BLM — Continuing the Conversation w/ Ryan Walker, WorldRemit
At Social Misfits Media, we are choosing to continue the Black Lives Matter conversation.
We are continuing the journey of educating ourselves and others, by highlighting and hearing from black people working within the social media marketing industry, and getting their take on what has happened this year. This edition is with Ryan Walker, Editorial Director at WorldRemit.
What is your name and what do you do for a living?
My name is Ryan Walker and I am the Editorial Director for WorldRemit, leading on curating and creating content for our organic social media channels, while establishing consistent themes across paid social, our website, and email platforms.
How has your role changed since the Black Lives Matter movement during the lockdown?
Being a remittance company with audiences across the globe, especially Africa and Asia, our marketing has not changed. With human focussed content, we continue to showcase a huge range of ethnicities and nationalities, as we continue to stand for diversity and inclusion. We are authentic in what we stand for, and that has been consistently present, prior to the recent Black Lives Matter resurgence following George Floyd’s death. This I feel differs from many companies who can come across as insincere in suddenly featuring black faces across their social media channels, when they almost never did before.
Of course, I do understand that a company’s audience will impact what their marketing looks like. Saying that, it has become a turning point for companies to show what they stand for and believe in. The phrase ‘Silence is Violence’ has become a prevalent one, resulting in companies, individuals and entities making it known that there is a difference between being ‘not-racist’ and ‘anti-racist’, and realistically, we all know we should be aiming for the latter.
We, like almost all companies, have had to have conversations about how we communicate this to our audience, and also where we stand on other issues as an organisation, other than racial inequality and injustice. On this occasion, we know our messaging is 100% authentic, as we are by far one of the most diverse companies you will ever see in terms of employees and in terms of our marketing. We strive to ensure that our audience understands that we mean what we say, and will subsequently do our best to impact the change in the world we all want to see.
How has the Black Lives Matter conversation affected you?
I almost unintentionally tend to stay very informed on racial injustices, specifically those that happen across the US, simply because of the media I consume, particularly US based political satire shows such as Last Week Tonight and Daily Show, as well just news in general. I remember watching Eric Garner’s choking in New York on video. I remember seeing Philando Castile shot in his car, while his girlfriend recorded the abhorrent act. For me, this year’s instances of George and Breonna, are sadly no surprise.
However, in my opinion, the conversation has been vastly positive. So many are now only just understanding the extent to which decades of oppression impact our society today, and how unconscious bias has led to the atrocities we now get to witness in the digital age. People are more willing to have uncomfortable conversations, and reflect on how their own experiences differ from those of their black friends, colleagues and even family members. Ultimately, seeing a widespread accountability from people who aren’t black for the first time since BLM became a movement, and even before that, is a great thing to see. As is the case for many others, it’s the first time in my lifetime it appears some drastic change related to this issue may come.
The conversation I feel makes it apparent just how much we as a modern society unfortunately have to be so much more vocal about the things we stand for. I can guarantee that I as an individual, have a pretty strong opinion on almost every social issue, but I’m not that guy to shout across social media that of course climate change exists! Do we all need to be more vocal?
What Black Lives Matter campaign has impressed you the most?
Campaigns that are genuine and authentic, as well as creative are those that impress me. Nike has never been scared to show what they stand for. If there was a scale from non-sociopolitically upstanding to extremely vocal on sociopolitical issues, the hijab-producing, Kaepernick-supporting, iconic sports brand of Nike would be one to admire. Yes, they are not perfect, but they were one of the first to defend, with true understanding, Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protest and build a campaign around it with the Kaepernick narrated ad, featuring other prominent black athletes such as LeBron and Serena.
Ben & Jerry’s End White Supremacy was also unapologetic in the extent to which they carved out where they stand; conscious yet creative in their calls to defund the police, and a company that has consistently employed a diverse workforce, including ex-cons, many of whom are black due to America’s disproportionate incarceration of black men.
What’s the main thing you think companies should consider when posting about Black Lives Matter?
The number one thing I think that companies, and non-black audiences to a degree, need to consider is that this isn’t a new problem. Treating racial inequality and injustice as if it is suddenly an issue that popped up in 2020 like the Coronavirus, undermines the years and years of suffering and/or struggle so many have had to endure.
Therefore, suddenly using black models for campaigns is somewhat insulting in my eyes. I feel many companies are using this almost as a trend, because it’s basically ‘in’ to perform anti-racism. My guess is many of these companies will go back to forgetting about this issue. Acknowledging where they as a company actually have stood up until now, what they’ve done wrong and what they will do in the future is a more authentic way of getting this across, but it shouldn’t be done just to be seen to be authentic.
Don’t get me wrong — I feel more and more companies in the past ten years have shown themselves to be inclusive and associable to diversity, and I hope this continues. But as so many politicians across the world spread negative values, we as individuals and subsequently the companies we work for, should be more socially conscious and responsible than ever, and that means backing up what we say or show.
How do you feel the conversation can be continued?
There are genuinely so many ways the conversation can be continued. The issues are hugely complex. However, the main issue for me would be to ensure that the conversation is a conversation at all. In schools, most of the history we learn, I feel, is useless. Spending entire terms teaching U10s about the Romans rather than Racism — an issue that will affect every child in the class — is crazy to me. And it’s not enough to discuss it in the PSHE lessons that occur so infrequently. Ensuring that individuals know that there is a problem is the first step to being able to impact change, and ensure we all live in a better society; one that offers fair life and career opportunities to everyone.
We want to give a huge thank you to Ryan Walker for taking part in BLM — Continuing the Conversation. In our last edition, we had the pleasure of hearing from Annie Andoh from the V&A Museum. Join us again for the fourth edition with Reni Adebayo from BBC Three! If you have any questions feel free to reach out to the Social Misfits Media team at james@socialmisfitsmedia.com.
