Are you Colour Brave?
Building understanding and taking action
On the 17th of August this year I posted a tweet about an amazing interview in 2015 between our PwC Global CEO, Bob Moritz and Mellody Hobson the President of Ariel Investments, Melody was talking about life as Black Women in America, she talked about being unapologetically black.
The talk was so insightful and inspiring that I posted it on twitter.
Unlike the fourteen thousand tweets before it, this tweet was different, it was probably the first time I’d tweeted about race, of course I’d retweeted stuff before but this was different.
I tweet also about diversity, leadership, about the world of international aid and development that I work in, and as a Gay guy in business I tweet about LGBT equality in the workplace.
I’m lucky enough to have over 70k like minded followers from around the world who routinely retweet my thoughts, ideas and daily slices of inspiration and motivation
I usually get around 10 or 20 retweets on most of the things I post. But as I said this tweet was different ..this tweet was universally ignored, it had zero likes or retweets, this was crazy to me – this amazing, inspiring talk wasn’t something anyone was interested in?
I was in shock, after 24 hours I reached out to people to ask why they thought this was such a tumbleweed moment
Was I not allowed to talk about race? Are white men not allowed to discuss this? As a gay man am I only allowed to talk about being Gay at work?
So I asked the people of twitter…
And I spoke to some of my colleagues….
My colleague Sarah is quite fabulous, she’d totally agree. She told me she was meeting some new colleagues in reception and one of them called her, “how will we know who you are”, Sarah found herself describing her new blue dress and funky new shoes, in fact she described almost everything, but left one thing out… she said to me “Andy, I should have just said, I’m the black women you won’t miss me” but she didn’t want to make her colleagues uncomfortable.
And again, I’m in shock, if a powerful young black woman feels she can’t talk about being black then for sure we have a big problem.
People are clearly scared to talk about Race, scared to talk about what life is like for a Black Woman or Man in business, and this isn’t just about what’s happening in the USA this is happening right here in the UK.
And this deafening silence is having a devastating effect on people’s lives… and it’s stopping our business from unlocking the potential of everyone..
So what’s going on.?
According to study by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), black graduates earn 23% less than white graduates
It’s no surprise then that we’re not creating or promoting enough black leaders in business, over the last 2 years the growth of Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) leaders making it onto the boards of the FTSE 100 has slowed.
Going from 0.7% between 2014–15 to just 0.1% between 2015–16 – Today people who identify as BAME make up only 6.7% of FTSE board positions – to put that in perspective approximately 13% of the UK population is non-white
And it’s getting worse. This year we will lose 35 more BAME leaders from the top 100 companies in the UK.
And it’s not just about Black Women and Men on boards, it’s about leadership at all levels of an organisation, it’s about the pipeline of Black talent and it’s progression through our organisations.
So why is this happening? What’s stopping the progression of black women and men in our businesses?
I don’t really know, but I want to understand
So I went back to that #ColourBrave conversation with Mellody Hobson and with fresh eyes and ears I listened again to what I can do.
Mellody says “we’ve admired this problem for long enough” if this is not the time to do something different, to engage and understand, then when is the time?
She adds, “do something with your power”, so here I am with you, I want to make this easy for you to engage with, i want to help you flight the fear and become #ColourBrave
We are all responsible, what is your part?
- Be willing to have the conversation “why are black women and men not progressing as well as their white counterparts in our organisations?”
- Listen and ask questions to understand – we mostly listen to find a gap in the conversation to share our perspective, which means we’re not really listening – but do really try to listen to understand and then ask questions to clarify your understanding.
- Accept the other person’s truth
- Take action – awareness is not enough – “Play in your lane – ask yourself what you can do with your new knowledge” – Do something with your power – engage – talk – amplify
- Every day ask yourself “is everyone in the room?” do we have all voices covered, see the diversity in the room., again ask why we don’t have everyone in the room, take action.
I’m still learning, I don’t have the answers, I’m still exploring, trying my best to understand the barriers. I’m convinced we all need to keep learning, keep seeking to understand each other’s truth.
Rest assured nothing will change unless we are all brave enough to have the conversation, the conversation that could change everything….
Isn’t it time we were all #ColourBrave
Additional notes : The role for White People
- Recognise there is an issue — would you like to be treated as black people are?
- Remain curious. Many disengage from the conversation “for fear of getting it wrong”.
- You will never fully understand the black experience — Don’t pretend you have the answers.
- Think about what YOU can do differently rather than what Black people can do differently or how you can fix them.
- Be honest about your private views. In private some people still think “Black people just aren’t as smart”, “Muslims are terrorists”, “Africans are backwards”, “Romanians are taking our jobs and social housing” — this often leaks out in private or in the face of dramatic political change., we know this happened after the Brexit vote, a Pandora’s box of racism and hate was seemingly unlocked. These are the views that can drive our “unconscious” decisions. We need to be brutally honest with ourselves.
Many thanks to my colleagues Dara Kirton and Freddy Bob-Jones for their help and support with this article and my preparation for my #ColourBrave TED Talk, to Simone Roche from TEDxWhitehallWomen for giving me a platform, and to the great groups of PwC people that attended my TED Talk rehearsals, love you guys, your ongoing support makes me proud to be a PwC Partner, you empower me and I hope I do the same for you.
Here’s the link to my #ColourBrave TED Talk hosted in the historic Locarno Suite at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in Whitehall, London.
Click here for the talk between Bob Moritz and Mellody Hobson:
Click here for Mellody’s TED Talk:
