B.A.M.E. R.I.P.
In an Outbreak of what might be considered common-sense, Newham Council has decided to drop the acronym, BAME.
It seems that lumping everyone together irrespective of background and history is now infra dig at Newham. We are bound to ask, will the CLPs now follow suit? And if so, what will happen to all of the BAME Officers, will they disappear or will they multiply?
Newham took the positive step of consulting with staff on the terminology. Fifty Six of them responded, not a massive number given that Newham employs several thousand staff and a cynic might suggest that the responses came predominantly from the Fourth Floor of Dockside but we are unable to verify this as there are no anonymised details of the respondents provided. It does seem that the process was not important enough to expend any real effort on genuinely engaging with Newham staff. Ah well.
Estimating that some 3000 of Newham’s staff are from a minority community (it may well be more) and 56 responded, this gives a participation rate in the region of 2%.
People who had previously been lumped together did not appreciate it. Mostly it seems because “the term was too reductive, othering or marginalising”. And whilst the terminology suggests blathering wokery, the meaning is nonetheless clear. “We are all different!”
So, well done Newham Council. A small step in the right direction. Though, come on. If you are going to be serious about staff participation you are going to have to do better than 2%.
And then there is the virtue signalling sting in the tail. The letter to staff concludes “Every change you make, no matter how big or small makes a difference and is helping us work towards becoming an anti-racist organisation.”
Who could possibly say that they didn’t want to be anti-racist? Clearly no-one if they want a job in local government, but seriously, this is one of those terms bandied about by the woke-Left. It pretends to be progressive but hides its prejudice behind noble sounding terminology; it is an ideology obsessed with categories which has precious little time for people, despite what the strap-line says.