Scottish Union for Education – Newsletter No36
Newsletter Themes: colourblind anti-racism and the intolerant dogma of the ‘anti-racist’ establishment.
Last week, around a hundred parents and concerned members of local communities protested in Glasgow against the sexualisation of children’s education and the promotion of transgender ideology in schools. A video of the event has attracted more than 110,000 views. Elsewhere, in England, we have seen council meetings attended by parents complaining about the same issues. There are many parents raising concerns about these issues, but also many who know little about what is being taught, and perhaps as many again who have some concerns but are unaware of those around them who want to do something about it. There are also teachers and headteachers who have concerns or at times don’t know what to do, given the varying pressures they experience. This all raises the question of what we as a union can and should be doing to help communities to have their voices heard.
I suspect there are millions of people across Scotland and the rest of the UK who are – or would be, if they knew what is being taught – deeply concerned about the promotion of transgender ideology to children. Indeed, the latest British Social Attitudes survey, which is one of the most important surveys across the UK, recently found that while we are increasingly tolerant of same-sex relationships, we are also becoming increasingly concerned about transgenderism. For example, the survey shows that ‘the proportion of people who think someone should be able to change the sex on their birth certificate if they want has fallen from 53 per cent in 2019 to 30 per cent today’. This is a huge shift, suggesting that the more people find out about the consequences of this approach, the more opposition there is to it.
One of our aims over the next three years is to employ people to help with our campaigning, and we hope to raise £100,000 to enable us to do this. Our aim is to build our supporter base so that by 2027 we are self-sustaining and can carry on this work, with your help. Please donate to SUE or become a member by subscribing to this Substack.
If you are already a member and think you know others who would support our work, let them know about what we are doing.
Finally, SUE would like to thank Graham Linehan for speaking at our recent online event, the video of which will be available soon. Graham’s new book is due out this month and has already had a huge number of pre-orders, which tells me that there are many many people across the UK who are deeply concerned about the transgender ideology that is taking over our institutions.
This week’s Substack focuses on the issue of so-called ‘anti-racist’ education, and in particular, on the cancelling of Alka Sehgal Cuthbert. Alka set up Don’t Divide Us, an anti-racist group that believes in the need for a liberal and colourblind approach to racism. She questions the critical race theory (CRT) approach that has been dogmatically adopted by schools and universities across the UK, and as a result, Alka was barred from speaking at an education conference (Rethinking Education) last month. Whether you agree or disagree with the ideas underpinning CRT, a key concern SUE has is that institutionalised CRT-based ‘anti-racism’ has become an unquestionable dogma, one whose advocates are protected from doubt by talking about the ‘harm’ created by those with ideas that challenge it. When ideas are represented as a form of harm, and when only one opinion is allowed, we find that education has become a form of indoctrination.
Alka’s story has gone viral and has been reported around the world, including in Australia and America. Elsewhere, we find other colourblind anti-racists, such as Coleman Hughes, explaining how even giving a basic Ted Talk on the subject results in a panic by the organisers, who appear to have limited the promotion and reach of his video. And all this because he believes that the best approach to the issue of racism is to treat everybody the same, without prejudice, rather than based on their race. If Martin Luther King were alive today, our ‘anti-racist’ establishment would probably label him a racist or demand he be shut down because of his ‘harmful’ ideas – he may even face the cancelling of his famous speech about the need to treat people based on their character rather than the colour of their skin: that’s how mad things have become, and this is what passes as anti-racism in our schools!
Below, we are delighted to reprint an extract from an article written by Alka, followed by Alka’s response to the organisers of the Rethinking Education conference. If you have any concerns or stories about the intolerant CRT-based ‘anti-racism’ dogma in your schools, let us know about it: info@scottishunionforeducation.co.uk.
Alka and three of her fellow panellists now have their opportunity to discuss indoctrination in education, and how to avoid it, on Monday 16 October, 7–9 p.m., at a Free Speech Union–Don’t Divide Us event in London and online. Tickets are available through Eventbrite.
I’ve been cancelled for standing up to racial identity politics
Alka Sehgal Cuthbert is the Director of Don’t Divide Us.
An education conference has disinvited me because my presence would make speakers feel ‘unsafe’.
It was going to happen at some point. You can’t be director of a grassroots campaign like Don’t Divide Us (DDU), committed to a liberal, democratic approach to race issues, without expecting some blowback. But to be cancelled three days before I was due to speak at the Rethinking Education conference, I have to admit, came as an unwelcome surprise.
I was due to speak in a debate entitled ‘What is indoctrination within education and how can we avoid it?’. But because I actively campaign against racial indoctrination in schools, I was disinvited. (Ironically, I was also the only person of colour on the panel.)
I knew this session would be an outlier among the other, more right-on conference offerings. And I knew that, despite my educational and academic experience and qualifications, my role at DDU would prompt some behind-the-scenes discussions at Rethinking Education. So, when I received confirmation of my invitation, I respected the organisers for their courage.
But that respect vanished when I received notice, just two days before the conference, that I had been disinvited. The reason? Seven individuals had contacted the director of Rethinking Education, James Mannion, to tell him they felt so distressed and scared that someone from Don’t Divide Us was speaking that they would not attend the conference if I was a speaker.
In my communications with Mannion, he attempted to justify cancelling me on the grounds that it was necessary to safeguard all delegates and speakers. I pointed out that safeguarding pertains to adults protecting children. The other delegates and speakers are not children. If they feel so scared of talking to me in a public forum, how would they cope in a classroom?
Statement from director of DDU
Monday 25 September 2023
Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert was dropped from a panel on indoctrination in education at the Rethinking Education conference after seven anonymous speakers and delegates said her views were a threat to their ‘psychological safety’. The organisers of the session decided to cancel the entire panel (none of whom complained) at protest at this disinvitation. Here, Alka responds to what happened and an apology from Dr James Mannion.
I accept the organiser of last Saturday’s Rethinking Education event, Dr James Mannion’s, apology for disinviting me from speaking at a session entitled ‘What is Indoctrination and How Can Schools Avoid It?’ following claims from seven people (speakers and delegates) who told him that they would feel unsafe and distressed if a representative from Don’t Divide Us (DDU) was present and would be unable to attend if I were present.
I appreciate that Dr Mannion felt under intense emotional pressure, and was concerned about the potential disruption to the programme and decided on what he thought was the line of least resistance or disruption. The session was convened by Toby Marshall, a member of the Academy of Ideas Education Forum. After speaking with me, he decided not to go ahead with the session. It was a rare act of solidarity, much appreciated, as well as recognition of the absurdity of going ahead with a session on indoctrination in education without a speaker who has been disinvited. The loss of a session on probably one of the most intellectually and politically challenging topics in the programme was considered to be a price worth paying to assuage claims of psychological safety. Here I disagree with Dr Mannion who, during our communication, said this was a precondition for free debate. In my view this is logically incoherent and is far from being an uncontested claim in the field of psychology.
I also disagree with Dr Mannion’s claim that he was not taking a stand on DDU. In disinviting me, he had made a judgement – one that prioritised the claims based on the spurious concept of psychological safety over my 30 years plus of experience in education, my doctorate in the Sociology and Philosophy of Education from Cambridge University, and subsequent academic work on the relationship between public morality, democracy and education. I am more than qualified to speak at a session entitled ‘What is Indoctrination in Education and How Can Schools Avoid Doing It?’
I don’t know who the seven cancellers are, and have not met them (as far as I am aware). It is not, as far as I know, my academic work which scares them. It is the fact that I work for DDU – a campaign whose central tenets are antithetical to the new ideology based on Critical Race Theory, which advocates that Britain is structurally racist; that equity requires treating people as group members according to skin colour; and that any dissent is a form of blasphemy to be punished. But these beliefs, rooted in the philosophy of liberalism that can be traced to the Enlightenment but is also found in the philosophy of some non-Western civilisations, are those of the majority of British citizens (who have never been more multi-ethnic).
In democratic societies it is completely legitimate to disagree, criticise or mock these beliefs in public forums. It is not legitimate to morally stigmatise them by implying that, somehow, they are not respectable for public airing without providing compelling reasons. Adults who consent to meet in public forums, but then claim protection from views with which they disagree on grounds of psychological safety, are effectively redefining what it means to be a good citizen from one of moral autonomy to one of compliance. This has been a feature of authoritarian societies. So, for us, accepting the claims of the seven complainers is ultimately about the intellectual and moral integrity of our public and civic culture, and as a person with public authority, despite empathising with the situation Dr Mannion found himself facing, we think his first duty is to freedom of speech over psychological safety.
After consulting with the DDU team and other trusted friends, I decided it would be wrong to remain silent when we know there are many individuals who face censorious and intolerant treatment on similar grounds alone and for whom the consequences could be more severe than for myself personally. We decided to go as public as we could and enlisted the guidance of the Free Speech Union – who have been prompt and robust in their guidance and response.
Finally, despite our disagreements, I thank Dr Mannion for his apology and for his subsequent invitation to host a recording of the discussion on the Rethinking website. I hope this will be possible and would be very happy to discuss our points of difference in a public forum. While agreement on the balance of freedom and safety may elude us, from the discussion greater conceptual clarity could emerge, no bad thing in itself. In addition, DDU is organising an event with the FSU in London and online. Tickets are available here. And I will be speaking at the Battle of Ideas Conference on the 28 and 29 October. So, I may have been disinvited, but I am not cancelled – and maybe the whole episode indicates that it is possible to have profound disagreement, retain a common civility and freedom of speech!
News round-up
A selection of the main stories with relevance to Scottish education in the press in recent weeks, by Simon Knight
https://archive.ph/eO5wk Daniel Martin, Trans activists behind campaign of violence against women, Rishi Sunak warned. In a letter to the Prime Minister they say, ‘Women are being threatened with social ostracism, loss of livelihood and physical violence’. 24/09/23
https://forwomen.scot/21/06/2023/school-toilets/ FWS, School Toilets letter format for parents. 21/06/23
https://archive.ph/fqTSS Daniel Sanderson, NHS Scotland’s treatment of transgender children is a ‘medical scandal as bad as thalidomide’. A doctor has warned proposals would ‘cause harm to many vulnerable young people’. 21/09/23
https://archive.ph/ldg3J Robert Tombs, The rewriting of history has taken a sinister turn. The manipulation of our past for political purposes is now big business – with the West paying the price. 25/09/23
Joanna Williams, We must learn to confront disagreeable ideas: Yes, words can cause pain and distress but safe spaces and censorship will not build resilience. 26/09/23
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/26/harry-potter-panel-cancelled-london-comic-con-lgbtq-trans/ Ewan Somerville, Harry Potter panel axed from London Comic Con to keep transgender fans ‘safe’. Producers of the Cursed Child stage show were booked to speak but they were cancelled after an LGBT+ charity complained. 26/09/23
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/17/teachers-need-guidance-to-resolve-issues-gender-identity-in-classroom Sonia Sodha, Teachers need guidance to resolve issues of gender identity in the classroom. 17/09/23
https://archive.ph/hpF6o Matt Dathan, Law protects opposition to critical race theory, judge rules. 29/09/23
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/maggie-chapman-blasted-greens-member-31010993 David Walker, Maggie Chapman blasted by Greens member over ‘regressive secrecy’ in trans children row. The controversial Scottish Greens was attacked by former UK Green Party deputy leader Shahrar Ali over comments she made suggesting that some parents should not be told about their children struggling with gender identity. 23/09/23
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/glasgow-parents-target-council-inappropriate-31032405 Jessica North, Glasgow parents target council for ‘inappropriate’ and ‘unscientific’ sex and gender lessons for primary kids. Sex and gender lessons are under scrutiny from parents in Glasgow who plan to join an array of campaigning voices in the city’s George Square this week for a demonstration. 27/09/23
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Another great newsletter. These conversations are so important. I see this anti-racism ideology creating so much division and strife. It is so regressive and nihilistic. Just saw the new anti racism guide for Scotland going into schools. It's two pages of devastating stuff. Why would you introduce such damaging concepts to kids who have no capability to understand it not having the context of the wider history or lens? And more time spent on useless things, things that will stunt their curiosity and wonder. It robs them of their childhood and innocence. Makes me so angry and sad.