Carole Sherwood introduces the concept of microaggressions, explores what critics have to say about them and finds out why they have created such controversy. Read on…
Microaggressions: In the Eye of the Beholder
by Carole Sherwood, psychologist Cambridge University was recently embroiled in controversy over a Report & Support’ website launched for the anonymous reporting of microaggressions by students and staff. The university claimed this was to encourage a ‘safe, welcoming and inclusive community’ but academics expressed concern that they could be reported for ‘offences’ such as raising […]
Who needs ‘intersectionality’?
by Philip Hammond on behalf of DDU academics The concept of ‘intersectionality’ seems omnipresent today. Human Resources departments in public institutions and businesses miss no opportunity to trumpet its significance. HR Magazine emphasises ‘the importance of intersectionality in HR’, while Personnel Today warns that failure to take proper account of intersectionality could mean that ‘organisations […]
DDU’s Response to The Committee on Racial and Ethnic Disparities’ Report
The CRED Report does not deny that racism exists, but it does maintain that not all disparities are incontrovertible proof of racism. Like any report, it has limitations and will not please everyone, but DDU welcomes it as a robust attempt to bring some objectivity into what has become an increasingly fraught and subjective discussion […]
Critical Race Theory in the Workplace
With much of the media attention focused on academia and public institutions, we can forget that the divisive and pernicious ideas of critical race theory affect many more people who work in private businesses as well. Here George Crichton, pen name of a DDU supporter, recounts his experience of the mandatory Diversity and Inclusion training […]
From Psychotherapist to Psychoactivist: How Therapy is Becoming Derailed
By Val Thomas This is a public health warning: the seal on the tin labelled Counselling and Psychotherapy has been tampered with and the contents have become contaminated. Mainstream culture has been captured by Critical Social Justice, an ideology that prioritises group identity over the individual. The wholescale adoption of this belief system threatens to […]
How We Bend The Knee To Our HR Overlords
Aris Roussinos at Unherd draws on the ideas of Louis Althusser to illuminate how the radical rhetoric of contemporary self-styled anti-racism morphs into a successor ideology. Far from toppling capitalism, it is proving popular with many HR departments and a good friend to a new liberal élite: Like the wave of statue-toppling earlier this summer, […]
Unconscious Bias Training Is Divisive Nonsense
Many public and private institutions and workplaces are turning to alleged anti-racist training materials and providers that endorse the idea of unconscious bias, which is itself based on a scientifically discredited concept of implicit association tests. The result, argues Carrie Clark at Spiked Online, can only be more resentment: The test seemed to show that […]
“I Left the British Psychological Society — And This Is What Happened”
Psychologist Kirsty Miller blogs on Medium about her experience of becoming professionally homeless. [A]fter a great deal of deliberation I decided to cancel my membership. This was a big decision, because being unable to say I was a member of the BPS could potentially have implications for my career… …In the current economic climate I […]
Why Black Lives Matter are so dangerous
Nick Buckley wrote a blog post criticising Black Lives Matter, and found himself targeted by an online petition to have him removed as CEO of the youth charity he founded. Here’s his account of what happened and how he fought back. I wrote the blog not to express a personal opinion, but because I have […]