Black History Month: My celebration of inclusion

October marks Black History Month which is the annual celebration for the history, achievements and contributions of black people and people of black heritage.

I had a conversation with my mum a couple of weeks ago, and for those who are not aware my mum is black (and from her own words, a woman of colour), asking what I may be doing to celebrate Black History Month at work. And I was proud to say that I had been asked to attend a thought leadership event co-hosted by Inclusive Companies Network and AutoTrader, which would cover ‘The BAME Experience’.

To provide context, I am the son of a black mother and a white father and therefore I am biracial (which, personally, is a preferential term to mixed-raced). As I child, who grew up in North Lancashire and the South Lakes, I was very conscious about race and what it means to people – positively or negatively. I was very aware as I child that my mum was a different colour from me, but never really questioned it until I was at primary school. At which, I was always presented with a barrage of questions about why I was a different colour to her, and if I was adopted or (much worse) if she was my nanny. That and coming from a very northern region of England, (and stereotypically) a lesser forward-thinking region, meant my mum was even more conscious of what it meant to be black, biracial or of black heritage. We always had a large and beautifully framed picture of a man in our household, who my mum often joked was our granddad. However, when we were experiencing brazen and uneducated comments about who we were, it was then an important moment for myself and my brother to learn about who we were and where we came from.

My education started standing in front of our ‘granddad’ and being told that this man was important to a global movement of peace and freedom – this man was The Reverend Doctor, Martin Luther King Jr. I was then told that this man once stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial Centre in Washington, D.C. and addressed thousands of people with a powerful sermon, which is universally known as "I Have a Dream". I then learnt about the origin of human beings, anthropological categories (which were created in the 1700’s) The Slave Trade, The Underground Railroad, Rosa Parks refusing to leave her bus seat, and then leading up to the American equal rights resistance in the 1960’s, and the murder and subsequent trial of Stephen Lawrence, to name a few subjects. Even at the young age of 6 or 7, I was provided a rich palette of information that furnished me with the ability to recognise racial challenges with more comprehension.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

The Reverend Doctor, Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights activist and minister

Although the learning of who I am and my heritage was positive, my experience of a child had become harder and more destructive as time went by. After a simple childhood fall-out with his best friend, my brother (and subsequently my family) had received an onslaught of racial abuse from not only the person in question, but his friends, family and neighbours. We grew up in an affluent suburb of Lancaster and attended (arguably) one of the best primary schools in the area, which coincidentally was on our road. Would you think that this demographic would shout vile names, post dog faeces through the letter box and spray our car windscreen with “black bitch”? No, but it happened. After several months, we left our CofE school and moved to a multi-faith school on a far side of our city – which vastly improved our ability to learn and have friends. However, you may assume that we decided to move to a new house too – you’re wrong. My mum did consider this but decided that we weren’t going to be turfed out of our home, which at that point had been the case for 6 years. She wanted to make a stand and show those people that weren’t embarrassed to be the people we were just because of our heritage!

As a whole I had, what people would call, a 'good upbringing' and I was lucky enough to have exposure to being a topflight gymnast, tennis and badminton player. I was also, highly regarded at high school as ‘high potential’ and was financially and emotionally supported by my teachers and school when it came to my gymnastics. What I did struggle with however, is that there weren’t many people like me – biracial. We had some diversity with a strong Asian population, but our city wasn’t a place that had many other ethnic minorities – and typically there was cultural isolation. I always felt different and was still asked “Why was I white if my mum is black?”, “Where are you from?” or when people were aware that my mum was black, I was consistently asked “How black?”. I lacked role models and lacked a true sense of who I was outside of our home, which is something that I still struggle with today.

Especially when I entered the workplace, I struggled to acknowledge my heritage, usually because of the questions and puzzled faces. Yes, I am white in pigment, but I have very visible African features when it comes to my nose, cheeks and lips – even my hair (when I let it grow enough). But it made me feel like an alien. The thing that upset me more were social situations when someone would say an overtly racist comment around me and think they were among allies. Not realising my heritage, they felt able to confess their feelings without challenge. Back then I didn’t like to challenge – I simply didn’t have the confidence, and I always felt like a coward for it.

Without going into all the detail and through all of the stories (because there’s too many to note), a moment of change for me was in a previous business that I worked in. I was faced with a colleague who felt it was appropriate (including most of our colleagues, may I not forget) to come into the office in black face for Halloween as a ‘hilarious’ joke! I was outraged, I was hurt, and I was astonished that someone would deem this be so suitable! I finally got the courage to try and do my bit for change, and so I formally raised this with the HR department. I’d finally felt confident enough to (in my opinion) do the right thing. I was hoping that this may support in positive change to the culture of the business. I was wrong. I was unfortunately told that as this individual was a leader of the company, therefore I needed to drop it. I was gobsmacked by this and essentially it made me feel like he was more important than me, whether there was a moral justification or not. I then ended up going for a long period within my career where I didn’t challenge these outright racist matters or microaggressions.

Why am I telling you this, you might ask? I am telling you this because this is a domino effect and to talk about it, is to educate to change it. This hit me hard last week on Wednesday. The reason for that is that I attended the aforementioned event, The BAME Experience, which had a common theme from all of the key speakers – talking about challenges to ultimately establish a stimulus of change.

“This planet is for everyone, borders are for no one. It's all about freedom.”

Benjamin Zephaniah, poet

The BAME Experience, was an event hosted on October 9th by Inclusive Companies Network and AutoTrader. The AutoTrader events are always coveted and people in the HR network are always keen to get an invite, because the subject matter and content is second to none. I was lucky enough to be attending for three reasons; to gain insight and evidence of landing D&I strategies in the BAME space for Page Group, I’ve been part of our D&I champions forum internally here at Page, and to network with the HR community. My biggest focus was to bring back as much information and understanding for our business to help support our wider D&I and culture strategies. We as a business are very D&I aware, and have been focusing on D&I in the last seven years, to which we have lucky enough to have had success with the following arenas;

• Women@Page – Where women succeed at work
• Pride@Page – Where sexual orientation and gender identity don't matter
• Parents@Page – Where parents and carers come first
• Ability@Page – Where disability doesn't hold you back
• Age@Page – Where age doesn’t matter
• Dynamic Working – A high trust, high performance culture
• Wellbeing – Health, Wealth and Lifestyle

And now the business is about to launch our new strand Unity@Page – where a multicultural workforce thrives. So after being part of the Unity@Page workshops prior to its official launch in January 2020, I was thrilled to be asked to help add to our knowledge bank – and oh my did I come away with a lot!

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”

Maya Angelou, poet and author

The biggest takeaways for me from this event were allies and sponsors; role models; the education; awareness of microaggressions; and to work towards ultimately breaking barriers and drop labels to support full inclusivity. All of which I think are worth exploring, but for time I’m going to pick my top two that I think I have personally seen an influence within D&I;

1.Allies and Sponsors

Trying to move away from a military stereotype, an ally is someone who proactively offers help and support to help you achieve your goals. The term ally is often debated as to whether it’s the most appropriate term, in fact when using synonyms as I type the alternatives don’t seem to quite reflect the desired effect; partner, supporter, friend, collaborator, but nonetheless ally is somewhat appropriate given the context. An ally ultimately goes further than just being a friend within the business that supports a cause of said strand or of D&I. They will actively lobby the message to the remainder of the business and will be have honest conversations about how to genuinely overcome the challenges that group may face within said environment. They sincerely have the strands best interests at heart. They will also work to connect two parties in mutual understanding, which ultimately helps land the message.

Then you have sponsors, which is more personal to the individual from said strand. This person is willing to put their name and reputation on the line to vouch for you – this is individual and comes beyond the D&I message and is centred more around your abilities to do your job. A sponsor sees how your abilities and strengths could add value in other areas beyond your current reach and look to help you go beyond that. Due to their influence and impact, sponsors can open doors where you may have thought impossible – whether that be networking with certain individuals or exposing you to projects that otherwise seemed unavailable to you, and most importantly can go beyond your business. They can help you unlock potential bigger than you could ever imagine.

The most fascinating aspect of sponsors that people may not realise is that they are not sought, nor found – they pick you, and usually based on seeing something great, yet untapped in potential.

Both are important because they reinforce a message from differing angles – a visible and proactive perspective versus an individual and skills-based perspective. Being in a minority makes it harder to voice different perspectives, amplify the message and break barriers with other demographics – and the allies and sponsors connect the two more effectively. Ultimately softening the message to being based more around celebration rather than segregation.

Therefore given the context, people of white heritage will be involved in supporting the cause of breaking barriers for their BAME colleagues.

2.The Awareness of Microaggressions

The definition of a microaggression is a “statement, action, or incident regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalised group such as a racial or ethnic minority” and “indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalised group”.

So given the above, I am sure that if I asked anyone from the BAME community if they have been on the receiving end of microaggressions, they would say yes. The big ticket here, for me, is “unintentional”. This is key because it shows a lack of education surrounding your heritage and what is or isn’t ‘funny’ – and I’m sure whilst reading this most people will agree that “Where are you from?” or “Where are you really from?” are likely the most common… followed by a frustrated rebuttal “Here!!”. There is a term of “Death by a thousand cuts” which develops to form anxiety, anger, frustration and stress.

I once read an article, that at time of writing I struggle to recall exactly where from, that over time chronic exposure turns these microaggressions into "micro-traumas” which fundamentally are the cost of confidence during social interactions. This is because microaggressions point out cultural difference in ways that put the receiver's differences or non-conformities into clear view of the masses and validates negative stereotypes.

So what does this mean for the workplace? The subsequent consequence is that people who experience these microaggressions are three times more likely to have stunted engagement, tend not to bring their ‘whole selves’ to the workplace and anecdotally they regularly think about leaving the business. And there’s a large challenge around data here – how many ‘others’ are BAME and how much attrition within the BAME community is linked to microaggressions?

“We have a stake in one another...what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart.”

Barack Obama, former President of the United States

So I ask myself, are we all aware of the above? Are we aware of the impacts of allies, sponsors and microaggressions? If you are or not, but you are looking to improve, then what can we do to overcome this? The biggest theme from the event I attended was education to help promote psychological safety. A key speaker, Fiona Daniel a senior D&I and L&D practitioner, said that we needed to promote an understanding throughout the business that microaggressions need to be stamped out and that everyone has to feel that employees are getting their roles based on qualification, skill-set and experience – not because they are a minority, and therefore solely becoming a flag bearer of that group. And additionally, informing the wider population of what becomes a microaggression and how this impacts someone’s abilities and confidence within the workplace – helping to establish an emancipation of stereotypes and labels.

I’m lucky enough to work in a business that has no tolerance to antiquated and hurtful attitudes towards anyone, no matter who you are, and that we are working towards a genuinely inclusive environment that works for all, including our customers. But this is a debate that will clearly continue, and there is clearly more to be done to land true inclusivity, but I was captivated by the emotion and the ambition by an ethically blended audience to do their bit. It empowered me to write this article, and I hope I have done my part in empowering you to do the same.