The Law Society is now instructing solicitors to acknowledge that “race” is a “categorisation is based in white supremacy” that is “developed as an attempt to prove biological superiority and maintain dominance over others.” Useful for legal paperwork…
The Society – the professional association for solicitors in England and Wales which provides support and training to them – slipped out new guidance on “Talking about race and ethnicity at work” last week. Solicitors are instructed to “accept and acknowledge that ethnicity is an integral part of a person’s identity and treat it as such.” Confusingly a few lines later they are told “it’s okay to clarify how people describe their identity but first consider why you need to know”…
The section on race itself is straight out of a US liberal arts professor’s scrawled notes:
“Race is a categorisation that is based mainly on physical attributes or traits… People are assigned to a specific race simply by having similar appearances or skin colour. For example, black or white. This categorisation is based in white supremacy. It was developed as an attempt to prove biological superiority and maintain dominance over others. It’s now widely accepted that race is a social construct. However, because many people have been racialised and experienced racism, racial identity is important to many. It can be a basis for collective organising and support for racially minoritised individuals.”
Solicitors are told that examples of “white privilege” include: “you generally have a positive relationship with the police.” “Ethnic minority” is a bad term and alternatives are laid out:
“You could also use ‘minoritised ethnic’, ‘racially minoritised’ or ‘global majority’. These recognise that individuals have been minoritised through social processes of power and domination, rather than just existing in distinct statistical minorities. It also better reflects the fact that ethnic groups that are minorities in the UK are majorities in the global population.”
The guidance finishes: “To be anti-racist is to be an active part of the solution, whereas a non-racist is a bystander of the problem.” Got all that?
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”