Top Russell Group universities have told staff and students that saying “the most qualified person should get the job” is a “microaggression”, among other examples of woke language policing. The Telegraph has more.
At least five universities have issued guidance or training courses on how to eliminate “microaggressions”, which are defined as subtle or indirect forms of discrimination.
Guidance from the University of Glasgow and the engineering department of Imperial College London states that saying “the most qualified person should get the job” is an example of a microaggression.
Glasgow’s guidance, which forms part of the university’s anti-racism campaign, suggests that the statement would be wrong because it asserts “that race does not play a role in life successes”.
Other examples of microaggressions listed by the university include saying that “everyone can succeed if they work hard enough”. The university states that possible implications of the statement could include suggesting that someone only got a job because of quotas, or that they cannot make a valuable contribution.
Other statements listed as microaggressions by Imperial include “men and women have equal opportunities for achievement” and “positive action is racist”.
Meanwhile, the University of Edinburgh states that microaggressions often take the form of “questioning an individual’s lived experience” or “denying individual prejudice”.
Examples cited by the university include saying of a third person: “I’m sure they didn’t mean anything by that”, or denying that a person is a racist.
Newcastle University describes microaggressions as “the everyday slights, indignities, put downs and insults that people of colour, women, people from LGBTQIA+ communities or those who are marginalised, experience in their day-to-day interactions with people”.
It lists examples such as a white person telling a black person “white people get killed by the police too”, when discussing police brutality.
The microaggression statements from universities were uncovered by the Committee for Academic Freedom (CAF), a group of academics worried about the erosion of free speech on campus.
Basically, vocalising disagreement with woke dogmas is microaggression, so shut up or face disciplinary action. Got it?
Worth reading in full.
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