Welsh warned over 'racist' buildings - Staff will be instructed in 'critical whiteness studies' and dealing with the 'dominant paradigm of whiteness'

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/19/avoid-meetings-in-racist-buildings-welsh-librarians-told/

Librarians should avoid holding meetings in "racist" buildings, decolonisation training experts have advised.

Libraries across Wales have been given the task of becoming "anti-racist", in line with the devolved Labour government's pledge to "eradicate" systemic racism by 2030.

Training is being devised as part of a £130,000 project to instruct local librarians in "critical whiteness studies" and how to deal with issues like the "dominant paradigm of whiteness".

Advisers on the process have made clear that planned training sessions should not take place in buildings with a "racist" past.

The guidance comes after dozens of buildings in Wales, from pubs to community centres, were added to a 2021 government-backed dossier of sites linked to slavery and colonialism.

Documents outlining how libraries can be made to align with "anti-racist principles" state that new staff training sessions will be necessary.

A warning in a "venue booking" guide says: "Be mindful of the venue and if you have a choice, do not choose a venue that represents a racist legacy."

It also makes provision in case avoiding buildings with a "racist" past is not possible, stating: "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."

The new guidance adds that training materials should be checked for "harmful" content, and advises that providing "vegetarian and vegan options only can be used to support any decarbonisation or net zero goals of your organisation".

'Right historical narrative'

The document was created by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (Cilip) in Wales, which has secured government funding for a project titled Anti-racist Library Collections.

The guide is part of an effort across the cultural sector in Wales to comply with the Labour government's 2022 Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan, which sought to set the "right historical narrative".

Earlier Welsh government research, set out in the 2021 report The Slave Trade and the British Empire: An Audit of Commemoration in Wales, has already outlined which places may prove problematic to would-be anti-racism trainers.

Buildings, streets, monuments and statues linked to figures with connections to slavery and empire, including Admiral Nelson, Waterloo hero Thomas Picton, Francis Drake and the Duke of Wellington, were included.

The entire 4,600-person village of Nelson in Caerphilly – which itself was named after a pub – was flagged in a draft version of the audit.

The one-storey Picton Community centre in Haverfordwest was flagged, along with a sports centre in town named for the same general and colonial administrator.

The Goronwy Owen primary school in Anglesey, named after the Welsh poet, was flagged because its namesake owned slaves.

The Wellington Community Centre in Rhyl, named for the Iron Duke who defeated Indian armies before French ones, was deemed potentially problematic, as was Columbus House in Newport, a government building. Columbus has been blamed for being the first coloniser of the New World.

Also flagged was Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, Flintshire, a memorial library for William Gladstone, a four-time prime minister whose father received compensation for his Caribbean investments when slavery was abolished.

In total, 93 buildings in Wales were examined as part of the audit.

Don't Divide Us, the campaign group that seeks to promote a commonsense approach to race issues in the UK, criticised the provisions made for anti-racist training.

Alka Sehgal Cuthbert, the group's founder and education expert, said: "Libraries are places associated with rationality, enlightened thinking and public service for the general public.

"They are not the playthings of those whose preferred radical politics means that librarians have to assent to false and wholly negative beliefs about the country in which they live, and by extension, also about its people.

"This is the opposite of public service. Even if systemic racism was a problem, it wouldn't be ameliorated by fake confessions or choosing venues according to their alleged sinfulness by past associations. Unless we want to go back to pre-modern cultural standards."

A Welsh Government spokesman said: "Inclusive Futures was developed by Cilip as a guide for the Library Sector in Wales. The Training Model offers advice on venue booking and advises on a number of considerations that would optimise participation and engagement."

This nonsense is honestly kind of darkly funny in a way, because some of these places are in West Wales, which, demographically, is the poorest place in the UK and northwestern Europe as a whole. So, to combat racism, it's being recommended that libraries shouldn't offer services in the most deprived place where those services are the most needed. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that they have a new Westminster government that's looking to make a bunch of cuts to public spending at the exact same time that someone has compiled a list of schools, libraries and community centers that are "problematic". In fact, you'd have to be an awful cynic to ever imagine that this is going to be used as a diversionary tactic to get radlibs to cheer on the cuts, while branding people who want to keep their local services as bigots.

Idpol at its finest.