It’s easy to forget the events of last year, there having been so many. But one thing that will always stand out in 2020 for me is the shocking and terrifying news of George Floyd’s death. I’m sure you have heard enough about the views on the world from various sources and I’m hoping you’ve also done something to be anti-racist. Be this reading a book, watching a documentary or simply following a reliable source on Twitter to be educated on all that is happening. While these are all great resources, I’m afraid they are too often forgotten. Being in 2021 already, I have already noticed the sudden hush hush that is once again enveloping conversations on racism.
I can’t help but notice the difference in conversation when it came to BLM in comparison to, say, COVID-19. The latter was often mentioned in team meetings and discussions about progress with the virus and the ‘new normal’ was open, honest and transparent. With the former though, in the first couple of weeks since protests begun in the UK, for some reason I felt this invisible barrier that stopped me from bringing up my anxieties, thoughts and views on the matter. I didn’t want to say the wrong things, I didn’t want to offend and perhaps most importantly I didn’t want to bring down the ‘vibe’.
When it comes to the workplace there are endless topics that are, well, off-topic. In the office you will scarcely explore ground away from small talk, and only in pubs on occasional nights can you vendor into less ‘work friendly’ subjects. So maybe it was me who didn’t feel comfortable or maybe it was this stigma around topics like race that I didn’t want to challenge. Either way, the whole concept of this being a ‘hard’ topic, ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘awkward’ didn’t sit well with me at all.
The truth is, my industry has opened conversations around stigmatized topics for as long as adverts were a thing. So why do we find it hard to freely discuss them in our teams? While it’s great to have anti-racist policies, diversity boards and safe spaces, half of the work is in being comfortable talking about race.
I truly believe no real progress can be made, both inside and outside of workplaces, if conversations about race are not normalised. Being awkward and too scared to talk about it myself, I wanted to challenge my team to push ourselves away from our comfort zones and speak about this ‘elephant in the room’. To open the conversation, I proposed to my team that we learn about each other’s experiences and backgrounds and share what we have felt during this very trying time. The intention was to learn from each other; understand and acknowledge this is a fight we win in the long-run and not overnight. It’s only by celebrating our cultures and identifying our privilege can we look at racism, comfortably, in a safe space together and work against it.
So, we took apart by one-by-one answering the following two questions:
- What is one tradition that you loved growing up in your country/culture?
- How do these current events happening make you feel and what have you learnt from the Black Lives Matter movement? /What is the most powerful stimulus you have come across that has impacted you?
The result was incredible. Not only do I now have access to an excellent collection of resources spanning from movies, to books, to songs and poems, but I know my team so much better. We created a conversation around race all while uncovering our own diverse cultures. Collectively, we have learned how in so many ways we experience race and privilege.
So while it’s great to read a book, watch a documentary or simply follow a reliable source on Twitter, those learnings are in vain if you’re too scared to discuss them in the open. This fear of saying the wrong thing, being too scared to speak in case you offend or not wanting to bring down the ‘vibe’ is fear with no purpose.
If you are willing to learn, unlearn and listen to those around you, there is no stigma around race on the other side. Once you make that jump, there is no awkwardness and this very ‘hard’ and ‘uncomfortable’ topic becomes the start of change.
Moving forward I hope any and every team out there utilises this engaging activity as an accessible first step in opening the conversation to long term action.
To sum, I’d like to share with you what my team and I have learned about racism and privilege from each other:
Racism is having to thinking twice about your actions in case you are discriminated against
Racism is having to thinking twice about following your aspirations
Racism is in our school curriculums
Racism is prevalent in countries that teach history and geography in a very Eurocentric way
Privilege is more than first-class seats and gold AmEx cards. It’s being treated different simply for how you look
Racism is a conversation we need to have with our kids, it’s also a conversation we need to have with our families
Racism is waiting for violence to happen just for lives to be respected
Racism is systemic, economic and political but it is a problem that those who built the system need to solve
Racism feeds on misinformation
Privilege is being around law enforcement and feeling safe instead of feeling threatened
Racism means changing your behaviour just for the end result to still be the same
Racism is covert, it’s subtle and it’s everyday
Racism is evidenced by statistics that show disproportionate treatment
Racism is fought with great, diverse work and conscious effort
Privilege is these topics not having an emotional toll on you because you are not personally affected
It’s not enough to ‘not be racist’ anymore, we can only fight racism by being anti-racist
Racism is fought collectively by enforcing accountability
We must create lasting, concrete, economic, social and political change to fight racism
