“Advocates of ‘decolonising’ the English curriculum like to claim it will promote diversity and representation of ethnic minority authors. However, as this week’s guest Tomiwa Owolade argues, including writers based on ethnicity alone is patronising, reductive nonsense that has very little to with equality.”

The CapX Podcast: Tomiwa Owolade on culture, cancellation and ‘decolonising the curriculum’

This is a very interesting podcast. Tomiwa Owolade argues that diversity for its own sake (for example including ethnic minority authors merely because they come from an ethnic background), is patronising. Black and other authors from non-white backgrounds should be included in the curriculum purely on the basis of merit (not to enhance diversity for diversity’s sake).

Tomiwa Owolade also attacks “cancel culture”, arguing that many in the publishing world are fearful of defending authors such as J. K. Rowling due to concerns over their careers.

The podcast is well worth a listen.