From surge to subsidence: the realities of a post-pledge era

Whether it is because of the time of year or, if you believe in astrology, I am one of the star signs impacted by the gradual end of Pluto in Capricorn (yes this is a thing for some of us),?I find myself in a contemplative, even sombre space reflecting on what the past few years have unveiled.

And exposed.

The dichotomy between optimism and hard reality, where the goalposts continually keep shifting, means that for those of us within it, it can feel like we are caught in cyclical, repeated dramas of social reform and endless discussing, debating, and de-risking any activity that is designed to make a systemic difference.

A somewhat depressing end to 2023 ?

In recent years and months even, there has been a notable shift in the momentum and energy surrounding the pledges made in 2021, 2021, and 2022 (sort of) to address systemic racism. Initially, these pledges were met with enthusiasm and a sense of urgency, but it appears that the drive to sustain these efforts has waned. In some quarters, it's not for lack of effort, yet there is still a disconnect or deliberate ignorance about what constitutes substantive action.?

Sustaining a long-term commitment to addressing systemic racism continues to present significant challenges for many organizations and their leadership teams. This will come as a surprise to no one. ?The complexity and depth of emotion surrounding systemic racism require a consistent and focused effort, which can be difficult to maintain over time. This challenge is exacerbated by shifting business and wider economic priorities,?changes in the political discourse, and the court of public opinion, which contribute to redirecting attention and resources away from initiatives aimed at promoting racial equality. Additionally, efforts to implement systemic change often encounter resistance. This resistance can be overt or subtle, manifesting in various forms that slow down or completely derail the progress of implementing effective anti-racist systems and practices. ?

The emergence of organizations whose existence is to challenge civil rights legislation because they believe it is unfair to white people, marks a significant right-wing conservative pushback against the momentum towards addressing racial inequality. A strategic and well-funded approach to attacking race-neutral policies and legal challenges to what they perceive as racially preferential initiatives represents a broader trend in politics that organizations are not immune to because suddenly they too became caught in the crosshairs. ?

Tackling racism became worse than racism itself, with the idea being that to rise above racism means to ignore or focus on calling out the “bad apples.” Better we exceptionalise the problem and pretend it’s a glitch rather than addressing that it’s the system itself doing what it does best.

Our collective discomfort and hesitancy have created a fertile breeding ground for bad-faith actors to exploit our lack of moral courage and well-intentioned but misguided efforts.

The evolving landscape of corporate social responsibility, ESG and sustainability, along with the journey towards addressing racism within a workplace context, is encumbered by a complex interplay of political, economic, psychological, and sociological factors.

It is more than just assuming that resistance to change is a sign of having “racist” leaders and employees. It is beyond setting targets and diversity quotas; assuming more Black faces in majority white spaces is the answer that will appease the masses and get you off the hook.

But we already know that, don’t we?

Scoring of own goals?

In the rush to respond to increasing societal and stakeholder pressure to “do something” after the murder of George Floyd, jumping in headfirst to set diversity quotas or targets became the central strategy to highlighting commitment.

Corporations tend to like them, to differing degrees, because both are specific and time-bound quantitative measures. However, quotas are usually mandated and sometimes legislated while targets are more aspirational.?

The increasing resistance to corporate diversity programmes, aimed at remedying the significant underrepresentation as it relates to race and technically covering?what we called protective characteristics within the UK, is a phenomenon that many predicted. Due to a persistent and loud focus on exclusively relying on targets and/or quotas to address racial disparities,

Being able to talk about how many Black directors or managers were hired last quarter might make you feel like you are on the right side of history, but without addressing the root causes as to why such representation was missing in the first place, many organizations have made a rod off their own back by inadvertently sowing seeds of division and resentment.?

White colleagues suddenly felt that race was being treated like a qualification they could never acquire. That meritocracy, although a myth, was being pushed aside to allow just “anyone” to get in. Particularly those who were unqualified and incapable.??

Being white felt like a disadvantage, and this feeling, even if unsaid, slowly undermined organizational commitment and action to tackling racism and levelling the playing field for Black colleagues.?

I am not against setting stringent targets per se, but representation is an output, not an input, yet we incentivise executive leaders to “hit the number" while overlooking how they got there.

With demands to provide scorecards and readily accessible data of how many non-white employees are hired and promoted at any one time, the singular focus on these quotas or targets overshadows the more nuanced and, I would argue, more significant elements of workplace culture change.??

However, despite that, let’s imagine that hiring more Black faces amounted to an acceptable vehicle for change, because, let’s be honest, it’s not that difficult to get metaphorical bums on seats.

McKinsey showed that US companies have downgraded their focus on increasing diversity, as the rate of promotions for Black professionals has reversed back to 2019—the year before the world technically had it’s racial reckoning.??

Quotas and targets, often seen as straightforward solutions, are in fact blunt instruments when it comes to addressing complex issues. They offer a semblance of action, but their simplicity can be deceptive. While setting these metrics might appear to be an accessible first step compared to the daunting task of implementing wholesale structural changes, sustaining even these straightforward measures can be surprisingly challenging.?

So, if we cannot continue with the aspects of “diversity” that are technically easier to do, what does this tell us about the problems we are trying to solve??

It’s not easy.??

It hasn’t become easier.?

We are not primary school children?

The persistent oversimplification of systemic racism remains a bugbear of mine. I know our brains are hardwired to prefer simplicity over complexity, yet when we do that, we are destined to keep attaching simple solutions to deeply entrenched problems.

I remember sitting in the audience of an anti-racism conference in early 2023, getting ready to do the closing keynote of the day, only to hear one of the company's designated anti-racism leaders remind people that at the crux of anti-racism is being nice, rather than being mean. Surveying the sea of nodding heads, I thought this is it. We are now actively reducing anti-racism to being about niceness and meanness. I'm not going to pretend otherwise; in that moment, I asked for divine intervention to keep me bolted to the chair and maintain a neutral facial expression, lest my frustration and annoyance be on display for everyone to see and no doubt comment on.?

Recognising this widespread inclination to simplify complex issues like systemic racism brings me to a more introspective space. As someone deeply invested in tackling this societal problem from an organizational perspective, I find myself grappling with my own discomfort and tensions, yes, plural, not singular.?

Yes, there is the tension between the broader societal tendency to seek comfort in the oversimplification of a systemic issue and in exceptionalising and vilifying individuals to keep the attention firmly around for digging around in the structures and foundations that keep racism doing its best work. But there is also the tension between my own desire to be a change agent while at the same time recognise the limitations that come from inhabiting a body and a personality that isn’t readily listened to and embraced. ?

It is a lofty ambition to seek to transform the experiences of employees most impacted by racism, bias and discrimination, yet it is rooted in what’s realistically possible.

Asking the tough questions?

There are moments when I reflect on the extent to which things have not changed or better yet have reverted to pre-2019 states of ignorance, apathy, and denial, that I realise I need to check in with myself. ?

Why haven't I given up? When so many others have retreated to the safety of diversity and inclusion rather than naming and shaming the problem of racism? Why could I not bring myself to do the same??

Then the tougher question is still: is our oppression, how we are treated rather than how we identify, just down to bad luck? A cosmic card that we have been dealt with?

Some people are born lucky, and by that, I mean they can face the world where their racial identity and racial appearance do not predetermine how they experience the world of work. Yes, of course, they will undeniably face challenges of a different nature, yet racism will not be one of them.?

Should I accept that it is an unfortunate reality that if leaders are of the dominant white majority, it is inevitable that they, and you, will prioritise what makes the most sense—politically, socially, and individually—based on your views on an issue that you have no direct experience with? And when quieter voices become more strategic in their efforts to roll back any gains made from civil rights movements, global protests, and changes in legalisation to level the playing field for employees impacted by anti-Black racism, is our future of work, therefore, headed towards a world where assimilation is the norm, where race-neutral processes become the blanket approach, and where racism is once again a taboo, a political hot potato too inconvenient for the corporate world to handle??

Maybe we're all just wasting time, trying to outrun a social phenomenon that just snaps back to its old shape, no matter how hard we pull. It's a depressing thought—the possibility that our best efforts might just be a part of an endless cycle, not the catalyst for the change we desperately seek.?

Or maybe we’re not.?

Maybe it’s just that we can't see the impact of our efforts, and instead we have to trust that our contributions are somehow making a difference. That is after all the definition of walking in faith, is it not??

The power of self-determined perseverance and hope?

In moments of doubt and introspection, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the challenges we face in combating systemic racism. It is literally two steps forward and five steps back, with progress sometimes feeling painstakingly slow.?

A good friend of mine gave me some great advice – more in relation to my personal life, to be fair, but it is relevant here—in that he said that if we free ourselves from expectation, the tension between what we want and what we receive will not be so acute. ?

It’s sat with me over the festive period, and it’s helped contribute to the lessening of my impatience and the acceptance that no matter how small or uncertain our steps, the fact we are still moving must count for something. ?

The act of questioning ourselves, the status quo, and daring to imagine a world where we don’t have to fight so hard to be recognised as equal is a radical act of defiance against a system that is designed to keep us small and oppressed.?

My state of clarity and peace, regardless, serves as the guiding force in my actions and decisions. I'm deliberately sowing more seeds of joy and personal fulfilment than melancholy, and thus I am enthusiastically moving forward.

How are you feeling about the year ahead??

PS

I am well into the doctorate grove, working on is already shaping up to be the most challenging and uncomfortable project I’ve ever embarked on ?????.

The arc of my doctorate is critically evaluating my own work with a view to exploring in more depth some of the ways we, as individuals, corporations, and institutions, knowingly or unknowingly undermine efforts to eradicate systemic racism.

I can’t say any more than that as I need to get sign-off from my supervisor (oh the joys of academia); however, for anyone who is familiar with the work of Jamaican philosopher Charles W. Mills, most known for his book The Racial Contract, you may be interested in following parts of my journey and musings that I will share here, so this is an advance warning: there's still time to unsubscribe!

In other news

If you are more interested in the practicalities of addressing systemic racism, I would recommend following the HR rewired LinkedIn page and subscribing to our newsletter.

HR rewired has a singular mission to transform the experiences of employees most impacted by racism, bias, and discrimination, and while we work behind the scenes with genuinely committed organizations, our platform allows us to provide critical insights, horizon scanning, and a focus on practical, actionable guidance designed to help you transform your thinking and approach.

To give you a flavour of what we will be covering in the weeks and months ahead:

1. Critical evaluation of race discrimination reports

We’ll be dissecting and analysing publicly available reports relating to racism and discrimination. We’ll examine the context of these reviews, the methods employed, and how well the recommendations tackle the root causes.

This is not a name-shaming exercise but a critical analysis, which is needed and, we believe, vital to reflect on and enact meaningful change.

If there are reports you feel my team and I should be reviewing, please DM us privately if you wish.

2. 2024 trends

We’ll share insights into trends that will impact how organizations address racism and discrimination. This will help you anticipate and adapt to emerging challenges and getting you ready for what will be a rocky 12-month period...if you are unprepared.

3. Regulatory changes within the EU

We’ll delve into EU regulations impacting how companies that do business within the EU, are expected to address and disclose the reactionary and preventative measures they are taking. An important thing to note is that these regulations ask for disclosures based on what you are doing (and have done) rather than your intent. This shift towards tangible evidence over rhetoric is expected, irrespective of what is playing out in the socio-political arena and your personal feelings...

HR rewired Discussion Guide

If you signed up before Christmas to receive a complimentary digital copy of the HR rewired discussion guide to accompany my book, The Anti-Racist Organization: Dismantling Systemic Racism in the Workplace , it will be winging it’s way to you next week (w/c 15th January).

Thank you for continuing the conversations.