The Times - UK (2020-08-06)

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6 2GM Thursday August 6 2020 | the times


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Cecil Rhodes museum renamed after protests against colonialism


The museum and arts centre in the
house where the colonialist Cecil
Rhodes was born has changed its name.
The complex in Bishop’s Stortford,
Hertfordshire, has severed its links to
the imperial politician after 82 years
following a deluge of emails, protests
and calls for it to be named after an
ethnic minority figure as “reparations”.
The Rhodes Arts Complex will
change its name to South Mill Arts
from August 24. The trust that runs the
centre has also cut ties with the coloni-
alist, considered by many to have been
a white supremacist, who founded


Southern and Northern Rhodesia, now
Zimbabwe and Zambia. It will now be
known as Bishop’s Stortford Museum
and Arts Charitable Incorporated
Organisation rather than the Rhodes
Birthplace Trust.
The name change come as students
at Oxford University demand that a
statue of Rhodes is removed and
protests about Britain’s colonial past
continue around the country.
The trust said that although it had
planned to consult residents about a
new name, “the lively debate in the
press, on social media and in unsolicit-

ed emails to the complex has more than
adequately expressed the community’s
views”. It added: “The rationale behind
the chosen name is based upon the
location of the complex and an exami-
nation of the town’s industrial heritage
as themed by the museum.”
Deirdre Glasgow, chairwoman of the
trust, added that the museum would
not eradicate Rhodes from the town’s
history but would work with schools “to
educate students about the life and
times of Rhodes and the wider history
of Bishop’s Stortford”.
Rhodes, a revered figure during the

days of the British Empire, founded the
De Beers mining company in South
Africa and took control of territory in
southern Africa that became Rhodesia.
He believed that the English were the
master race and both South Africa and
the former Rhodesia were ruled by
white minorities for many years.
Thousands signed a petition calling
for the removal of his name from the
arts centre and in June the trust said
that it would change its name.
The Stortford Against Rhodes cam-
paign welcomed the move but called for
more change. “We would like to see im-

mediate action to remove the name as
well as commitment to further change,”
it said. “Anyone with access to the inter-
net, with a quick search into Rhodes’s
life, can see the atrocities he is guilty of.
We need to educate the community on
Cecil Rhodes, not exalt him.”
The venue began as a memorial
museum, financed by prominent Rho-
desians after they bought Netteswell
House, the building where Rhodes was
born. In 1938, 36 years after his death, it
became part of the Rhodes Memorial
Museum. The buildings were refur-
bished to form the complex in 2005.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has
given his backing to an MP facing accu-
sations of transphobia and called some
of those who led the attacks “cruel and
wrong”.
The Most Rev Justin Welby used a
social media post to support Rosie
Duffield, a Labour MP who faced calls
for disciplinary action by her party last
week over her stance on a reference to
transgender women.
It began with a message posted
online by CNN, the American broad-
caster, about cancer screening in the
United States, which used the term
“individuals with a cervix”.
CNN’s use of language was mocked
on Twitter by Piers Morgan, the break-
fast television presenter, who wrote
“Do you mean women?” His post was
“liked” by the MP.
Her intervention triggered a row in
which the group Labour Campaign for


Welby defends MP accused of


transphobia over cervix tweet


Trans Rights called on the party to take
action against her.
On Tuesday the archbishop came to
the defence of Ms Duffield, 49, who was
elected in 2017 as MP for Canterbury,
where he is diocesan bishop.
“I know Rosie Duffield, who is a bril-
liant constituency MP for Canterbury
as well as brave, honest, kind and pas-
sionate for justice,” he wrote on Twitter.
“She does not seek to demean others.
To troll her is simply cruel and wrong.”
His post generated 1,200 comments,
many of them claiming that he was
interfering in politics or accusing him of
endorsing transphobic comments,
although others welcomed his decision
to come to Ms Duffield’s aid.
The latter group include Rachel
Reeves, the shadow Cabinet Office
minister, who tweeted: “Thank you
Justin Welby. It is sad that it needs say-
ing but it does.”
Supporters of transgender rights have
increasingly clashed with feminists,

some of whom fear that rights won by
women are under threat by the blurring
of biological sex and gender identity.
The controversy has echoes of that
ignited in June by JK Rowling, the Har-
ry Potter author, who mocked an online
article whose headline referred to
“people who menstruate”. Ms Rowling
highlighted its refusal to refer to women,
saying: “I’m sure there used to be a word
for those people. Someone help me out.
Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
This unleashed a backlash in which

the three principal actors in the Harry
Potter films accused her seeking to
invalidate the identities of transgender
people. Ms Rowling, 55, responded by
saying that she had empathy with trans
women but that attempts were being
made to erode women as a political and
biological class.
The CNN post that led to the latest
row read: “Individuals with a cervix are
now recommended to start cervical
cancers screening at 25 and continue
through age 65, with HPV testing every
five years.”
As she faced online criticism, Ms
Duffield replied to one post with an
ironic comment saying “I’m a ‘trans-
phobe’ for knowing that only women
have a cervix... ?!” Her comments were
described as transphobic by the Labour
Campaign for Trans Rights, which
wrote: “We are calling on our party to
take action on this incident, and firmly
oppose the climate of transphobia
which has helped to cause it.”

Greg Hurst Social Affairs Editor


Charities


body guilty


of racism,


admits boss


Greg Hurst

The leader of the body representing
England’s charity sector has said his
organisation is “structurally racist” and
must embark on a wholesale cultural
change to become more representative.
Karl Wilding, chief executive of the
National Council for Voluntary Orga-
nisations (NCVO), apologised for mis-
takes he said that he made in failing to
confront a lack of diversity in its senior
ranks.
The NCVO, a membership body for
15,000 charities and voluntary groups,
has published complaints from some of
its 100 staff including experiences of
“overt oppression” among more junior
black and ethnic minority staff.
The organisation began reviewing its
record on inclusion last year, bringing
in a diversity consultant to “understand
the oppression they experience”. The
process gathered momentum with the
Black Lives Matter protests in late May
and June.
Some staff from ethnic minorities ob-
jected to being interrupted or ignored
at meetings by senior white figures
while others said that colleagues had
asked inappropriate questions about
their ethnicity or background.
Staff involved in the review said that
they had encountered “an unwilling-
ness to take on board constructive criti-
cism” and faced “resistance, fragility
and reluctance to question, let go of or
redistribute power”.
Mr Wilding, who is white, responded
with a series of apologies and said the
process made him realise that the orga-
nisation was “structurally racist”.
“It’s also highlighted issues we were
probably aware of but have not been ac-
tive enough in addressing — such as the
predominance of white, straight, able-
bodied people in our leadership posi-
tions,” he wrote in a blog post.
Last summer a group of black and
ethnic minority charity workers set up
a campaign called Charity So White,
prompted by a slide used for staff train-
ing by Citizens Advice. The slide re-
ferred to “low levels of literacy” and “in-
trinsically cash-centred cultures” in
black and ethnic minority communi-
ties, which campaigners said perpetu-
ated racial stereotypes.
Acevo, a group for charity chief exec-
utives, published a report in June on the
dominance of white staff within chari-
ties and racism faced by black and eth-
nic minority staff.
Mr Wilding said that staff at NCVO
would be given more time to explore di-
versity issues. He told colleagues that
on issues of race and diversity he would
“lead from the back” and allow those
most affected to shape the response.

Flying carpet Discharge, a sculpture made of 10,000 pigeon feathers by Kate MccGwire, is photographed by Paula Martin, a curator at Harewood House, near Leeds


DANNY LAWSON/PA

The archbishop tweeted his support for
Rosie Duffield, the MP for Canterbury
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