Name: Trump's ban on diversity training is commendable – we should follow suit
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Trump's ban on diversity training is commendable – we should follow suit

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A few months ago, I was at dinner with some colleagues from the British Library, where I was based for a research project on feminism. The new trans-awareness training course for staff came up. Would I be going?When I said no – and that I did not see how my personal views on matters of gender identity were in any way the business of the library or in need of “training” – eyebrows were raised to the ceiling. These colleagues, thankfully, were able to cope with my iconoclasm and the topic was changed without fall-out. But only just.This was the thin end of the wedge. I saw how exhibition staff were under huge pressure to celebrate minority history when evidence was thin on the ground, and was entirely unsurprised to read that Liz Jolly, chief librarian of the British Library, recently declared&nbsp;“”. Or that the library’s Decolonising Working Group has designated a racial “state of emergency”, with Punch (of Punch and Judy) deemed a symbol of “colonial violence”.Such preoccupations are absolutely typical of the new normal, in which a propagandistic diversity agenda is not only touted as basic fact but also as the basis on which we must all work, think and teach.Which is why, though I never thought I would say these words, I couldn’t help but applaud Donald Trump last week. The President signed that teaches how America is “fundamentally racist or sexist”. The ban is commendable in its thoroughness, including private businesses that take up federal contracts as well as government agencies.The genius of this move is that it’s not just a strong signal that enough is enough. It is actually forcing enough to be enough. The US can no longer be painted, on tax-payer money, as a racist state first and foremost. Bizarre, agenda-driven distortions of recent history and contemporary society are not to be baked into workplace education off the back of ordinary rate-payers.&nbsp;&nbsp;The impressively lengthy executive order gives due attention to the many ways in which institutions are forcing intersectional propaganda and “awareness training” on staff and students. Topics no longer allowed to be “taught” include suggestions that someone “bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex”. No more “white guilt” on the curriculum then.Our leaders should be ogling the order with slathering envy. It is just the kind of step that Britain needs to take: bold, bang on the money and wildly unpopular with the rising numbers of employers now subscribing to woke orthodoxy. For this problem is no longer background noise, or the work of a loony left minority. It is a malign set of forces with hegemony throughout our society, from the police to the courts and the public guardians of our history, including museums, libraries and universities.The fanatical workplace diversity agenda that Trump has just called time on turns fact into fiction and fiction into fact, distorts right and wrong, and thrives when trying to get inside our heads. The creep of “unconscious bias training” has gone largely unfought, even though its premise – that we are all inherently racist and must be re-educated – is both wrong and bad.It’s time to fight back.&nbsp; Cancel culture – in which people are sacked, disinvited, or publicly shamed on Twitter, because they’ve said something deemed ‘ist’ – has already reshaped society. But it could soon destroy it. The recent , Stephen Lamonby, was a chilling sign of things to come if our government doesn’t start getting tough – and fast.A well-liked and highly experienced special effects expert, who worked on films including Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator, Lamonby made a series of comments in a private conversation with his course leader, Janet Bonar, including that Germans were good at engineering, that he had a “soft spot for [underprivileged] young black males” as they “need all the help they can get” and that Jews were among the cleverest people. He asked Dr Bonar, a physicist, if she was Jewish. She called him racist and stormed off. She also accused him of saying black students didn’t have the heritage in their DNA to do engineering – something he strongly denied.These were gauche, generalising and naive comments but hardly the stuff of “hate” or “intolerance”. Yet Bonar reported him for racism, and accused him of “totalitarianism”.She was not called upon to justify herself further – her accusation was taken as fact. Meanwhile, a Bristol employment tribunal rejected Lamonby’s claims of unfair dismissal, saying it had a duty to protect its “multicultural, predominantly young student body” from potential racism.The whole thing reeked. Nobody was ever in danger. Lambonby was blundering, but a racial, totalitarian menace? Hardly. Now he’ll be forever untouchable, and his students will miss out on the advantage of his decades of knowledge. But at least they’ll be “protected”.In the current ideological climate there will be many more Lambonbys. Our government should have the courage and clarity of vision to see that unless this kind of thing is stopped with the full power of the law, as Trump has done, the lines between right and wrong, and between truth and malicious falsity, will finally vanish without a trace.&nbsp;Related TopicsThe Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. Please review our.You need to be a subscriber to join the conversation. Find out more.Show commentsAdvertisementRelated TopicsThe latest offers and discount codes from popular brands on Telegraph Voucher CodesWe rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism.We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future.Thank you for your support.Need help?Visit ourpage.Close

A few months ago, I was at dinner with some colleagues from the British Library, where I was based for a research project on feminism. The new trans-awareness training course for staff came up. Would I be going?When I said no – and that I did not see how my personal views on matters of gender identity were in any way the business of the library or in need of “training” – eyebrows were raised to the ceiling. These colleagues, thankfully, were able to cope with my iconoclasm and the topic was changed without fall-out. But only just.This was the thin end of the wedge. I saw how exhibition...

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Zoe Strimpel

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Trump's ban on diversity training is commendable – we should follow suit

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