A few days ago, Historic England, a part taxpayer-funded public body whose aim is to help people celebrate England’s history, advertised a work placement. The work placement came as part of a new focus on diversity quotas. It was only open to those who identify as having Black, Asian, minority ethnic or mixed-raced heritage.

Are you interested in heritage but not sure if its' the career for you? We're excited to offer a number of paid training placements for undergraduates or recent graduates at 13 locations across England Find out more and apply here: https://t.co/EceKJlYZME pic.twitter.com/a0XTPX194z — Historic England (@HistoricEngland) April 6, 2018

Historic England’s reasoning behind their discriminative advert was that between the years of 2016 and 2017, only 4.3% of their workforce described themselves as BAME (Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic). This is in a country where approximately 14% of the general population identify as BAME (figures from the last official census, 2011). One might suspect that previous positions of employment at Historic England were offered based on who applied for the position and who was the best person for the job. Today, however, positions aren’t offered based on eagerness and skill, they are offered based on diversity targets. And this isn’t the first time this has happened.

In September 2017, Labour MP Diane Abbott suggested that “all Black shortlists” should operate in certain British constituencies to allow more Black and ethnic minority women to enter the House of Commons. During the same month, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, along with actor Idris Elba and comedians Lenny Henry and Meera Syal, backed a campaign to ring-fence money for shows that have 50% of production staff, 50% of onscreen talent and 30% of managing executives and/or senior personnel identifying as BAME. In November 2017, the BBC advertised a 12-month trainee broadcast journalist internship which was only open to BAME candidates.

Advertised positions such as the ones listed above are not unique. Many organisations across Britain, including the NHS for example, have standards in place that have specific indicators to address the low number of BAME employees in the workforce. In the NHS, BAME employees actually make up a disproportionately large portion of the workforce, but as these employees mainly operate entry level roles, the indicators in place in this environment aim to get BAME employees into more senior positions.

Diversity Quotas

Diversity quotas like the ones listed above have absolutely nothing to do with equality. They are instead the promotion of entitlement; a special leg-up for those who are not good enough based on a group’s lack of success in that area. There is no evidence to say that White people are over-represented in certain roles because of discrimination against others. In each role, a White man could very well have been the best person for the job. This is likely, considering that BAME individuals in Europe are more likely to turn to crime and are more likely to have lower IQs than the native populations (excluding East Asians). Studies also show that White people are the ethnic group that spend the largest percentage of time at work, actually working.

Diversity quotas might not seem too much of a problem at present while the population of Britain is over 80% White. But, just as it is now said that we need workplaces that represent the general public, this will continue as the demographics of our countries change. When the time comes that White people only make up 60% of Britain’s population, the dreaded diversity quotas will then tell us that 40% of employees need to be from BAME backgrounds.

This will continue until (if we don’t manage to reverse it) White people have become a minority population. At present, this is predicted to be the year 2066 in Britain. And what will the diversity quotas look like then? Do you think that non-Whites will offer us the same level of compassion that we once offered them? We only have to take a look at South Africa to find the answer to that question. If non-Whites are ever in power in Britain, their policies won’t mirror the compassion that we once showed them. This is not something that we can afford to chance.

We cannot let these diversity quotas become the norm. Each and every single time we see one, it must be called out as being the anti-White, discriminatory policy that is it. We must act as a group; highlight the level of bias to as many people as possible while putting pressure on the perpetrator at the same time. We have changed things through lobbying before, and we must continue to do so.