The National Trust has been branded “racist, ignorant, divisive and patronising” amid a backlash for replacing the term ‘ethnic minority’ with ‘global majority’ as it launched an ‘inclusive’ walking project. The Telegraph has the story.
The move has prompted accusations of “virtue-signalling” in the latest in a series of rows that have led to claims of a “woke agenda” at the conservation charity.
The trust has defended its use of the term, saying it felt it was the “most appropriate” language to describe its Walk Together Pathway project, which trains new walk leaders representing different ethnic minority groups.
‘Global majority’ is a collective term for non-white people, who make up about 85% of the global population. It is sometimes used instead of ‘ethnic minority’ or ‘BAME’ – terms which have been labelled outdated and problematic.
The Government dropped the use of the term BAME, which stands for black, Asian and minority ethnic, in 2022, saying the term was “no longer helpful”.
Proponents of the term global majority have said moving from classing people as a minority to a majority is an important step in “reframing conversations from disadvantage to advantage” and “challenging existing dominant white-centric narratives”.
Zewditu Gebreyohanes, a trustee at the V&A, condemned the National Trust in a post on X (formerly Twitter), saying: “Disgusting to see the National Trust using this sort of language.
“The use of the term ‘global majority’ to lump together everyone who is not ‘white’ as a singular grouping is one of the most racist, ignorant, divisive and patronising examples of virtue signalling.”
Ed Rimmer, Conservative councillor for Bemerton Heath in Salisbury, also commented, saying: “The National Trust is most certainly not working to safeguard our national heritage.”
It comes after Wildlife and Countryside Link, a charity umbrella group, claimed the British countryside was a “racist colonial” white space earlier this year.
Announcing the new project on its website earlier this week, the National Trust said: “Despite representing 15% of the population in England and Wales, people from the global majority are widely under-represented in the outdoors, accounting for only one per cent of National Park visitors in 2019.”
It claims there is a “lack of representation” of ethnic minorities in the outdoors, “which leads to the feeling that they might not be welcome in outdoor spaces, as well as fear of discrimination and cultural differences.”
Worth reading in full.
Read Steven Tucker’s dissection of the rise of the insidious anti-white term ‘global majority’ here.
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