‘Forgive me, Father, for I am white’: UK Labour leader absolves himself of the sin of whiteness with unconscious bias training

The British Labour leader enthusiastically prostrated himself before the gods of woke to purge his soul of racism, but this is not harmless virtue-signaling, it is promotion of dangerous indoctrination.

Frank Furedi
RT
Fri, 02 Oct 2020

When it comes to taking pride in your achievement, the leader of the British Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, sets the bar rather low. This is why his spokesman has actually bothered to inform the world that Starmer has passed his unconscious bias training course.

In reality, anyone who is prepared to humiliate themselves and listen to a moral entrepreneur lecture them about their bias and unwitting racism can pass their unconscious bias training.

All you have to do is nod your head, acknowledge that you, along with all white people, are unwittingly racist and confess to a time when you used your white privilege, and you will get your course certificate. As Starmer no doubt understands, what’s important about the ritual of unconscious bias training is your willingness to participate and subjugate yourself to a few hours of humiliation.

It is the woke equivalent of an old-fashioned confessional. A willingness to be humiliated indicates that you are prepared to be reborn as a re-educated white person. It is not a particularly expensive ritual and in return you are rewarded with a certificate that indicates that you are a person of virtue.

It is a symptom of the moral disorientation of the British establishment that they feel compelled to demonstrate their willingness to be trained out of their biases. Recently, it was announced that MPs will be made to take anti-racist training at work in parliament. At a time when the nation struggles to deal with a pandemic and the economy is in ruins, our members of parliament will line up like like naughty pupils line up to acknowledge their unconscious biases!

While some MPs have been hesitant to show up at a training course, Starmer has beaten them to the punch. He had an early lead over the rest because Starmer boasted back in early July that he would sign up for unconscious bias training at the first opportunity. He stated:

‘I think everybody should have unconscious bias training. I think it is important. There is always the risk of unconscious bias and just saying ‘Oh well it probably applies to other people, not me’ is not the right thing to do.’

He also added that that he was going to introduce unconscious bias training for all the officials in his party. And to underline his enthusiasm, Starmer declared: “I’m going to lead from the top on this and do that training first.”

Starmer’s enthusiasm for training was provoked by his concern that unless he did something to demonstrate he was on the side of the angels, his anti-racist credentials would be questioned by his woke supporters.

Just before he showed his willingness to sign up for the first available training course, he made the unpardonable error of describing the Black Lives Matter protests as a ‘moment.’ He later tried to correct himself by saying that he had meant to describe the movement as a “defining moment” and was not suggesting it was a “fleeting moment[ii].

However, Starmer’s half-hearted apology was not good enough. Labour MP Florence Eshalomi stated that his ‘choice of words [was] wrong,’ and it was only a matter of time before an army of race entrepreneurs would jump on the bandwagon and denounce the Labour leader’s unwitting racism. Heading for the re-education class was his way of asking for forgiveness. No doubt when he arrived and was instructed to jump, his response was ‘how high?’

So what is this unconscious bias that white people need to be trained out of? Unconscious bias is the original sin of white people. It implies that even if you think you are anti-racist, you are not free from your unconscious biases. Race entrepreneurs argue that they know better than you what is really going on inside your head. Therefore, it does not matter what your think or say, they get to decide what’s on your mind. And their aim is to control how you should think and express yourself.

The promotion of unconscious bias workshops has nothing to do with fighting real racism. It is about indoctrination and mind control. It might seem like a harmless exercise of playing along with the demands of woke culture. But the institutionalization of these workshops calls into question your right to think for yourself. And that’s a truly dangerous development.

Frank Furedi is an author and social commentator. He is an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent in Canterbury. Author of How Fear Works: The Culture of Fear in the 21st Century. Follow him on Twitter @Furedibyte

Martin comments: Do you think if NZ gets a Labour government for a second term they’ll bring this in? Don’t laugh, that’s a serious question….