Morning Wire
White Men Can’t Work? Inside the UK’s Workplace Discrimination Backlash
Sat, 31 May 2025
Award-winning journalist Tim Samuels discusses his new series White Men Can’t Work, which explores claims of workplace discrimination against white men in the UK. He shares powerful stories and polling data which reveal a growing sense of professional marginalization. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.
Chapter 1: What is the hidden scale of workplace discrimination against white men?
I think one of the things is it's incredibly hard to speak about this without being cancelled, canned, labelled as a racist, written off as a sort of far-right loonpot. But journalistically, I felt this is a subject that someone has to raise their head above the There's unsaid and untold anxiety that men are feeling in today's workplace. There's a level of discrimination.
Chapter 2: Why is it difficult to discuss discrimination against white men?
And these diversity DEI schemes don't work. They don't even benefit women or people from minority backgrounds. And I've spent a lot of time over the years talking about men and mental health in my documentaries. And I just kept hearing from guys that I'm having a really hard time at work because I'm a guy. My career's really taken a hit.
Chapter 3: How do diversity and inclusion schemes affect white men in the workplace?
I'm terrified I'm going to say the wrong thing, but I can't say any of this out loud. And I just thought, you know, good journalism requires airing things which are important. And I'm going to probably cop it for this. You know, I'm going to be labeled as something I'm not. But I just thought it's an important story that we do need to tell.
Yeah, I wanted to highlight your background a little bit more here. You were a reporter for the BBC. You've won awards for your documentary work in the past. Is this a major risk for you then, highlighting this issue? What was strong enough to sort of drive you to pursue this despite the risks?
Yeah, I mean, I think it is. I've spent most of my life doing the BBC. I spent a bit of time doing Nat Geo in the States. More recently, I did the Free Press covering October the 7th attacks in Israel. So most of my work has been through, I guess, what you would classify as mainstream media. And I think I'm running into a minefield.
No matter how nuanced you try and be and balanced, I think by just even saying, hey, we need to talk about white men, some people are going to look at me and say, God, you've changed. Whereas I don't think I have. You know, I've always believed in, I guess, classic values like... fairness, free speech, meritocracy.
And as a journalist calling out when billions are being spent and not working, when people are suffering and being discriminated against, even if those people who are now being discriminated against, as odd as it might sound, are some white guys. You know, there are people who I've interviewed who've directly lost their jobs because they're
Because they're white men or have been sacked over crazy microaggressions. And this isn't to say things don't need to change. You know, of course, racism and sexism does need addressing. You know, and John, over the years, I've done quite campaigning journalism. I've worked undercover in Northern Ireland to expose racism. racism there against the Muslim and Chinese communities.
I was attacked on camera. I've talked to the EPA about why so many black people in Alabama are living next to toxic sites. But at the same time, this does need calling out. And it doesn't make you racist to say that there are millions of men, our data has found, who are walking around too anxious to
to speak freely at work, who say that their careers have been severely hampered, this needs calling out. It just has to be called out. And from a mental health point of view, we found there are 8 million guys in this country who say that their mental health has taken a hit because of DEI. In US terms, it would be equivalent to 30, 40 million guys saying that their mental health has taken a hit.
suicide is a terrible problem with men. Work is so important to men's identity and self-esteem. We have to talk about this stuff without it being labelled as kind of racist or crackpot.
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Chapter 4: What psychological impacts do career vulnerabilities have on men?
So it's very, very destabilizing to be ostracized. And people are being ostracized for the smallest things. There was a lecturer at a university who... You know, he wasn't getting on great with some of his colleagues because he was questioning some of the orthodoxy. And they decided to sort of get rid of him.
And they collected microaggressions that he was accused of, including talking about the male and female ends of cables. You know, if anyone's ever had a cable, there's a male and a female. Go on Amazon. It's what you call. He was told he was being sexist by referring to that terminology. And he was kicked out of his job. He spiraled, he ended up on antidepressants.
So there's a kind of lack of humanity and a lack of empathy for men, which runs through all this.
It's interesting, you're highlighting two elements or sort of prongs to this attack on white men, professional, but also social, cultural attacks. So even if a judge determines that you were wrongfully terminated, by bringing it up, you're punished socially. Do you see any progress on that front at all in the UK? We're seeing some major blowback here against DEI in the US.
Chapter 5: What are the consequences of being 'cancelled' in the workplace?
What about in the UK now?
I would say, by and large, DEI is alive and kicking over here. I think some of the big companies, where they are US-facing, have pulled back a bit. I think a number of others have doubled down and say, okay, we think this is important. And the institutes and directors over here found that a vast majority of big companies are still running DEI programs.
it's still very much alive and kicking in academia. And police forces here and our National Health Service are still insisting on whiteness training, even though all the data shows that these courses backfire. There's a really interesting Harvard professor, Frank Dobbin, who we've been speaking to, who's looked at data sets for 8 million people who've been through DEI courses.
And the studies show that when you run these courses, it actually has a negative effect. It doesn't help women. It doesn't help people from minority backgrounds. Because you're essentially saying to white blokes, hey, by the way, you're all unconsciously racist and you're all privileged. And the natural reaction when someone calls you racist isn't to say, well, God, John, that's a brilliant point.
I never thought of that. I am so racist. It's to say, well, F you. I don't want to be part of this. So, you know, I go back to the, you know, the original thing being Of course we should tackle discrimination where it exists.
There are just smarter ways to do that, you know, with mentoring, with work experience, with skills training in companies, not by running these courses, which ultimately are inspired by a cultural form of Marxism and crudely divide the world into oppressed and oppressor. And if you're white and male, you are automatically an oppressor, regardless of what your background is.
If you could be working class, you could be blue collar, it doesn't matter. And billions, $40 billion or so a year is spent on these courses. And for what? They make things worse for those men to help and they demonize men. But to say this, whoa, you know, look at you, you're a crazy sort of lunatic for even questioning this.
So in the end, it's really a shortcut, an easy way to feel like you're addressing the problem. Whereas, as you mentioned, the long-term comprehensive approach really takes more effort, requires training people, changing cultural attitudes, building better infrastructure. All that takes a long time. This is a nice, easy solution that doesn't work at all in the end, like you say.
I wanted to look into some of the polling numbers. You commissioned a group, JL Partners, to look into this issue. Can you tell us about those results?
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Chapter 6: How can ostracism impact mental health in professional settings?
And as I said, you know, in US terms, you know, 11 or 8 million guys here is equivalent to sort of 30, 40 million guys in America who are walking around in anxious that they can say or do the wrong thing that's going to get them sacked.
And these are guys who I don't think would have any problems with schemes that genuinely work, that address discrimination without some kind of quick fix overnight that doesn't work. But they're really terrible. The workplace has become a hostile environment for a lot of guys.
Final question, since you've launched this series, have you experienced any blowback professionally or personally?
I've had two reactions, John. One has been from some people I know who say, what the hell are you doing? Have you thought about this? To which I say, actually watch the documentary. Watch it and tell me if there's anything you disagree with in that, rather than just go with some social media micro-attention nonsense. Yeah. But I've also had people contact me and say, thank you for raising this.
I can't say this out loud, but... I've had a really hard time. I feel like I've been discriminated against. And I've also had some women get in touch with me, say, I've not been allowed to say this in my job, but I've seen this happen. I've seen things happen to white men.
A woman wrote to me this week, said, I've seen things happen to white men, which if they happen to women or people of colour... would have been deemed as completely unacceptable, and she was very seen in the creative industries here. So it's divisive, you know, this stuff's always divisive.
But I, you know, I'm trying to sort of respectfully shed a light journalistically on something which I really do think needs addressing because it's not helping anyone. It's not helping women. It's not helping people of color. And it's certainly as hell not helping men. And mental health is so fragile in this world that we do need to look after our men as much as everyone else.
Even the white men. Tim, thanks so much for talking with us. And where can folks watch the show?
Thank you. And it's going to be on YouTube and it's on all the podcast platforms and it's five parts. And we'd love people to get behind it because a lot of people really are not that into free speech these days.
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