Kemi Badenoch has suggested that the National Trust uses “anti-white” rhetoric after the charity replaced the term “ethnic minority” with “global majority”.
Global majority is a collective term for non-white people who constitute up to 85 per cent of the world’s population.
The Minister for women and equalities warned that using the phrase has “political implications”.
It is sometimes used instead of “ethnic minority”, with the Government dropping the term BAME in 2022.
The National Trust made the change as it launched an inclusive walking project.
Announcing the change, the conservation charity said: “Despite representing 15 per cent of the population in England and Wales, people from the global majority are widely under-represented in the outdoors, accounting for only one per cent of National Park visitors in 2019.”
“Many organisations adopt phrases like ‘global majority’ innocently without understanding the political implications,” Badenoch told The Telegraph.
“Often they feel compelled to use them by following guidance from bodies who claim to be anti-racist but are actually just anti-white.”
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
She added: “At the end of the day, the National Trust is a national organisation, not a global one.
“They should apply the principle of equality under the law and focus on delivering for everybody, regardless of their background or whether they are a minority or majority.”
The National Trust faced a backlash after announcing that it would be “training 100 new walk leaders from global majority communities” and that “people from the global majority are widely under-represented in the outdoors”.
The term has become increasingly common across state-funded bodies.
The Minister for women and equalities warned that using the phrase has ‘political implications’
PA
Inaya Folarin Iman, founder of the Equiano Project said the phrase is “nonsensical” and “divisive”.
She said: “It lumps billions of the world together solely on the basis of them not being white.
“Most people, regardless of race, have no idea what it means and it is shameful that large organisations are using it seemingly solely at the behest of self-appointed, astroturfed EDI consultants. It is deeply anti-democratic.”
A National Trust spokesperson said: “The National Trust normally uses different language. However, sometimes, when sharing information about community groups, as we are on this occasion, we use the language that [we] feel is most appropriate.”