It’s a difficult area to address. But important. Here’s a Top 10 for organisation leaders to work on before they even start.
On LinkedIn I was asked…How can businesses and colleagues be effective allies to Black employees year-round? hashtag#BlackHistoryMonth hashtag#LinkedInNewsUK
I get the intention. And I get the desired outcome of us all working together really well. So far so good. But a few bear-traps to overcome in all this I think, before we can be truly helpful. Unintended consequences abound, and politics raises its head.
First of course, let’s note the implied assertions in the question.
a) An ally is a defined thing, and a universally good one? But what of introverts (Black people and their colleagues) who just want to be left alone to do their job? What of black people who don’t want ‘allies’, or are offended by the principle of reducing their sense of Agency? Many things like this need considering before ‘ally’ is clear and simple.
b) Black is capitalised. This means that being of a race (or racialised) is as status-rich as eg. American or British (which we capitalise). This choice of capitalisation is therefore an unspoken but clear asserion challenging the notion or vision of a unified nation sitting above racial concerns. Some (black, white, other) regard this as divisive and ultimately nihilistic.
c) Black/black is a defined thing. While some black people suffer much today because of their skin colour, it isn’t well defined, not even close. The edges are very deep and blurry. Families can be very mixed. And what about Inclusion? Doesn’t this exclude Muslims/South Asians? I know of some professionals of south Asian heritage who disagree with this exclusive focus. And they work in your companies. “Inclusion” is a difficult term. It nearly always has an element of Exclusion, making it a contradition in terms. In this case, even within the ‘black’ + ‘community’, there are tensions about belonging to this ‘group’.
So here’s a Top 10 of precursors for Leaders, before you even begin engagement on this:
1. Do not pretend there is only one way to look at things – if you align with either polarisation of this issue, your people will quietly judge you, and disengage.
2. You can’t outsource this. You need to know what you are talking about and doing.
3. Recognise that melanomin, religion, family background makes “Black” something other than a proper adjective or homogeneous group – we are all individuals, we are all individually self-identified and racialised (and these can evolve), and black/Black people hold a range of political opinions on eg. free markets, free v hate speech, or DEI’s necessity or effectiveness. But it can be a useful concept in the right circumstances.
4. Recognise that racism exists in society, and is multi-directional but assymmetric (there are no races with no racists, but effects are greater in some directions due to history & power (eg the West), caste (eg India), current policies or resentment (perpetuation of traditional racism systemically v equity, two-tier), etc.
5. Learn how racism can work on average at population level, and specifically at individual level – again it happens assymmetrically and multi-directionally.
6. Learn some good racial history of all types, including tranastlantic slave trade in context of other sins by all; 20th century activists (“Strange Fruit”, Haywood, Robeson, Baldwin, King/Malcolm X etc); Jim Crow and US Civil Rights Laws; left and right wing longitudinal black economists (Sowell, Williams, Shelby).
7. Discover a) the extent and b) the limit (ie do not exaggerate) of multi-directional racism in eg. the UK, plus c) trends and changes – the progress of the last two generations of black/brown people’s experiences, d) the journey we are still on to improve things and go backwards by counter-productive policies.
8. Reject the notion that all disparities are caused by (present or past) discrimination – the evidence is clearly not – without minimising the existence of the latter.
9. Recognise that this issue is more important to some people (of all races) than to others, and some don’t like it, so avoid counter-productive well-intended policies. People are not chess pieces to push around and expect to comply. People will respond dynamically. Some people of colour reject Black History Month or a need for special year-round attention, or object to “Equity” (as opposed to Equality”), while others espouse it. Rightly or wrongly. True also for non-black people.
10. Before you begin, engage a trusted non-ideological coach/consultant who is well informed, independent, experienced in the world, can argue both poles fluently, and everything in between. This will enable you to think and plan it through quietly, confidentially and progressively. It’s sensitive and adult work over time.
By all means call for consulting support.