It’s been over a year since I wrote the blog ‘Dear White People in the UK’. In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in the USA, Black Lives Matters (BLM) protests happened across the world. I wrote that blog on my personal website after the black lives matters protests happened - to explain to people in the UK why people were protesting here and to put in one place a list of information and resources - for the many people who asked me for advice about what to do. Some of the resources were suggested to me by white colleagues.  

The title – was a little provocative but it was an extension of a movie/tv-series at the time from the USA called ‘Dear White People’ about a university campus with issues of a racial divide and a black student body that run a radio show called ‘Dear White People’.

I shared the blog on social media and the NHS Leadership put it on their website as one of the many resources for leaders. I honestly don't know why the media has picked this up (over a year later).   The original blog, like this one is not policy or guidance –– it a snapshot of a moment in time that reflects the environment at that point in time.

In my role as an equality manager, I was facilitating conversations between people of all ethnic groups in the organisation I was working in and former organisations I worked in, and people who just wanted to talk from all parts of my life. Views from all angles – with one joining theme - people didn’t know how to talk about race. They knew that racism was bad but everyone’s understanding of racism was different and the people were more open to discuss it but there was no framework or guidance here in the UK about HOW to discuss it.
 
One way of reducing racial division is to promote empathy through discussion. My blog aimed to provoke thought and discussion for all people about what the concept of race is and how the concept of race may be different for different groups. In a world where leaders have to manage staff and provide services to people who are classed as different racial groups, with known disparities in outcomes (education, justice, employment and health), those leaders must have some understanding of what those disparities look and feel like, as well as what causes them – if they are going to remove them.
 
Some part of any conversation about race – means talking about whiteness. And as this is a relatively new discussion (outside of academia) we can expect as we explore the history and concepts of race that our thinking will be constantly evolving. I have made no demands on anyone, just suggested (for those who want it) ways to understand what 'race' is in our society. We can all agree that it's a social construct that doesn't really exist so then we have to understand why it's causing so many problems. 

The title was a little provocative but it was an extension of a movie/tv-series at the time from the USA called 'Dear White People' about a US university campus with issues of racial divide and a black student body that run a radio show called 'Dear White People'. 

​Since I wrote the blog – I have seen even more resources developed, there have been engaging and real conversations at all levels of organisations about HOW to achieve meaningful change. At the most basic level diversity data collection and analysis is improving with more complex ethnic pay gap, and health inequalities statistics. With the government reporting on these disparities and committing to provide guidance on ethnicity monitoring and pay gap reporting.
 
In just this last year there have been many thought-provoking publications. From the UK: Kehinde Andrews book, The New Age of Empire, explains the continued impact of empire on all nations and all socio-economic groups. What White People Can Do Next- from Allyship to Coalition, by Emma Dabiri, is a short useful read explaining the topics (e.g. stop the denial and understanding coalition) that block us from moving the conversation forward on racial equality. We Need New Stories, by Nesrine Malik, actually explains the ‘culture wars’, why they are happening and how to engage with them intelligently. This is Why I Resist: Don’t Define my Black Identity, by Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu. From the USA, How to be an Anti-racist by Ibram X. X. Kendi, reframes our discussions about racism from ‘structural racism’ to removing ‘racist policies’.
 
And articles in mainstream media, that pre-BLM protests would only have been found in specialised publications. For example, an article in Vogue, Why I Don’t Refer to My Hair as ‘Dreadlocks’ about the history of ‘dreadlocks’ and their place in black cultural history. Not to mention the non-mainstream media still raising the voices of those who are experts on these topics, an engaging video by Ash Sarker, in Double Down News, critiquing the government’s Commission for Ethnic and Race Disparities’ Race Report.
 
Maybe now is the time for a ‘Dear White people in the UK - part two’ – because we are starting to have more complex and meaningful discussions and the conversation has only just begun.
 
Aishnine Benjamin

This article is reposted from the Hopster website. At Hopster we fight against racism of all forms. We’ve collaborated with The Black Curriculum to explain the positive impact of representation for kids of all backgrounds.

Imagine for a minute. You live in a world where your school, the media, the news, films, and general information you received about the world showed what the renowned Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls ‘a single story’. That when you did see or hear about people that looked like you or shared your cultural and historical background it was depicted in a negative context or as inferior – what would the impact be?

The impact of a non-representative curriculum
Self-esteem is directly linked to the associations you make with who you are and the world around you. In the White Doll Black Doll experiment, children as young as five associated being bad with being black, showing the impact of misrepresentation and negative associations at a young age.

School is a microcosm of the world we live in. Approximately 13% of the UK population is from an ethnic minority background. The curriculum creates a picture in a child’s head as to how the world works and gives them the skills and tools they need to operate in that world. If you had to fix a water pipe but you didn’t have a wrench, you would be missing a key tool to do the job. That is what happens when all parts of all humanity are not represented in the curriculum.

Accurate representation isn’t just a problem for race. For example, half the population identifies as female, and gender stereotypes on screen can have a similar negative impact on girls and boys in how they perceive their roles in the world.

What would a representative curriculum look like?
Representation can simply mean presenting the facts and painting an accurate picture of the diversity of people involved in historical events.

We can compare the stories of Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. Mary was born in Jamaica in 1805, she travelled at her own expense to the battlefields during the Crimean War (1853-6) and nursed sick and wounded British troops. She was awarded four medals for her work and she died in London in 1881. But does her name and image conjure as easily to the mind as Florence Nightingale?

About The Black Curriculum The Black Curriculum is a social enterprise aiming to provide a sense of belonging and identity to young people across the UK. They provide resources and run workshops for children and teachers to learn about black British history. They believe that by teaching full and accurate histories we will tackle racism and discrimination in the future, giving the children of today the knowledge and tools they need to engage with people from diverse cultures. This blog post was written by Aishnine Benjamin, Educator with The Black Curriculum.

In light of the police murder of George Floyd in the USA and the resulting protests, upset and anger in the UK, some people have expressed confusion to me about why black people here in the UK are protesting. The simple answer is that the issues in the USA are happening here, a disproportionate number of black people have died in police custody in the UK and structural racism continues to affect black people. If you don’t know what to do here is some information to address your knowledge gaps. 

For white people
First step. Read the short essay White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible knapsack by Peggy McIntosh, that visualises a physical representation of privilege. Robin Diangelo’s White Fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism, written by a white woman in the USA captures a discussion that is often missing, about what is ‘whiteness’? For white people who often don’t see themselves in racial terms. 
Tips:

1. Don’t be defensive. This isn’t personal and it’s not really about you. Everybody is at a disadvantage when our formal institutions perpetuate inequalities.
2. Don’t say ‘I’m not political’ to excuse yourself from this conversation. Right now, ignorance isn’t an excuse. You can’t unsee what you have seen.
3. You don’t have to be vocal but do ‘listen’. Listening means being open to hearing what black and minority ethnic people are saying. Be open to their lived experiences (if they choose to talk about them). You would be hard pushed to find a black or Asian person that doesn’t have a personal story of racism.
4. Work on your empathy. Visualise yourself in the other person’s shoes. Discrimination is dehumanisation and the only way to see a person as human is to empathise with them.
5. Be uncomfortable. 
6. If you can read one book, watch one video, visit one place in this list that is a step towards change.

For everyone
There are some quick reads that summarise for a UK audience, how a poor understanding of the history of race and what racism really is, has created our current structurally racist systems. Afua Hirsch’s Brit(ish), Akala’s Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, Renni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race (with accompanying About Race podcast) and White Privilege: The Myth of a Post-Racial Society by Kalwant Bhopal, exploring the subtleties of modern-day racism, in the UK and USA.

In the UK we have black intellectual powerhouses who have written on these topics for decades. Paul Gilroy’s There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation, will teach you about often forgotten moments in recent history – with examples of how racist ideology has shaped our social understanding. Stuart Hall was a sociologist and pioneer in the field of cultural studies whose work explored the concept of Britishness. The Stuart Hall Project film by John Akofrah captures his life and theories. For the wider colonial perspective; Franz fanon’s Black Skin White Masks and Walter Rodney’s How Europe Under-Developed Africa. Peter Fryer (a white man) wrote Black People in the British Empire, a fantastic introduction to empire and racism, connecting British history across the continents of Africa, Asia and the white settlements e.g. Australia and New Zealand.
 
If you like real life stories, the book Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain presents interviews of people’s first-hand experiences in the UK from the 1940s to the end of the twentieth century. And Sam Selvon’s novel The Lonely Londoners captures the voice of post-war Caribbean migrants in London. 

David Olusoga’s book Black and British a Forgotten History and the tv series Black and British a Forgotten History is due to be rebroadcast on the BBC in June 2020.
 
And where would you buy all these books? Support Black book shops and publishers such as the iconic Beacon Books in Finsbury Park, London and many more that are listed here.
 
If you aren’t a fan of reading books. Watch some videos. A Class Divided, where Jane Elliot, a teacher in the USA in the 1960s divided the children in her all white class into blue eyes and brown eyes, the experiment teaching the children about the absurdity of racial divide led to Jane becoming a ground-breaking activist and repeating the experiment across the world where with communities and organisations with racial divides. 
 
Go a on a black history walk or tour (after lockdown!). See the black British history on the streets you walk every day. Black History Walks on London streets, Nadia Denton gives tours of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London with an African focus, the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool and Bristol museums information on the black history of Bristol. Support the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton, preserving the national black British cultural heritage. 

Explore the British Black List, an online platform which celebrates African & Caribbean creative professionals. The website Black History Month 365 is a good source of information across all areas; history, news, events etc and #BHM365 because black history is 365 days a year not just one month. 
 
Research
In the UK we have some established race equality think tanks. The Institute of Race Relations, publishes the excellent Race and Class journal, and a newsletter on anti-racism and social justice activities in the UK and Europe that you can sign-up to – sobering reading on racist attacks that continue daily. The Runnymede Trust and the Race Equality Foundation publish research on racial inequality in the UK. If you just want stats and data the UK government website Ethnicity Facts and Figures is comprehensive. 
 
Educating our children
Black British history is British history. If it isn’t in the curriculum the next generation are at a disadvantage and risk repeating the ignorance that has led to our current situation. A book that summarises the situation in the UK is Tell it Like it is: How our Schools Fail Black Children, edited by Brian Richardson and a video that captures the impact of a white mainstream media and narrative that perpetuates stereotypes is the White Doll Black Doll experiment by Kenneth B Clark and Maime P Clark. This experiment has been recreated globally with similar outcomes, including in the UK.
 
The Black Curriculum organisation, founded by Lavinya Stennett, have resources and run workshops for children to learn about black British history. The book The History of the African and Caribbean Communities in Britian by Hakim Adi is a simple book that primary school age children can revisit.
 
Buy books and toys that show the true diversity of the world we live in.  This is book love sells multicultural books for children.
 
Call to action

1. Become informed and do what you can to change the one story narrative so that the future generations don’t remain in the dark. 
2. Be conscious and have intention in your actions. What will YOU do differently?
3. Understand the REASONS behind the current disparities that exist in society. 
4. Use your power and your privilege for the benefit of humanity (everyone has some level of power or privilege at home, socially or at work). Break the foundations of structural racism.
5. Vote. Use that little bit of power that you do have. No matter what your political leaning. See the work of Operation Black Vote.

 
Finally – if you are a leader of people in any capacity and you are yet to be convinced about the positive benefits of working with, or engaging with diverse people read Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed. Diversity isn’t a fun to have it’s a must have.
 
About me
I am the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion lead at the Nursing and Midwifery Council so I have to give a nod to the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on ethnic minorities here in the UK and our healthcare workers summarised by my colleague Emma Lawrence. The review by Public Health England solidified what we already knew and experts in race discrimination in healthcare already expressed some thinking about the causes. Roger Kline’s blog noted the lack of risk assessments for ethnic minority healthcare workers with underlying health conditions. Yvonne Coghill’s blogsuggests that the disproportionate impact of the Coronavirus on ethnic minorities is linked to them being more likely to be in frontline roles. 
 
Please suggest more resources, links and learning.
 
Aishnine Benjamin
Website: www.aishnine.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/aishnine  
Twitter: @aishnine

The stories behind the ‘Windrush scandal’ came to light in the mainstream media in 2018. The Home Office have identified 164 people who had been deported or put in detention since 2002, but the full numbers affected could be thousands. The actions taken by the Home Office that led to several individuals losing their jobs, homes and sense of British nationality, were essentially illegal and have recently been labelled as institutionally racist.

The Windrush Lessons Learned Review, published on the 19 March 2020, into the Windrush scandal suggests that in the Home Office there was an “institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race and the history of the Windrush generation”[1].

The ‘mother country’
The reason why this group of individuals should never have been treated in this way has been explained by the fact that they had a right to be in the UK. The Immigration Act 1971 gave them the right to live in the UK, but they were not given them any documents to confirm this.

In the corporate world, there is term, ‘corporate knowledge’. A person who has worked for a company for so long that they remember the major projects, restructures, change initiatives, the good leaders and the bad decisions of the past, is said to have corporate knowledge. This person can be the difficult ‘nay-sayer’ when new ideas are floated, but at the same time, they can be a great asset to an organisation, preventing the repetition of ineffective change. Corporate knowledge can also be held in good filing systems and documentation.

For a nation, corporate knowledge is held in its history books, history curricula in education and it is asserted in the way that the media and government communicate what has gone before and what is important now. Which brings me to my point, does anyone remember the ‘mother-country’?

It seems that some people in the UK can reflect on the British empire with nostalgia for a time when the British dominated the world. Often forgetting that domination of the world and the ‘great British Empire’ were built on the enslavement of Africans, and the colonisation of many countries. The Caribbean today is considered by most to be a collection of exotic paradise islands; palm trees, sun, sea and sand – with smiley natives. The only reason that there are black people in the Caribbean at all is due to the European navies enslaving Africans and transporting them there. In the Caribbean now, the languages spoken and the names of towns will tell you which European countries controlled that island at some point. For example, Barbados is the only island that remained in English control for the entire colonial time and therefore has no Spanish or French language or references.

And so, what of the ‘mother country’. The Windrush story starts with the boat that arrives at Tilbury docks in 1948 with the media, government and public response to this. But what about the story from the Caribbean perspective.

“We didn’t see England as a separate entity. For example, in my convent school we spent a lot of time knitting little bits of wool for people during the war, you know, the poor. We didn’t see there was any difference between Grenada and England. “There’ll always be and England and England shall be free” used to be one of our school songs. Empire Day was a big day in Grenada. So it was all part and parcel of what we were about, being part of England.”[2]

This is one story of many. The people in the British colonies in the Caribbean knew nothing other than being part of the empire and looking up to the ‘mother country’. Independence from the UK happened relatively recently from 1962-1983. And this group of immigrants have a particularly unique relationship to Britain. One that almost everyone seems uncomfortable to really address. The complexities of the situation were explained expertly by David Lammy in the speech he made in the House of Commons on the 23 April 2018:

‘The Windrush ​story does not begin in 1948; the Windrush story begins in the 17th century, when British slave traders stole 12 million Africans from their homes, took them to the Caribbean and sold them into slavery to work on plantations. The wealth of this country was built on the backs of the ancestors of the Windrush generation. We are here today because you were there.

My ancestors were British subjects, but they were not British subjects because they came to Britain. They were British subjects because Britain came to them, took them across the Atlantic, colonised them, sold them into slavery, profited from their labour and made them British subjects. That is why I am here, and it is why the Windrush generation are here.

There is no British history without the history of the empire. As the late, great Stuart Hall put it: “I am the sugar at the bottom of the English cup of tea.”’

This is a unique relationship that has never been formally acknowledged, neither has there been an apology, either for what has been taken from Africa, or for the ongoing repercussions on the people who were enslaved and their descendants. Yet, many of their descendants are now in the mother country, and several have been subjected to a hostile and racist environment. Racism defined as less favourable treatment on the basis of race. Race defined legally as colour, nationality, national or ethnic origin.

Tackling inequality at an organisational level
So, what is the answer to this conundrum? What would have stopped this from happening? Quite simple really. People should be competent to do their jobs, and if you work in the Home Office and make decisions about policy then your job competence should include some knowledge of the nationalities that you make decisions about and their relationship to the UK now as you know it and in the past. If structured diversity and inclusion practices were in place in the Home Office this scandal would not have happened.

Diversity and inclusion should not only be seen as a fun and inclusive thing to do, it is fun and inclusive but there is a lot more to it. Instead, see discrimination in an organisation as a disease that has no cure but can be controlled with multiple interventions. In this situation the aims are simply legal compliance and fairness, which has to go beyond a tick box exercise to really shake the core of an organisation, to dismantle the structures that have racism sewn into them.

The fact is that there is incompatibility between the rhetoric of ‘hostile environment’ and the law, which gave this group the right to live in the UK as citizens, and this incompatibility must be confronted. The first step to do this is to agree a definition of what is actually wrong. Bring the history into the board room, let the policy and decision makers discuss British Empire and its impact on current UK societal structures, give them the space to question if those policy decisions are actually legally compliant with the law, or are they based on the politics of today.

Three of the tools in the diversity and inclusion box that would have led to different outcomes:

1. Recruitment. If the person specification for policy decision makers stated that they must be knowledgeable in, or able to learn about the relationship of different nationalities to the UK.
2. Training. Policy decision-makers in the Home Office should be trained in equalities and human rights legislation. Not just what they are but their complexities with some historical context and discussion of the impact on current society.
3. Equality impact assessments. Sometimes called organisational empathy. An organisation takes time to look at the evidence and do effective engagement to analyse if their proposals will have a disproportionately negative impact on diverse groups of people.

But the ground work has to be done. If we aren’t all agreed on what is the issue is then there will be no change. If the leaders don’t fundamentally agree to the report finding that the problem was “institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race and the history of the Windrush generation”[3] there can be no effective interventions. For example, if there is generic equality and diversity training without some focus on teaching people about what race is i.e. critical race theory, then the policy makers will not be able to interrogate their actions with some understanding of if their decisions are based on legitimate aims or dangerous rhetoric.

The future of dynamic diversity and inclusion intervention is tackling the issues with a complex awareness of the history of and irrationality of discrimination.


[1] Windrush Lessons Learned Review: Independent review by Wendy Williams; Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 19 March 2020

[2] Phillips, M & Phillips, T; Windrush: The irresistible rise of multi-racial Britain; (Harper Collins, London, 1998) P13.

[3] Windrush Lessons Learned Review: Independent review by Wendy Williams; Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 19 March 2020

There is a wealth of information online, many organisations working hard to raise awareness of the lived experiences of those that aren’t counted as part of the mainstream. It is important that we use the resources that they produce to support our diversity and inclusion work. Evidence forms the bedrock for diversity and inclusion business cases and generally just helps us understand difference better. 

Below are some key reports, websites and blogs that can inform you. 

1. Human rights and how they interact with the current affairs of the UK can be followed in the very accessible website and newsletter from Equally yours. To understand the articles of the Human Rights Act and how they affect people in the UK go to the human rights campaign organisation Liberty.
2. For global perspective on gender in the workplace, Catalyst produce research and reports about how to make the workplace, work for women. Covering topics such as sexual harassment, gender inclusive leadership and intersectionality in the workplace.
3. The case for changing the gender bias in leadership in the workplace is given in the UK in the report and Mckinsey company provide data and reports across different industries and with a global perspective.
4. The BITC Race in the workplace campaign provides a road map for improving the conversation about race in the workplace in the UK. The report to back this up is the McGregor Smith review, with case studies, data and a literature review.
5. Best place for ethnicity stats in the UK is the Ethnicity stats and figures UK government website. The website also gives good best practice advice in monitoring race and ethnicity e.g. using the terminology ‘ethnic minority’ not BME/BAME.
6. Intersectionality theory and practice; a research paper that explains the history and theory of intersectionality, by Delta Alpha PSI an organisation that specialises in the psychology of diversity, inclusion and discrimination. 
7. Is Britain fairer? The Equality and Human Rights Commission produce this all-encompassing report with statistics on disproportionate outcomes on health, housing, education and life in general in the UK – across all diversity strands.
8. Stonewall are an organisation that campaigns for LGBT equality in the UK. They are the best website for guidance and reports about the lesbian, gay and bisexual experience in the workplace and different sectors (e.g. schools, sports, health) in the UK on (note that before 2016 Stonewall did not represent trans people, therefore you can’t find a depth of information about the experience of trans people on their webpages).
9. Best practice on disability in the workplace Business Disability Forum and for up to date facts and figures on disability in the UK, Scope are a good source for information.
10. The Centre for aging better, has information about the different experiences, and considerations by age in health, housing, employment and communities. Even how to plan for aging in younger years.

 
If you have more recommendations for useful or interesting sources of data and information about diverse groups, please suggest them below.

Aishnine Benjamin