Walking in another man's moccasins
Published: Tue, 06/16/15
I got a response to yesterday’s message from a lady I know quite well. She was not happy with Professor Hunt’s remarks for two reasons. Firstly because she thinks he should just have got a grip on himself and improved his management skills, fair point. Secondly, she used to work in an environment which was traditionally very male dominated and has had situations with managers who did not want to work with women. These attitudes led to awkward working relationships. I much appreciate her response and it reminded me of a situation I had to deal with some years ago.
As a white, hetro-sexual male with a good education and middle class background living in the UK I can’t possibly know what it means to be discriminated against? Well, let me tell you a story. When I first moved to Oxford in the late nineties I got a job teaching RE in a secondary school. A new teacher had been engaged but had quit a few weeks into his first term, I went in as a supply teacher and was asked to stay on for the rest of the year. I was warned by a senior member or staff that I would not be there permanently because it had to be a Catholic who taught RE, and, as a protestant, I was only there to fill in a gap. The school was a joint Church of England and Catholic school, I think it was the only faith school in that part of the city. The Catholic element of the school had hung onto the RE department and used the Catholic Syllabus, which was actually rather good.
The teaching went well until Easter when a ‘real’ RE teacher was being recruited. I decided to submit my application for the job, on a form which which was headed ‘Oxford CC education department is an equal opportunities employer’. The head mistress (who was an Anglican herself) just said that the RC bishop would not tolerate a protestant teaching RE so my application went in the bin. Although she never asked him directly what his opinion was. My colleagues in the RE department said they had no problem with me having the job long term, some parents even wrote letters in support of my staying on. When applicants arrived for the interview they found the situation strange and embarrassing that I wasn’t even allowed to apply for the job I was already doing competently. The man who did get the job admitted to me that he didn’t really see himself as a Catholic, he had just attended a Catholic school and that was enough. Once the new
appointment was made during the Summer term the situation became quite awkward and I left just after the half term break.
So there you have it, my story of discrimination because I was the wrong kind of Christian. I could have made more fuss than I did but I don’t think it would have done any good, there are some major concessions/loopholes in equality law when it comes to faith education and I fell through one.
So, how did I deal with it? Well, firstly, I just got on with my life. Secondly, I discovered that I had ‘walked a mile in another man’s moccasins’ as the Native Americans are apparently say. Up until that point in my life I had never really understood the ongoing conflict and violence in Northern Ireland. Why did Catholics and Protestants hate each other so much? Such hostility had been a mystery to me, then I understood. If all through your life your opportunities and relationships were governed and limited by such attitudes as I experienced (albeit in a very small way) I could understand how hatred could grow and reconciliation would be very difficult. Especially hard when the other side seems to have all the power and can say, ‘this is how it is, now just accept it and **** off.’
Of course I don’t hate Catholics as a result of this experience but I do see how resentment can poison a community. I also don’t want to make out that my whole life was ruined by discrimination and it was a long time ago.
So what is the point of recounting this event in my life? I suppose I am trying to show that we can all be victims if we choose to be. The more useful thing to do is step back and take an objective view of the world we live in. As human beings living together we need two things. First, stability and continuity which is maintained by morality, law, custom and practice. Secondly, change and progress which comes through challenging of norms and creating degrees of instability. Change is necessary but people adapt at very different rates and sometimes they don’t want change at all. Just because you are comfortable with a particular situation, whether it is the status quo or a state of flux does not mean that everyone else is. It is much better if such attitudes and feelings of discomfort can be voiced and heard, however strange and uncomfortable the words may sound. The hidden and silent will still have an effect on the world and
often not for the good. I repeat that we are only victims if we choose to be. So get over being offended and lets encourage everyone to speak their mind, it is keeping the ‘unacceptable’ hidden that makes genuine progress impossible.
regards
Graham