The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

michaels

LydiaJ wrote: »

I hate that. By that reckoning, that means my nephews are "black", as though my (white) family's contribution to their identity doesn't count. I'm happy our society has a better category for them to use when they have to pick a box. They describe themselves as "mixed race" when necessary - they have two parents, and they count both sides of their family equally.

I wouldn't say that Britain has no white privilege, though. Remember, the people with the privilege are usually unaware of it. You don't necessarily notice that obstacles aren't being put in your way, and if you don't know many of the people who are experiencing the obstacles, you may not know what goes on. It's similar to antisemitism - I've never observed any happening in this country myself, but that just means I haven't been around the people who are guilty of it, so I don't know about it until it hits the news, when it takes me by surprise.

It is all very complicated, in Britain people want to move out of the ghetto full stop, in the US they want to move out into a black suburb or a white suburb and to only mix with 'their own people'. Anyone who doesn't self identify as 100% white is co-opted as black.


Where I am working now they are looking to increase diversity in under represented minority groups - no mention of reducing it where certain minority groups are over represented...

antrobus

michaels wrote: »

...

Where I am working now we are having a diversity awareness week. Apparently our LGBTI proportion is thought to be about 4% which is below the national rate (according to a best guess) 5-7% (the census is much lower) so that needs positive discrimination. Similarly those with disabilities are under represented compared to the country at large, cue more positive action required. However the most under represented group turns out to be those of 'white race', fully 25% of employees are of non white ethnicity compared to a national rate of just over 10% - no talk of how this imbalance is to be addressed though!

I knew a chap who worked for the Commission for Racial Equality as was. I asked him who they had the biggest problem with? Answer; local authorities.

The reason; they'd go off on a positive discrimination drive and start hiring a lot of people with the right skin colour to correct the imbalance in their workforce. Fast forward a few years, when their HB dept or whatever was in meltdown, they'd sack a lot of the useless twonks they'd hired during the positive discrimination drive. The twonks concerned naturally claimed racial discrimination, making the whole thing a bit of a mess.

LydiaJ

michaels wrote: »

It is all very complicated, in Britain people want to move out of the ghetto full stop, in the US they want to move out into a black suburb or a white suburb and to only mix with 'their own people'. Anyone who doesn't self identify as 100% white is co-opted as black.

Where I am working now we are having a diversity awareness week. Apparently our LGBTI proportion is thought to be about 4% which is below the national rate (according to a best guess) 5-7% (the census is much lower) so that needs positive discrimination. Similarly those with disabilities are under represented compared to the country at large, cue more positive action required. However the most under represented group turns out to be those of 'white race', fully 25% of employees are of non white ethnicity compared to a national rate of just over 10% - no talk of how this imbalance is to be addressed though!

It seems odd to me that they would compare with the national average rather than the London average. (Am I right in thinking this workplace is in London?) Where I work, there are only a few non-white employees, but that's not terribly surprising since the adult population of the town is overwhelmingly white too. I can't imagine any London workplace would end up so close to monochrome without some fairly nasty racist discrimination in its recruitment procedures.

The students, however, are much more ethnically diverse - but the non-white students are almost all boarders. Most boarding schools in this country have lots of non-white overseas boarders, and they choose sciences more often than the British students, so, especially at A-level, science classes are usually majority non-white. I've spent my career in schools like that and the internationalism is one of the aspects I enjoy.

Unconscious bias is a tricky thing, though, and it's very difficult to eliminate it, however hard you try and however well intentioned you are. It's best to remember that nobody is immune from it, and you're not an exception, and so watch for signs that you're slipping into it. At times, I've caught myself assuming, for example, that because student X is Chinese, they must be working very hard, so if they're not achieving well, they must not be very able in my subject, and having to remind myself that while lazy Chinese students are extremely rare, that doesn't mean they don't exist, and I really ought at least to consider the possibility that X could do better with more effort!

GDB2222

michaels wrote: »

. Apparently our LGBTI proportion is thought to be about 4% which is below the national rate (according to a best guess) 5-7% (the census is much lower) so that needs positive discrimination. Similarly those with disabilities are under represented compared to the country at large, cue more positive action required. However the most under represented group turns out to be those of 'white race', fully 25% of employees are of non white ethnicity compared to a national rate of just over 10% - no talk of how this imbalance is to be addressed though!

Do they have someone coming round with a clipboard and asking you to fill out a sexual proclivities sheet? You might have too many doms and not enough subs?

Pyxis

It's the same with those awful tick boxes that ask you to tick what your ethnic origin is.

Should I tick the correct box, or tick 'Other' and then write in 'Human Being'?

When officialdom persists in emphasising the differences between us, what hope is there that ethnic origin not be important in the grand scheme of things?

Pyxis

White spirit?

Swarfega?

Vodka?







Found this:

"How can I get rid of wall paint on my hands? One way remove it is to use some soap. If it is an oil-based paint, start by rubbing cooking oil over your hands, then rub hand dishwashing detergent over the oil, then scrub. If it is a solvent-based paint, first try washing and scrubbing with rubbing alcohol."

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

...

Trouble is, you don't possess things until you've needed them once and gone out and bought them and kept them

I have none of those things .... except soap and detergent.

I've tried wet wipes and soap (twice).... and washing up liquid.

Might give soap/detergent mix a go in a bit.

Command strips were mentioned the other day, for hanging .... I said I've got some, but need some sort of alcohol to clean the wall... I googled it last night, it's surgical spirit, £1.79 from Superdrug, so I'll get some of that this week. They said you need Isopropyl alcohol ... why didn't they say "surgical spirit" to start with??

SingleSue

Pyxis wrote: »

It's the same with those awful tick boxes that ask you to tick what your ethnic origin is.

Should I tick the correct box, or tick 'Other' and then write in 'Human Being'?

When officialdom persists in emphasising the differences between us, what hope is there that ethnic origin not be important in the grand scheme of things?

I am going to be given one of those tick box things today but this time to do with my mental health.

I've had to call the doctors as things are getting on top of me a tad, the health issues are piling up and I want to try to get some of those sorted as I am not coping so well but I fear the appointment will turn into a 'let's look after your mental health' thing rather than a 'let's sort out some of those things which are having an impact on your mental health' appointment.

It's annoying but at the same time good that everyone is so much more aware of mental health but in my case it is more of a symptom than anything else. I'm low because I can't do things, because I am exhausted, because I am trying to work when really my body is not up to it, because my hands are now so beggared I struggle to hold a pen, a fork, a key and nothing is being done about it, because I can't go out like a normal person as I can't walk very far and with no one else around, I'm stuck, because the nerve jerks means my jaw clamps down hard, my head will nod suddenly, my legs and arms will just jump out which makes my life miserable and a recent thing, the area around my right eye twitching about like a mad thing.

More than anything though, I just want to hide with my head under the duvet until it all goes away.

PasturesNew

SingleSue wrote: »

...the area around my right eye twitching about like a mad thing.....

On the plus side.... maybe somebody you encounter will think you winked at them - and you might've pulled... and they might be good at doing stuff that needs doing round the house

chris_m

SingleSue wrote: »

the area around my right eye twitching about like a mad thing.

PasturesNew wrote: »

On the plus side.... maybe somebody you encounter will think you winked at them - and you might've pulled... and they might be good at doing stuff that needs doing round the house

Going by the volume of stuff you've been doing in your recent narratives, it could be worth you trying that one :rotfl: