“Reports that white privilege courses are still being taught in the public service show that senior bureaucrats need to wake up, get with the programme, and start focusing on the things that matter to New Zealand taxpayers”, says ACT’s Public Service spokesperson Todd Stephenson.

“From employees being encouraged to do karakia during their workday, to being taught about white privilege, the public service needs a serious cultural reset.

"In 2021, ACT revealed that public servants were being taught to calculate their ‘white privilege score’ in a course called Beyond Diversity – Courageous Conversations About Race.

“The course is still being taught. It requires participants to ask themselves, ‘What is my white privilege score?’ and ‘What is my relationship to white fragility?’

“The Courageous Conversations programme makes a number of claims about so-called ‘white privilege’:

‘“Whiteism”—not recognizing White as a dominating color nor the unearned power and privileges associated with having white skin; having a sense of (White) entitlement…is a condition that more White people must begin to recognize, understand and acknowledge.’

‘…entitled white men do not appreciate the power of their entitlement because they have never experienced the absence of power.’

‘Power, as manifested in the form of privilege, or entitlement, is part of the history, tradition and economic status of white men.’

“The programme suggests that people who aren’t overtly racist perpetuate racism:

‘We are taught that racism must be intentional and that only bad people commit it. Thus a common white reasoning in crossracial conflicts is that as long as we are good people and don’t intend to perpetuate racism, then our actions don’t count as racism.’

“This is the kind of dehumanising view we’ve been trying to get away from for centuries, but it’s now pervasive in the bureaucracy and beyond.

“We are saying, ‘we don’t care about your character or personal experiences, we’re just going to categorise you based on your colour’.

“Yes, we do need to have a courageous conversation: about how we value the common dignity of every New Zealander, and how all citizens should have equal rights. That is why we need a national conversation about ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill.”

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