Saying ‘hire most-qualified person’ is a microaggression

RUSSELL GROUP universities have told staff and students that saying “the most-qualified person should get the job” is a microaggression.

At least five universities have issued guidance or training courses on how to eliminate “microaggression”, which are defined as subtle or indirect forms of discrimination.

Guidance from the University of Glasgow and the engineering department of Imperial College London states that saying “the most-qualified person should get the job” would be such a comment. Glasgow’s guidance, which forms part of the university’s anti-racism campaign, suggests that it asserts “that race does not play a role in life successes”.

Other examples of microaggressions listed by the university include saying that “everyone can succeed if they work hard enough”. The university states that possible implications of the statement could include suggesting that someone only got a job because of quotas, or that they cannot make a valuable contribution. Imperial includes the sayings “men and women have equal opportunities for achievement” and “positive action is racist”. Meanwhile, the University of Edinburgh states that microaggressions often take the form of “questioning an individual’s lived experience” or “denying individual prejudice”.

Examples cited by the university include saying of a third person: “I’m sure they didn’t mean anything by that”, or denying that a person is a racist.

Newcastle University describes microaggressions as “the everyday slights, indignities, put downs and insults that people of colour, women, people from LGBTQIA+ communities or those who are marginalised, experience in their day-today interactions with people”.

The microaggression statements were uncovered by the Committee for Academic Freedom (CAF), a group of academics worried about the erosion of free speech on campus. Dr Edward Skidelsky, a philosophy lecturer at the University of Exeter, who is director of the CAF, said: “By campaigning against questioning and denial, these universities are advocating an uncritical acceptance of statements in the various, undefined areas that their microaggression guides refer to. The effect, again, is to undermine a culture of free inquiry.”