Believing in meritocracy can be a “racist” microaggression, polar scientists have been told.
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS), which oversees Britain’s research stations in Antarctica, claimed that believing “the most qualified person should get the job” can be a form of “racial harassment”.
In an inclusivity guide issued to employees, the organisation says the “myth of meritocracy” asserts “that race does not play a role in life successes”.
Abject tossery though it is this is what academia is like often enough.
Fair enough
After all everything at the poles is white.
The best you can get on the diversity front are penguins and orcas and they are half and half.
I can confirm that this cr*p has spread throughout the UK university sector. It’s pushed by people who are not employed to do anything else. The big jump is from ‘some people have experienced prejudice in the past ‘ to ‘there’s no such thing as a meritocracy and we have to go by racial and sexual quotas’ or even ‘we must make up for past prejudice ‘.
You know the drill. It’s everywhere.
‘believing “the most qualified person should get the job” can be a form of “racial harassment”.’
Interesting how the nasty stuff in life starts out by being active and volitional, and then migrates across into being mere passive states of being that we disagree with. Racism used to be the preserve of those who think people of a different race are inferior, and treat them accordingly; now if your organisation doesn’t look right, it can itself be “racist”. Rape used to require a horny bloke’s intention to violate a non-consenting woman; now it’s a label applied to a sexual outcome that someone feels unhappy about. I would have thought that the bar for “harassment” should be set pretty high (i.e. it would have to be more than a couple of isolated incidents, and would crucially target a particular victim). But now it means that Leroy or Wankjit didn’t get that dream job because the panel were old-fashioned enough to remember professional standards.
Needless to say, I believe that the most qualified should get the job, regardless of whether they’re black, yellow or (shudder!!!) white.
It’s probably caused by all that white hair I see in the mirror.
@Otto – drat and double-drat. You beat me to it! 🙂
On a more serious point, one might be tempted to think that the composition of a team living in isolated conditions for long stretches of time should be less influenced by fashionable tokenism.
Believing in meritocracy can be a “racist” microaggression, polar scientists have been told.
Everyone who believes in this tosh should have their NHS files tagged and when they need a cancer or other specialist for a life threatening illness specialist they should be allocated to to those who had the worst outcomes, obviously controlling for difficulty of operations.
I can’t wait to see the first diversity advisor who has a brain tumour insisting being operated on by a Black lesbian one-armed plumber…
I will not make race an issue in any appointment. I am not going to allow the exploitation, for employment purposes, of an opposing candidate’s palette and family history.
Actually, the “myth of meritocracy” does not assert “that race does not play a role in life successes”. The “myth of meritocracy” says we don’t care how anyone got to this point, we want the best surgeon/engineer, etc. If and to the extent that race “plays a role in life successes” feel free to try to improve the systems so that more people get an even shake, but don’t insist on unqualified people getting important jobs.
Who else is in favour of assigning the pen-pushers who authored this to be the next crew at that station?
Bets on First Blood and First Kill..
I assume that watching The Thing is a compulsory part of training for Polar scientists.
Just scrap the British Antarctic Survey, as in “you’re all fired”.
It is, after all, a left-over from the days of the British Empah and therefore its continued existence is itself a racist microaggression.
The BAS should be abolished, not for British Empah reasons but for telling lies about melting glaciers, hottest year evah, tipping points and the rest.
The guide also claims that both of the phrases “all lives matter” and “there is only one race, the human race” are microaggressions that “indicate that a white person does not want to acknowledge race”.
How niggardly. They’ve followed us to the South Pole, lads.
A spokesman for BAS said: “We aim to make BAS a welcoming and inclusive place for all.
“We achieve this by investing in comprehensive training and offering valuable information on safety and wellbeing for all BAS staff and those who deploy with us.
“BAS wants to create a responsible culture where we support inclusive leadership that puts everyone’s safety first. Our guide provides learning and information on how to be part of an inclusive community.”
I hope everyone involved with BAS dies from a new and painful species of arse AIDS.
“Racism used to be the preserve of those who think people of a different race are inferior, and treat them accordingly; now if your organisation doesn’t look right, it can itself be “racist”. Rape used to require a horny bloke’s intention to violate a non-consenting woman; now it’s a label applied to a sexual outcome that someone feels unhappy about.”
This is deliberate. It’s so that when people hear about racism, or harassment, they think it’s the second outcome.
So when it’s the first, but the one being a racist or a rapist, but it’s one of the protected classes, people will tend to think it’s the second and dismiss the complainer.
See Rotherham et al. You don’t hate your police and lawyers and politicians, and bureaucrats, nearly enough.
Steve
I want them to meet The Thing
That’d knock some sense into Them ( oh no, they are the giant ants ).
Otto – what are The Thing’s pronouns?
Bets on First Blood and First Kill..
I think First Blood has already happened thanks to an African (Nigerian?) Antarctic outpost making the news. The team appears to be about a dozen PoCs and one white woman.
“We aim to make BAS a welcoming and inclusive place for all.”
An open door policy in Antarctica is dangerous.
‘Believing in meritocracy can be a “racist” microaggression’
The ironing being that you must first believe that certain races are in fact inferior such that meritocracy could affect them.
Gamecock suspects there are a lot of idle minds in Antarctica. Night can last a long time.
It certainly now seems the case that certain attributes, unrelated to ability to do the job, significantly influence selection decisions.
As with Joe’s VP selection, competence is at best the 3rd criteria.
I was recently told that the team of 8 people I’ve hired over the last 2 years is a good example of diversity, my comment was hired the best person every time it was just coincidence that it represented a mix of male/female, old/young and mix of races.
Etc
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