It was only afterwards that I realised how bizarre the situation had become. As so often with fast-moving events, you are too busy coping with things as they happen to step back and see the bigger picture – or in this case, a different picture altogether. But I’ll come to that.
Leicester’s prominent anti-racist organisation, The Race Equality Centre, or TREC, organised an “Anti-Racism Workshop” at De Montfort University a few weeks ago. Someone from my office picked up a leaflet announcing the event and passed it on to me. As the Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicestershire and Rutland my remit includes fostering community cohesion as well as trying to improve public trust and confidence in the police.
I thought it would be interesting to attend the event to gauge how the public responded and to see firsthand what sort of events TREC was organising. My interest was solidified when I saw that the main speaker was Shareefa Energy. I had never met this young lady, but knew her by reputation. She describes herself as “a working-class Indian award-winning poet, writer, documentary producer, storyteller, art and wellbeing practitioner, educator and anti-racism creative campaigner”. Google her if you like.
After all, the police are routinely accused of racism by race activists. And Reform UK, of which I’m a member, attracts similar accusations. In neither case is any evidence put forward. The accusation alone seems to be enough.
So after work on the appointed day I
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Largely paid for with our money.
According to recent The Race Equality Centre (TREC) financial reporting, the charity relies primarily on institutional grants rather than individual philanthropists. [1]
The primary top donors, grant-makers, and funding partners backing their projects include: [2]
Public & Government Bodies
Trust & Foundation Grant-Makers
Civic & Independent Partners
Oh dear. Is this the best that can be managed? Just shuffle out when told to?
How about staying put and demanding to know how old was too old. Just staying put and challenging Miss Award-winning Poet to see if she was ‘creative’ at anything other than hectoring old men.
Instead of being dismissed, demand to know why you were the subject of ageism. Why were you being denied the opportunity to ‘share’. Or was supper just too attractive. One must get the priorities in the right order.
Of course, facing these aggressive types down is a hard and exhausting task. But if you don’t go to the gym, you will end up flabby. Is it likely that these activists put luncheon before their organising?