A Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut: The Welsh Government’s Anti-Racist Action Plan - Ben Sears
“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail”—Abraham Maslow
Each side in the culture wars has armed itself with a hammer—manifested in concepts and terms such as “CRT” (Critical Race Theory), and White Privilege—and everything looks like a TERF, TRA, CRT, white privilege-shaped nail. The phenomenon is nothing new, but social media and clever algorithms have incentivised hammers and downplayed other tools and alternative ways of fixing things. Unfortunately, nuance, thoughtfulness and open dialogue are disincentivised.
When governments and policy-makers see the world in this way too, we are fed simplistic, lazy narratives about the causes of problems, and in turn, are offered simplistic, lazy solutions.
Take the subject of racial disparities in socio-economic outcomes. One side will blame slavery, colonialism and contemporary racism, and view the solution as Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) policies and even, reparations. The other side will blame the lack of integration amongst some ethnic minority communities or simply see outcome disparities as the free market running its course.
Here in Wales, the Welsh Government has been quietly wielding its Social Justice sledgehammer for some time now and is starting to swing it. This year, a raft of new action plans and programmes, touching every devolved policy area, has been designed to show Wales as the country that cares. The government wants to position Wales as the ‘Nation of Sanctuary’ providing the warm, coddling embrace its citizens crave, in stark contrast to the cold, heartless Tories across the border. Wales is positioning itself as the defender of minorities; the maternal earth-mother protecting the most vulnerable against the brutality of Westminster’s “cisnormative patriarchy”.
Two recent policy offerings to this effect have come in the form of An Anti-racist Wales: The Race Equality Action Plan for Wales (REAP) and the LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales, both of which went out to consultation in 2021.
Forged in the furnace of the summer of 2020 as a knee-jerk reaction to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, the REAP’s vision is bold: ‘A Wales that is Anti-racist by 2030’, and in its opening gambit the REAP really comes out swinging, stating:
‘We believe that white privilege will be laid bare and also the misuse of this privilege in “making us feel inferior” will be highlighted, in order to eliminate institutional racism. It is hoped that white people will “engage in challenging (their white privilege) and enriching themselves….’
Systemic racism is presented as the cause of all inequalities between different ethnic groups, and with the power of anti-racism to its elbow, the REAP then smashes into each policy area, finding nails everywhere and bashing them with a range of “anti-racist” measures.
In education, for example, it recommends:
‘Training should take an anti-racist approach and facilitate effective understanding of whiteness, in a way that supports self-reflection and challenge’, despite the supporting policy briefing from the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) stating:
‘There is limited evidence that popular forms of anti-racism training (such as training in white privilege or unconscious bias) effectively achieve their aims and some evidence that they can be counterproductive under certain circumstances, although further research is needed.’
Other such bold and sweeping recommendations are made for public bodies, who we’re told should:
‘Tackle micro-aggressions, encourage allyship and bystander intervention, with mandatory, ongoing team-based learning and development provision for all middle managers and those they manage to develop knowledge, skills and behaviours for working in an anti-racist way.’
Attempts to root out micro-aggressions are perhaps the embodiment of the ‘nails everywhere’ mindset. It assumes that racism is inherent in every human interaction and that this bad-faith assumption alongside hyper-vigilance and hypersensitivity is how we combat it. No consideration is given to what might constitute a ‘micro-aggression’, the damage to relationships and trust this way of thinking could contribute to, or the significant legal implications this might have for free speech.
No evidence is even presented as to the efficacy of this proposed intervention, or any of the other interventions proposed in the action plan. It is a reckless ‘swing anti-racism hammer, ask questions later’ approach. One only needs to look to the US to provide ample evidence of the damage such an approach is doing to individuals and communities.
The cry of systemic racism is an easy one to make and one that Ministers are happy to throw money at in order to silence debate and virtue-signal while ignoring the evidence that continually highlighting racial differences and teaching children they will never be equals might be making the situation worse. There is sensitive and important work to do in this area, but it requires sophisticated tools and skilled practitioners, not hammer-wielding opportunists and self-interested race consultants.
Most would agree that racial inequality is a hugely important social issue that requires careful consideration, consultation and open, honest debate if we are to continue to make progress on these issues. Societal cohesion is at an all-time low, and a well-considered, balanced policy is key to fixing it. To do so, the Welsh Government need to take a breather, put down their hammers, and look again in their toolbox to consider more appropriate solutions. While there are many nails out there for which their social justice hammer may be appropriate, they will have to be more careful before swinging if they’re not to do more harm than good.
Ben Sears is a former local government policy officer and teacher who lives in south Wales.