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Civil servants held a diversity meeting discussing the book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race, and were encouraged to keep the discussions private.
The Department for Business and Trade’s race, ethnicity and cultural heritage (Reach) network, a group representing minority staff, held the discussion on Nov 16 which was advertised as revolving around “topics relating to race, what it means to be anti-racist, and how to be an impactful ally”.
An email from Reach to DBT staff said the “discussion groups are a safe space to discuss what allyship of ethnic minorities really means” and “will be based around Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race”.
The conservative author and professor of politics at the University of Kent, Matthew Goodwin, told The Telegraph: “For all of Kemi Badenoch’s [the Secretary of State for the Department for Business and Trade] rhetoric attacking Critical Race Theory (CRT), it is now clear that this divisive ideology has captured her own department.
‘Time for ministers to walk the walk’
“Discussing “allyship” and books like Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race are classic examples of CRT.
“Whilst civil servants should not waste their work time discussing these radical narratives around race, it is up to ministers to put an end to this.
“The Conservative Party has had 13 years to clamp down on officials who promote concepts like CRT, yet nothing ever seems to change.
“Instead of talking the talk, as Kemi and other Conservative MPs sometimes like to do on these issues, it is time for ministers to walk the walk.”
In October 2020 Ms Badenoch gave a speech in the House of Commons in which she described Critical Race Theory as a “dangerous trend in race relations… an ideology that sees my blackness as victimhood and their whiteness as oppression”.
The Reach meeting on Nov 16 took place between noon and 1pm, and was the first of six sessions set to be held by the group over the next six months.
During the online meeting one official claimed that “four or five people in the last year” left the Department for Business and Trade “out of pure frustration with the fact that they weren’t advancing and they weren’t growing to the same extent as their white counterparts”.
Another civil servant responded to the comment, saying: “I think it’s met with that defensiveness as well. It’s like the first reaction is to defend the position and state why but there isn’t a defence.”
During the discussion, which focused on racism and diversity, one official said: “I’m a trade advisor… and so often what I have done is connect what I believe in terms of the network with what my day job is… I work a lot to support ethnic minority businesses because I’m a trade advisor and so indirectly, so what I’m urging most people to think about is how can you connect your day job to being an ally and what does that look like?”
‘Respect anonymity’
At the end of the discussion several civil servants made comments about preventing leaks from the meeting.
One mandarin said: “Can I also just stress the importance of keeping the conversations that we’ve had here today to respect the anonymity… because the only way that we can foster these conversations in a safe space is if we protect that.”
They continued: “And the reason why I’m saying this is to be honest, that there has been articles that’ve been posted online and in UK newspapers about what we do in a network, not just our network, but also other networks have been targeted. So it is really important to think about that. I’m not saying you cannot share what we’ve discussed in theory, but just don’t attribute it to a particular person so that we can continue to have these conversations.”
The comment was followed up by another official who said: “Just to add to what [civil servant] said, it’s the reason why we don’t record calls.”
A Department for Business and Trade spokesman said: “In any large organisation there will be a range of views and concerns over different issues which employees may want to discuss. These discussions are always held in a manner that is consistent with both Civil Service values and our responsibilities under the Civil Service Code.”
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