University of Liverpool’s Doctorate in Clinical Psychology cock-up at conference

Just been reading about something that happened in Nov 2019 at the Group of Trainers in Clinical Psychology’s (GTiCP) 2019 annual conference.

This is a write-up from attendees:

full blog here http://www.psychchange.org/racism-is-not-entertainment.html

and the subsequent apology:

full statement here https://www.bps.org.uk/message-all-gticp-2019-conference-delegates

experts in human behaviour eh(?)
[makes me think of the 'Day with the MUPPets']

 

lol

 

Uh.........
Appalling.
Reprehensible.
(I can't come up with additional publishable words about this. Among other questions - *Where*do these people grow up?)

 

And Liverpool has always had such a high reputation on the subject of ME....

 

As far as I can see the main distinguishing feature of a doctorate in psychology is that it is neither a doctorate in science (DSc) or a doctorate in philosophy (PhD, DPhil). Somebody must have realised that unlike all other subjects this one does not quite pass muster.

 

A statement from the performers:

https://www.capoeiraforall.org/capoeira-for-all-gticp-performance-statement/

 

It strikes me that the performers and the programmers both failed to consider their audience. I would not want to watch this over dinner at the end of a conference.

Perhaps if I'd bought a ticket to a programmed event for which I'd read the blurb and went in prepared... But not simply over dinner as part of a larger programme where the context is inappropriate.

It might also be an issue of Brazilian versus British experiences of race. 48% of Brazilians are of African descent, so they're not a minority in the same way the UK's 3% or so are. A black person in Brazil probably experiences blackness very differently to a black person in Liverpool. Perhaps the dancers didn't interrogate their ideas with this perspective in mind?

But I would ultimately blame the programmers. It's their job to pick what's appropriate and manage expectations. They failed to do that, clearly.