Wow, it’s been three months since my last blog post. Life has been busy – changing jobs and getting married has meant that other priorities have taken hold. But finally, I’ve found some time again to get back to writing.
The interesting thing is that I find myself in a similar position to when I last wrote – I originally had a different topic in mind but the events of the last few days since the Euro 2020 final, have led me to naturally reflect on the topic of racism.
The catalyst for my last blog was the report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities firmly concluding that the UK is not deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities and institutional racism is not an issue. The experience of Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho this week would disagree with that conclusion.
Everything I said in the blog in April is still relevant; about using our privilege for good – I don’t intend to repeat that here. But there are a couple more reflections to add into the conversation:
- The positive impact of inclusive leadership and allyship
- Accountability from social media platforms
Much has been written about Gareth Southgate’s leadership; a role-model in seeking diversity and leading inclusively. Most importantly, he has stood by the players taking the knee and been vocal about it. We need to see more allyship behaviours like this, led from the top in all our institutions such as schools, organisations and government, so that we continue to show visible support from all levels for ethnic minorities living in the UK and beyond.
Let’s talk about Instagram and Twitter – they claim that racism is tracked and not tolerated on their platforms, but a combination of poor enforcement and weak rules allowed online hate to flourish this week. They claim to have now fixed this, but it shows again that without a lens of being proactively being anti-racist, racist behaviours can, and will, fall through the net. The scary thing right now is that there are still people who are posted racially abusive comments whose accounts are still active. There’s a huge gap here but Ofcom have pledged to fix this through fines. Let’s watch this space on whether that goes far enough.
My closing sentiments, our work must continue to remove racial inequities. We are making progress (I don’t think we would have seen the outpouring of support for Saka, Rashford and Sancho that we did this week even two years ago?), but we need to continue to educate ourselves, listen to the lived experienced of Black and people from other ethnic minorities and most importantly celebrate the rich tapestry and cultural heritage we have in the UK. And finally, continue to be proactively anti-racist. All our institutions need to step up to the mark here.
Inclusion Now 