I guess those complaining are upset that their unfair privilege is being taken away.

Amber Thomas: 
 

SMW: 
 

However, that does not advocate burying one's head in the sand.  Monitor the landscape and act where there ARE problems, including White Male Un-Privilege which,  due to Wokeness, is infecting much of society.

I haven't heard of “White Male Un-Privilege” before. It doesn't sound like a bad thing to me. Doesn't removing one group's unearned privilege put them on a level playing field with everyone else? Or are you arguing that white males should be in a position of privilege? ?

It is the fact that the most under privileged group in society today is the white male.

Why?

When did you last see a white male scholarship?

When did you last see a white male history day/week/month?

When did you last see a white male only event?

etc…

You don't see these as they would be labelled racist and sexist, and rightly so, but they exist for “black” and “black women” and “women”.

The world needs equality, not swinging the pendulum one way or another.  Drop the Woke racism that BLM has poisoned the country with!

SMW: 
 

Amber Thomas: 
 

SMW: 
 

However, that does not advocate burying one's head in the sand.  Monitor the landscape and act where there ARE problems, including White Male Un-Privilege which,  due to Wokeness, is infecting much of society.

I haven't heard of “White Male Un-Privilege” before. It doesn't sound like a bad thing to me. Doesn't removing one group's unearned privilege put them on a level playing field with everyone else? Or are you arguing that white males should be in a position of privilege? ?

It is the fact that the most under privileged group in society today is the white male.

Why?

When did you last see a white male scholarship?

When did you last see a white male history day/week/month?

When did you last see a white male only event?

etc…

You don't see these as they would be labelled racist and sexist, and rightly so, but they exist for “black” and “black women” and “women”.

The world needs equality, not swinging the pendulum one way or another.  Drop the Woke racism that BLM has poisoned the country with!

I think this post demonstrates clearly why we need to educate some parts of the IET membership on what White Privilege means and that steps to correct for it are needed.

James, you are a traitor to your own kind, this is a great country and civilisation created by us and our forefathers, and your father too I assume.  If you dislike our country and our people why don’t you go and live in a country that is more to your liking, I’m sure you’ll be made very welcome as we make others welcome here.

You, as a Fellow of the institution, with your attitude to our indigenous population is the reason I have now decided, after 30 years, to quit the IET, I am not contributing to a glorified student union to play out their silly student ideologies.

It is the fact that the most under privileged group in society today is the white male.

Why?

When did you last see a white male scholarship?

When did you last see a white male history day/week/month?

When did you last see a white male only event?

etc…

You don't see these as they would be labelled racist and sexist, and rightly so, but they exist for “black” and “black women” and “women”.

The world needs equality, not swinging the pendulum one way or another.  Drop the Woke racism that BLM has poisoned the country with!

International Men's Day is next Friday (19th November): ukmensday.org.uk/.../
The themes the day focuses on are:

• Making a positive difference to the wellbeing and lives of men and boys
  Promoting a positive conversation about men, manhood and masculinity
  Raising awareness and/or funds for charities supporting men and boys’ wellbeing
   

I hope you enjoy the day.

I think the reason that we don't have a “white male history day” is because most UK academic history syllabuses focus on the antics of white men already. But if people are only taught about what white men were doing, they then think that women or ethnic minorities had no part to play in history and that simply isn't true.  Perhaps if your school history teachers had focussed more on other segments of society, perhaps you would be arguing that this country was built by our foremothers! Perhaps not. But if you enjoy history, then what is the problem with learning a bit more about it from another perspective?

Hi everyone. Thank you again for your continued contribution. Can I please remind everyone to be civil, polite, and above all respectful of other opinions, even when they differ from one's own. The whole point of this post is to gather as many differing opinions as possible as ALL matter to us. Thank you and please keep sharing your experiences and ideas!

SMW: 
It is the fact that the most under privileged group in society today is the white male.

Except for, maybe, asylum seekers, those 500+ subpostmasters unsafely convicted of fraud in the PO Horizon affair, paraplegic and quadriplegic people trying to navigate public transport in cities, epileptics and those with other physical constraints trying to hold down a job in conditions not designed for their needs, and so on. Really, the list is quite long.

If we do have to go into BLM matters, and I think we do, a quote from the government may be apt

there were 6 stop and searches for every 1,000 White people, compared with 54 for every 1,000 Black people

from

https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/crime-justice-and-the-law/policing/stop-and-search/latest

The government uses 18 ethnic categories, and there is a bar chart on rates of stop and search. The rate for blacks is nine times that for whites. Whatever the reasons for that, it does mean that the experience of black people with police in cities is rather different from that of whites. This is underscored by the experience of the astonishingly talented George the Poet, a Cambridge literature graduate and award-winning podcaster who turned down an MBE in 2019, who has said quite clearly that the experience of being who he is did/does not mesh with the prevailing cultural mores:

 “That top-down approach to education, the idea that smart, cultured, well-off people are going to share with you how to be like them, does not work. I can say that because that was almost imposed upon me, and I struggled with it for a long time.

“It did not make as much sense as sticking with what I started with. I was in a school that was very different from the environment I grew up in and the messaging I received was that the way guys like me talked, and what we valued, was just not going to cut it.

He is to give the Longford Lecture on prison reform tonight. Maybe we could ask him how many of his childhood buddies are Chartered Engineers; why, and why not? No matter what your views on privilege, the answer might well be very informative.

I think that discrimination is embedded in western culture. For an example, my mother was born to a member of the British Army in a British Army Hospital. However she was classed as alien and had to keep massive records of why she was British because her father was from Ireland and the hospital was in Malta.

I detest the characterisation of sub-cultures even though we are using metaphors to name them, e.g. White and Black. All people are important. I call myself Northern European when I have to.

And then we use terms like Man to mean something? Well as a man I detest sport, avoiding playing it as a child and rarely watching it since - only really the Tour de France. Also school did an excellent job of turning me off poetry and I don't like songs either.

Does IET have figures for the proportions of these various groups & categories under discussion?

I mean, a) in the population, b) practicing at specific level, c) and with membership of IET?

I'm asking UK based, and most posters seem to be assuming such, but as the IET is (pretends to be) international, the scope of the OP isn't clear.

Similarly, this forum is sort of double-legged, professional level engineers, and electricians - quite different. I don't know if other careers are well represented here? 

Questions, questions… 

Gideon: 
 

Does IET have figures for the proportions of these various groups & categories under discussion?

I mean, a) in the population, b) practicing at specific level, c) and with membership of IET?

I recall seeing some (not all!) of this data when looking at the IET's EDI strategy a few months ago. I agree it would be very interesting to see for the sake of transparency, and identifying where we need to do better as an organisation!

I wonder what the differences would look like when stratifying by things like membership type, professional registration level, activeness in terms of volunteering and local networks, etc. If for example we end up recruiting a diverse bunch of engineers to the membership but they're not being equipped with the skills/opportunities to reach professional registration, that in itself could be an issue worth investigating.

Edit: in fact, at risk of ruffling a few feathers - in the interests of transparency and holding ourselves to account, we should probably publish diversity reports of our elected Fellowship, Trustee board, Council etc too ? (unless we're doing this already, which would be great!)