Three years on: how to accelerate race equity at work
Before George Floyd’s killing in May 2020, the highest estimate for any American protest was the ‘me-too’ inspired 2017 Women’s March at 4.6 million. But in June 2020 as many as 26 million adults attended a Black Lives Matter (BLM) or anti-police brutality protest in America alone. It felt like a real global awakening of the prevalent issues around systemic racism were in sight. During this time, no matter where you were in the world, media headlines went something like this: “George Floyd’s death ignited a racial reckoning that shows no signs of slowing down” CNN 2020
But they did…
It would be easy to think of the rising deaths of people of colour (POC) by the police as a uniquely American problem, but it’s not. In the UK, Black people are eight times more likely than White people to be stopped and searched. They’re also nearly twice as likely to die during or immediately after having police contact. It’s important to understand that these life or death impacts are directly caused by the everyday impact of systemic racism in society.
So if there’s racism in our societies, what keeps them out of our workplaces? Utopia’s work, our large scale research studies and other evidence into race disparities show that racism in the workplace is still very real. Just this last year the UK’s largest ever study into the experiences of POC at work reveals two in five (41%) of racially minoritised workers have faced racism at work in the last five years. There are 3.9 million racially minoritised employees in the UK, meaning that hundreds of thousands of POC are still experiencing racist treatment and discrimination at work, daily.
Where’s the disconnect?
Emory University’s Professor George Yancy cites the theory of interest convergence as a possible reason why despite the public puffery, not much has changed for POC and Black people specifically. It says the interests of minoritised communities need to converge with the dominant majority before advancement happens.
“The only way in which Black people will have success or the same level of equity is their interests have to converge with White interests … It’s not genuine equity. It conforms to the interests of White people”.
So how do we help people who mightn’t have these issues at the top of their agenda understand them and make them a priority?
Download our free, 5 step guide to creating better race equity at work below: