am alarmed at the proposed revisions being introduced at a nationwide level. The purpose of a teacher is not to ‘decolonise the classroom’, but to present an impartial and honest view of the world. An education system that pushes material based on race alone disqualifies the groundbreaking achievements of ‘dead white men’ and forces teachers into the role of ‘social justice’ advocates rather than educators.
Education is impartial, it is colourblind and it is inspiring. It equips students of all races, cultures and ethnicities to approach the world with as much equality as possible, and opens a vast palette of opportunities for every learner. What it is not is a ‘social justice’ tool for politicised exam boards and teachers.
Peter Hosangady is a 17-year-old college student. He is a member of Don’t Divide Us, on whose website this article first appeared.
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Very well said! Thank you.
There is, of course, a great deal of unintentional humour in the pursuit of diversity.
I cannot help but find the idea of a serious minded and relatively unknown Academic from, say, Punxsutawney, Philadelphia, claiming to be a member of the Cherokee tribe completely hilarious.
And, once caught, claiming she was simply misinformed…
Hahahahhahahaahah!
Love thy neighbour. He who is without sin throw the first stone. It’s amazing how stupid that teacher was.
The Chinese government is possibly the most racist government in the would, ethically cleansing large parts of China. I bet he never taught you that.
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Both ethically and ethnically…
An excellent and insightful piece. It gives me hope that there are some sensible people coming up behind me.
Up to you but you may want to change your handle name to something other than what looks like an email address, in case some bot harvests it and you end up with a load of spam.
Seconded. Kudos to the author for a fine piece of writing, that I completely agree with, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how young Peter is. Respect.
P.S I must add the off-topic point, given where you live ( presumably still ), that your local Hull Royal Infirmary is totally rubbish and staffed by evidence-denying, masktard idiots. I don’t know if masks have been dropped there now but, given your many articles you’ve personally written about these vile and insulting symbols of mental illness, I’d be interested to see if the NHS is going to be ceasing this lunacy before the summer time. Especially as the WHO have declared there’s no more emergency.
Anyway, just had to get that out. Nice city, shame about the cult-like hospital staff and their disgraceful treatment of patients/visitors, which directly contradicts evidence-based practice. Masks need to leave the NHS and never come back. Thanks.
Interesting; thanks.
I would find it extremely degrading and I hope many do – semi surprised more don’t speak out but I guess there’s a lot of peer pressure.
Yes, and it´s effective, as shown by the Asch conformity experiment (1951).
Excellent piece, one of the few I’ve read twice over. Education is impartial, it is colourblind and it is inspiring. It equips students of all races, cultures and ethnicities to approach the world with as much equality as possible, and opens a vast palette of opportunities for every learner. It was for me, in engineering, several decades ago. But the takeaway was the whole educational experience and I was inspired by some brilliant people to learn many things beyond science and engineering. Well done Peter for challenging the tutors thinking with more respect than I could manage now !
Great article. It seems like a way to infantilize everybody (including the infantilizers themselves), with the parent figure in the relationship being the intersectionalist ideology itself. Those who can give over their mind and soul to it get to wield power over others in return – the more they give, the more they get.
Talking of evidence-based medicine/practice, isn’t Dr Clare Craig amazing? Joel Smalley has featured an excerpt of her witness statement for the Covid Public Inquiry on his ‘stack and it’s chock-full of evidence. Here’s a tiny bit;
”Vaccine rollout coincided with a rise in pressures in hospital. Whereas covid had never resulted in a reduction in the number of empty hospital beds, once the vaccine rolled out there were increasing numbers of inpatients.
In late 2021, the vaccinated were attending the emergency department five times more frequently than the unvaccinated.
In Israel, there was a 25 percent rise in ambulance calls for cardiac arrests or coronary heart disease among 16 to 39 year olds. The rise was correlated to vaccination and not covid waves.
The Scottish data shows a clear rise in cardiac problems in the young.
It was claimed this was all due to the Delta wave or long covid effects.
But there is a control group.
Australia had had minimal covid and South Australia and Western Australia had had virtually none before Omicron.
Yet, their hospitals were also overwhelmed.”
https://metatron.substack.com/p/covid-public-inquiry
“Peter Hosangady is a 17-year-old college student,” who writes more like a lecturer than a student. A terrific piece of work as others have already commented.
Stick to your guns young man. Well done.
PS. Wholly agree with you.
This ´Diversity´ obsession certainly is demeaning.
What´s more, it´s racist.
We all want to succeed at whatever on our merits, not our race.
Nor do we wish to be judged on our sex nor our private sexual inclinations.
Diversity only means one thing ————-Less white people. ———I could not help however notice that at recent major events like the Queens Funeral, and the Coronation that among the crowds in the streets there was a distinct lack of “Diversity”. ——Here were chances for minority groups to really show that they want to be part of everything, but from what I could see they did not show up. For normal if you look up and down streets you will see people of all cultures and races.——— I could not see that at the Coronation. The King made sure there was “Diversity” inside the Abbey, but outside it was not the case.
Excellent point.
Excellent article – at least Peter does some thinking unlike his tutors.
… we are robbed of the ability to be recognised as equals.
This.
But I would amend the sentiment slightly to “both of us are robbed of the ability to be recognised as equals”.
Looks as though we may be ok in the future with young people like Peter around.
For a more cynical perspective, We should treat everyone as an individual worthy of respect regardless of race, religion or the colour of their skin really needs to be continued with provided they weren’t born in continentlal Europe. As far as I can tell, Britain is well on course towards building extermination camps for other-whites (Isn’t that a really charming label?) because Breakit cannot be completed while there still a single person of impure descent in the UK alive. Your so-called multi-cultural society is complete and utter bullshit for as long as you keep maintaining a helot class composed of millions of people who are routinely blamed for everything the so-called electorate f***ed up all by itself.
‘… so adapting to and celebrating different cultures has always been an integral part of my life.’
Not surprising – you don’t know what culture is.
Culture is not defined by race or nation – see sub-Saharan Africa which has diverse languages cultures but only one race.
Culture defines society not the other way round. Multiple cultures mean multiple societies. Multicultural society is oxymoronic therefore. Multiculturalism = tribalism = conflict & warfare.
Our society fragmented into multiple cultures towards the end of the reign of Henry VIII and led to violence, civil war, the war of the three kingdoms. The dying flames of this were still burning until the end of the 20th Century in N Ireland.
Culture is about language, shared laws, morals, values, principles and property rights. Its not about the cosmetic aspects – eg food, music, quaint traditions, which are evident within cultures as well as between cultures.
The trouble with so-called multiculturalism defined by race – the topic of the article – is it is not only inherently racist, divisive (not diversity) and insulting.
It says Indians, Cypriots, White peoples, Africans, et all, cannot be of the same culture. Therefore they cannot all be British.
British is a distinct culture forged over many centuries rooted in its Anglo-Saxon-Celt language, Common Law, morals, values, respect for property. Its frills, food, music, architecture, fashion, have been enriched by things adopted/adapted from others but it is ONE culture not umpteen.
Britain is not a tribal society… yet… but that is the way it is heading not from people if other races but those who want to stop our cultural foundation of Common law, morals, values and respect for property. And the most important property we own is we ourselves.
Very perceptive for a 17 year old.
There is hope for the future.
Judge people based upon their merit, and only merit.
Well said. A good education is the most wonderful thing that we can offer our children in support of them achieving their potential.