It’s hard to keep up with what is racist these days. It used to be straightforward. You know, discriminating against, hating or depriving rights to certain groups for no other reason than the colour of their skin. But that quaint definition just won’t do anymore.
Nowadays, the countryside is racist, maths is racist, telling a Japanese person you like sushi is racist, wearing a sombrero if you’re not Mexican is racist, compliments are racist, babies are racist. To that yawning list we can now add… buildings. Particularly those in Wales, it seems.
The Welsh government has pledged to ‘eradicate’ systemic racism by 2030, and apparently it’s starting with those notorious bigots, the librarians. There are proposals to train them up in ‘critical whiteness studies’, aimed at displacing the ‘dominant paradigm of whiteness’, as part of a project costing £130,000.
The snag: where to hold all these ‘anti-racist’ training sessions, given the ‘racist legacy’ of too many buildings in Wales? Guidance for the project warns that sessions should not take place in buildings originally owned by, or named after, or even vaguely, distantly associated with slave owners, colonialists and the like.
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals secured government funding for this scheme, entitled Anti-Racist Library Collections. The Telegraph has dug up its training manual, which includes the following section on venue-booking:
Be mindful of the venue and if you have a choice, do not choose a venue that represents a racist legacy. If you have to use a venue that has a racist past, acknowledge this as early as possible to demonstrate your commitment to systemic issues. You can even acknowledge historical context in the event invitation.
Handily, a 2021 Welsh government audit has already outlined a range of problematic places, including those named after or linked to Admiral Nelson, Francis Drake and the Duke of Wellington. This includes primary schools, community centres and – hilariously – the entire village of Nelson in Caerphilly, home to 4,600 people.
It’s easy to gawp at what a colossal waste of time and resources this is. And we should. I know £130,000 is change down the back of the sofa for government, but I dare say the vast majority of Welsh people would rather that be spent on a handful of care workers, rather than demanding Myfanwy from Merthyr Tydfil be forced to interrogate her ‘white fragility’.
But more than anything, I’m struck by this: the idea that ethnic-minority Welsh people are forever mortally offended by buildings named after historical figures, that they get up in the morning seething at the deep-seated ‘whiteness’ of the library system. It’s insulting as well as out-of-touch.
If the Welsh state needs to be ‘decolonised’ of anything, it’s these ‘anti-racist’ grifters, who are apparently laughing all the way to the bank.
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